Over a career spanning more than five decades, I. Michael Greenberger worked to strengthen the rule of law, defend democratic institutions and protect the public interest. A litigator, government official and professor, he brought intellectual rigor, moral clarity and persuasive eloquence to every role he undertook. Those who knew and worked with him remember his sparkling sense of humor, his insistence on careful reasoning and his moral strength to consistently choose public good over private pressure.
A proud native of Scranton, Pennsylvania, he was born on Oct. 30, 1945, and died Dec. 21, 2025. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Lafayette College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Greenberger was a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for D.C. Circuit Judge Carl McGowan, beginning a career that would repeatedly place him at pivotal moments in American legal, political and financial history. The first legislative assistant to Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, he worked on and personally delivered the complaint to the Pentagon in Holtzman v. Schlesinger, a landmark challenge to the legality of U.S. military activities in Cambodia. After joining the staff of Attorney General Elliot Richardson for six weeks, he became a secondary casualty of President Richard Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre,” when then-President Nixon fired Attorney General Richardson for refusing to fire Solicitor General Archibald Cox.
He subsequently joined Shea & Gardner, a Washington, D.C., law firm where became a partner, practicing law there for almost 25 years. He handled cases nationwide, including in the United States Supreme Court, where he won a ruling influencing modern First Amendment jurisprudence, particularly the treatment of speech on cable television platforms, reinforcing constitutional limits on content-based censorship.
Greenberger went on to serve in the Clinton administration providing leadership on two of the defining issues of the age, protection of financial markets and homeland security. As director of the division of trading and markets at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, he worked closely with the chair, Brooksley Born to regulate derivatives markets. At a time when such warnings were widely dismissed, Greenberger presciently helped sound the alarm about the need for regulation of systemic financial risk — the central cause of the 2008 financial crisis. Joining the Department of Justice in 1999, as Counselor to Attorney General Janet Reno and then serving as Associate Deputy Associate Attorney General, he oversaw several counterterrorism efforts, including organizing a first of its kind nationwide counterterrorism war game (“TOPOFF I”).
In the next chapter of his career, Greenberger devoted himself to advocacy, teaching and institution-building. He was a professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law where he created and taught courses on national and homeland security as well as financial regulation. At the University, after the September 11 attacks, he founded the nationally recognized Center for Health and Homeland Security, integrating law, national security, and public health in ways that continue to influence policy and education nationwide. Serving on multiple boards, committees, and commissions, Greenberger regularly advised state, federal and international policymakers on homeland security, financial markets and other regulatory matters, advancing safety and stability as well as transparency and fairness.
In response to Freddie Gray’s tragic death, Greenberger created a course examining the causes of the 2015 Baltimore unrest and identifying potential solutions including policing practices, criminal justice, access to housing, health care, education, joblessness, and community development. He was invited regularly to testify before congressional committees and frequently to provide commentary on the issues of the day by local and national media outlets.
He is survived by his wife of 56 years Marcia Devins Greenberger, the co-founder and now co-president emerita of the National Women’s Law Center, his daughters, Sarah Greenberger (Matthew Engel) of Silver Spring, MD and Anne Greenberger (Philip Silverman) of Brooklyn, NY; and his grandchildren, Tobias and Eliza Engel, and Eden and Theodora Silverman.
Michael Greenberger was the center of his family and a source of wisdom, humor and steadfast support. His legacy lives on in the laws and institutions he strengthened, the people he influenced and the values he embodied.