Michael Meltsner

{{Short description|American lawyer and legal scholar}}

Michael Meltsner (born 1937) is an American lawyer, the George J. and Kathleen Waters Matthews distinguished University Professor of law (and former dean) at Northeastern University School of Law and author.{{Cite web|url=http://www.northeastern.edu/law/faculty/directory/meltsner.html|title=Meltsner, Michael}}{{Cite web |url=http://works.bepress.com/michael_meltsner/ |title=Michael Meltsner | Northeastern University | George J. And Kathleen Waters Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law |access-date=2014-11-24 |archive-date=2014-11-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129121205/http://works.bepress.com/michael_meltsner/ |url-status=dead }} Meltsner was educated at Oberlin College and the Yale Law School.

As first assistant counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund he served as counsel in many leading civil rights cases of the 1960s, including those that led to the integration of Southern hospitals and medical facilities, and a moratorium on capital punishment. With special permission from the justices, he argued and won a capital case before the united states supreme court at the age of 26.Coleman v Alabama, 377 us 129 (1964) He served as counsel in the 1968 Virginia case that led to the end of the “all deliberate speed” doctrine and brought the first winning case under employment discrimination provisions of title vii of the 1964 civil rights act.Greene v county school board of New Kent county, 391 us 430 (1968). He represented Mohammad Ali in the litigation that enabled his return to the boxing ring.[http://www.michaelmeltsner.com Evan J Mandery, A Wild Justice], Norton & Co. 2013, {{ISBN|978-0-393-23958-4}}

In 1977, he joined with Felicia Kentridge and Arthur Chaskalson to help found South Africa’s Legal Resource Center, modeling it after the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.{{Cite book |last=Meltsner |first=Michael |title=With Passion: An Activist Lawyer's Life |publisher=Twelve Tables Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-1946074126 |pages=197–198}} In 1987 he became a Massachusetts licensed marriage and family therapist but continued to teach and practice law. From 2000 to 2005, he was hired to direct d the first year law program at the Harvard Law School.

He married Heli Spiegel in 1961. They have two children, Jessica Meltsner of Blacksburg Virginia and Molly Meltsner of Seattle Washington and four grandchildren.

Board memberships include the Legal Action Center and Mass Humanities. Meltsner sits on the board of the Legal Action Center.{{Cite web|url=http://lac.org/index.php/lac/category/board_of_directors|title = Legal Action Center | Our Team}} He is a winner of many awards including a Berlin American Academy prize Fellowship,{{Cite web |url=http://www.americanacademy.de/home/alumni/alumni-directory?page=6 |title=American Academy in Berlin |access-date=2014-11-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129205225/http://www.americanacademy.de/home/alumni/alumni-directory?page=6 |archive-date=2014-11-29 |url-status=dead }} a Guggenheim Fellowship,{{Cite web |url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/results?query=meltsner&lower_bound=1925&upper_bound=2014&competition=ALL&fellowship_category=ALL&x=18&y=7 |title = Search Results - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141117171625/http://www.gf.org/fellows/results?query=meltsner&lower_bound=1925&upper_bound=2014&competition=ALL&fellowship_category=ALL&x=18&y=7 |archive-date=17 November 2014 |url-status=dead}} the Hugo Bedau Award for capital punishment scholarshiphttp://www.mcadp.org/EhrmannAwardRecipients.pdf{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and an American Bar Association Silver Gabel media award.{{Cite web | title=Archived copy | url=http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/publiced/gavel/newsg1980s.authcheckdam.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102200301/http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/publiced/gavel/newsg1980s.authcheckdam.pdf | archive-date=2014-01-02}}{{Failed verification|date=November 2014|reason=This PDF does not mention the word 'Meltsner' anywhere}} In 2012 John Jay College (CUNY) conferred an Honorary Doctor of Laws calling him "the principal architect of the death penalty abolition movement in the United States."{{cite web |url=http://johnjay.jjay.cuny.edu/2012_honorarydegree |title=2012 Honorary Degree Recipients |accessdate=2014-11-24 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140329161311/http://johnjay.jjay.cuny.edu/2012_honorarydegree/ |archivedate=2014-03-29 }}