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Who

If there's such a thing as an academic law prodigy, Schizer—the current dean of Columbia's Law School—is it.

Backstory

Schizer grew up in Brooklyn, the son of two estate lawyers. After earning his bachelor's and law degrees from Yale, he clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before joining white-shoe firm Davis Polk & Wardwell as a tax attorney. (He claims to have been inspired to pursue the field by tax lawyer Marty Ginsburg, Ruth Bader Ginsburg's husband.) Fed up with the corporate legal world, Schizer made the jump to academia in 1998 at the age of 29, when he joined the faculty of Columbia's law school. When he became the dean of Columbia Law in 2004 at the age of 35, he was the youngest dean in the law school's history. He continues to oversee the top-rated school as well as teach classes—and although tax law is often considered one of the driest and least enthralling branches of the field, his classes on the subject are among the most popular at Columbia.

Personal

His wife Meredith is an editor of illustrated children's books. They have two young daughters, Josephine and Eve, and live on West End Avenue.