Ronald Goldfarb is a Washington, D.C. attorney, author, and literary agent. He is listed in Who's Who In the United States, Who's Who In Law, and other listings of prominent Americans, writers and scholars.

        Born in New Jersey and educated in its public schools, he began college (at age 16) at Syracuse University. Combining his last year of undergraduate work (BA 1954) with his first year of law school, he graduated (LLB) in 1956 and was one of the youngest to be admitted to the New York bar that year. He continued his education at Yale Law School, where he earned Masters (LLM, 1960) and Doctorate (JSD, 1962) degrees from Yale. He was later admitted to the California and District of Columbia and United States Supreme Court bars.

        Goldfarb's work at Yale Law School was interrupted when he accepted a commission and served three years in the United States Air Force JAG, where he prosecuted and defended numerous courts-martial, cases running the gamut from AWOL to murder and desertion (capital offenses).

        For a year, after completing his military service and graduation from Yale, Goldfarb was the Arthur Garfield Hays Fellow at New York University Law School where he worked on his first book, The Contempt Power, published in 1963 by Columbia University Press and in 1971 in paperback by Anchor Books. ("This book is a clear and eloquent presentation of the history of the contempt power and the dangers inherent in that power as it is being used at present. The book will prove to be as interesting to laymen as it is to lawyers-Thurman Arnold, The New Republic) During that year at New York University, he also worked as legal counsel for the American Jewish Congress, Commission on Law and Social Action, a civil rights and civil liberties organization based in New York City.

        In 1961, Goldfarb was recruited to join the New Frontier. He was a member of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of the Department of Justice for almost four years, and conducted grand jury investigations and successful multi-defendant criminal trials in federal courts in Florida, Kentucky, and Ohio. For several months in 1964, the Justice Department delegated Goldfarb to the Presidential Task Force which created the Office of Economic Opportunity under the guidance of Sargent Shriver. When Robert F. Kennedy ran for the U.S. Senate in New York, he recruited Goldfarb to work on that campaign as a speech writer. He resigned from the Justice Department to do so. Goldfarb's book (Perfect Villains, Imperfect Heroes) about those Justice Department experiences was published in 1995 by Random House, paperback in 2002 by Capital Books. "Mr. Goldfarb's descriptions of the investigative and prosecutorial processes are dead-accurate and engrossing. He richly details the intellectual, ethical and emotional challenges." -Lloyd George Parry, The Baltimore Sun; "...a compelling piece of work, strongly evocative of an era that seems, more and more, to have been one of the most extraordinary periods in our history." - Don Delillo, author, Underworld, White Noise, and The Body Artist; "You caught him well, and no one else has remotely touched what you have done about the fight against organized crime. So it is important as well as moving." - Anthony Lewis, The New York Times.

        After the successful Kennedy senate campaign, Goldfarb handled select cases (successfully arguing one appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. v. Harris), and wrote two books: the award winning, Ransom, A Critique of the American Bail System (introduction by Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg) published by Harper & Row (1965), paperback by John Wiley (1967). ("Bail is a barnacle on the back of the poor. In this book Ronald Goldfarb brilliantly describes how the poor suffer from this iniquitous anachronism and tells why it should be uprooted from our law."-J. Skelly Wright, United States Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals). "Ransom is a deep indictment of current bail practices. It blends scholarship and commitment in pointing the way toward fulfilling the promises of the Constitution, and the ancient pledges of Anglo-American liberties. I hope all lawyers, and concerned citizens, will read his book." - Robert F. Kennedy, United States Senator. He also co-wrote Crime and Publicity-The Impact of News on the Administration of Justice, with Alfred Friendly, the managing editor of The Washington Post (1967), a book published and sponsored by The Twentieth Century Fund. Paperback by Vintage (1968).

        The Justice Department delegated Goldfarb to the interagency Task Force which worked on the creation of the poverty program, OEO, under Sarge Shriver who would later become Goldfarb's client in the writing of his biography, Sarge

        In 1966, Goldfarb founded a law firm with Stephen Kurzman (formerly legislative assistant to New York Senator Jacob Javits) which specialized in special legal assignments (both worked on the Kerner Commission study of riots; Goldfarb was a consultant to The Brookings Institution on Courts and The Administration of Justice, and to the California Legislature's Study of Courts and The Administration of Justice in California). He was appointed Special Counsel to the United States House of Representatives Inquiry into the charges against Representative Adam Clayton Powell. He taught at many colleges as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow for one week periods.

        The firm changed members in ensuing years-Goldfarb & Singer, Goldfarb Singer, & Austern, Goldfarb, Kaufman, & O'Toole-until the present time, Goldfarb & Associates. He specialized in public interest law, particularly in correctional reform (trying a landmark Eighth Amendment case condemning conditions at the D.C. Jail, peacefully negotiating a hostage-taking riot at the jail, organizing an ex-offender organization which has operated successfully for about forty years). With a Ford Foundation grant he co-authored a book on correctional reform, After Conviction, (Simon & Schuster, 1973) with a colleague, Linda Singer (paperback in 1977). "After Conviction contains not only a massive indictment of the criminal justice system, but also recommendations for sensible and workable reforms. Ron Goldfarb is one of the most thoughtful and knowledgeable people writing on the criminal justice system today. After Conviction is a real contribution to the field."-Tom Wicker. [After Conviction] is magnificent...well written...authoritative. It is a sort of book that really hadn't existed until Ron Goldfarb put it together." - Karl Menninger.

        Again for The Twentieth Century Fund, he wrote Jails-The Ultimate Ghetto, Doubleday (1975; Anchor paperback, 1976).

        Judge Charles Richey, D.C. federal district court, appointed Goldfarb Chairman of a Special Review Committee created to implement a major nationwide court order against the Department of Labor regarding the improvement of living and work conditions of migrant and seasonal farmworkers. For two years, he conducted hearings around the United States on behalf of the court. Goldfarb's work for the court was praised by Judge Richey. The Ford Foundation supported Goldfarb's later book on the subject, A Caste of Despair, Migrant Farm Workers in the United States, Iowa State University Press (1981). "Here is a strongly, worded, trenchant, discerning, fair-minded analysis of a major American social problem. Here, too, is a kind of exemplary witness-what is means to be a compassionate, high-minded lawyer and what it means, as a matter of fact, to remember in one's mind and heart, in one's working life as an attorney, as a citizen, those words engraved on the Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C.: "Equal Justices Under Law.: One concludes the reading of this book wishing (hope against hope!) that it will be the very last one written and wishing, too, that those who practices the law could claim more colleagues such Ronald Goldfarb-a moral example to a profession, to all of us."-from the Foreword by Robert Coles.

        Goldfarb created a course for judges and lawyers on legal writing which was conducted for many years under the auspices of the National Center for State Trial Judges, and later privately. With Professor James Raymond, Goldfarb wrote Clear Understandings-A Guide to Legal Writing, published by Random House (1983).

        Goldfarb's law practice evolved into representing writer's organizations, The Washington Independent Writers for many years and Associated Writing Programs to the present. He has represented hundreds of writers as well, as their attorney and agent. His literary practice evolved into an active literary agency bearing his name. He co-authored The Writer's Lawyer, Essential Legal Advice for Writers and Editors in all Media with a colleague Gail Ross (Times Books, 1989). "When writers want to make sure they've got it absolutely right, Ron Goldfarb is the one they turn to. And The Writer's Lawyer is the book they should read."-Nick Kotz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Wild Blue Yonder: Money, Politics, and the B-1 Bomber.

        Goldfarb also has presided over MainStreet, A Television Production Company, organized with Hodding Carter in 1987. It is still run by Goldfarb after Carter left in 1998 to preside over the Knight Foundation. Goldfarb hosted a weekly discussion show on public television, Devil's Advocate, and produced documentaries on Sam Ervin and Claude Pepper. MainStreet has produced many television shows and documentaries, some of which have won awards, most recently Desperate Hours, winner of the District of Columbia Independent Film Festival Award in 2002.

        In 1998, Goldfarb wrote TV or Not TV, Television, Justice and the Courts, again with support from the Century Fund, and published by New York University Press. "Going beyond the obvious controversies of recent years, Goldfarb surveys the role of television in courtrooms with cool, but crisp detachment. He brings historical context, legal analysis, and rich experience to bear on the issue, concluding that courts are public institutions that do not belong exclusively to the judges and lawyers who run them. His persuasive argument for greater openness is bound to influence future debate on the topic."-Sanford J. Ungar, Dean, School of Communication, American University. "A tour de force, a one-stop repository of the history, facts and the law of the matter. I plan to plagiarize from it shamelessly. This is an important subject, and Goldfarb's book provides the first comprehensive, in-depth study of the issue." - Fred Graham, Chief Anchor and Managing Editor, Court TV. "Goldfarb argues persuasively for cameras in the courtroom, O.J. notwithstanding. He is aware of the problems but believes strongly that the more open a courtroom, the more open and free our society. The challenge, which he describes so well, is to balance the new demanding technology against our traditional dedication to democracy." - Marvin Kalb, Director, Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy, Harvard University.

        Goldfarb has contributed chapters to several books, and selections to several encyclopedias, and is the author of many law journal articles, and about 300 newspaper articles and op-eds. He writes a regular monthly book review or article for The Washington Lawyer. He is an active board member of The Alliance For Justice, and has served on other boards such as Common Cause, American Jewish Committee, Yale Law School Association. He also worked on several Presidential Commissions.

        Goldfarb has contributed chapters to several books, including a chapter on Politics At The Justice Department in the book, Conspiracy: The Implications of the Harrisburg Trial for the Democratic Tradition, edited by John Raines; he wrote the Foreword to Freedom For Sale, A National Study of Pretrial Release by Paul B. Wice, and How To Try A Criminal Case, American Trial Lawyers Association book, 1967. He has contributed selections to several encyclopedias on law and government, including The Encyclopedia of Criminology, edited by Raymond Corsini, Macmillan, 1994, The Encyclopedia of the United States Congress, Commission of the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution Project, Simon & Schuster, 1994, The Encyclopedia of Publishing and Book Arts, Henry Holt, Spring 1995, The Macmillan Encyclopedia, 1997, The Constitution and Its and Amendments and Cameras in Courts, and in the Yale Biographical Dictionary of Law, a sketch on Fred Rodell.

         His eleventh book, IN CONFIDENCE: Confidential Communications and the End of Privilege, will be published by Yale University Press in 2008.

        He is the author of many law journal articles, and about 300 newspaper articles and op-eds. He writes a regular monthly book review for Washington Lawyer. He was a board member of The Alliance For Justice, Common Cause, American Jewish Committee, and was president of the Yale Law School Association of Washington D.C. He also worked on several Presidential Commissions, including the National Advisory Commission of Civil Disorders, Commission to Revise Federal Criminal Law, and The Agenda for the Eighties.

        Goldfarb lives and works in Alexandria, Virginia and Key Biscayne, Florida. He is married to Joanne Jacob, an award-winning architect. They have three children, Jody, a social worker, Nicholas, a television and movie writer and producer, and Maximilian, an artist.

Year	Month/Day	Title	Periodical
		In The Public Interest	Washington Post
		Voices from the Prison Suburbs	Washington Post
1955	Fall	Symposium on Artificial Insemination	Syracuse Law Review
1961		The History of the Contempt Power	Washington University Law Quarterly
1961	March	Contempt by Publication in the United States (with Professor R. Donnelly)	The Modern Law Review
1961	April	Pubic Information, Criminal Trials, and the Cause Celebre	New York University Law Review
1961	Fall	The Varieties of the Contempt Power	Syracuse University Law Review
1962	December	The Constitution and Contempt of Court	Michigan Law Review
1963	June	Publishing, Entertainment, Advertising	Law Quarterly
1964		Book Review: The Language of the Law	Michigan Law Review
1964		Lawyers and The War v. Poverty	ABA Journal
1964	February 29	Ensuring Fair Trials-The Impropriety of Publicity	The New Republic
1964	June 6	The Bail Scandal	The New Republic
1964	August 2	Crime. Wealth & Justice	The New Republic
1964	October 30	The Courts and TV	Commonweal
1964	December	Lawyers and the War Against Poverty	ABA Journal
1965	January 16	War on Justice	The New Republic
1965		Civil Rights v. Civil Liberties: The Jury Trial Issue with Steve Lurzman	UCLA Law Review
1965	October 16	The High Price of Civil Rights Protests	The New Republic
1966		Three Conscientious Objectors	ABA Journal
1966	April	Kennedy and the Liberals	Washingtonian
1966	March 5	No Room in the Jail	The New Republic
1966	April	The D.C. Jail-Ten Keys To Reform	Washingtonian
1966		A Reply to Professor Keeffe	Federal Bar Journal
1966	June	Three Conscientious Objectors	ABA Journal
1967		The Roles and Dilemmas of Counsel in Criminal Justice	Administration of Criminal Justice; Southern Regional Education Board
1967	August	Legal Restraints on Crime New (with Alfred Friendly)	Freedom of Information center Report 185
1967	Sept 30	BOOKS AND THE ARTS	The New Republic
1968	July 23	Crime Gamesmanship	Washington Post
1968	July 7	There's A Clear Message to Be Heard in Jail Riots	Washington Post
1968	April 5	A Fifth Estate-Washington Lawyers	New York Times
1969	January 21	Question of Preventive Detention	Washington Post
1969	February 26	Do Our Jails Need An Ombudsman	Washington Post
1969	March 18	Prison Philosophy in Sweden and U.S,	Washington Post
1969	May 29	A Sense of Déjà Vu Down at the D.C. Jail	Washington Post
1969	February 2	The Sad State of Prisons	Washington Post
1969	October 9	A Plan to Ensure Judicious Judges	Washington Post
1969	Nov 16	On Courting Contempt	Washington Post
1969	July 19	Rapping With Convicts	The New Republic
1969	January 4	Making Criminals	The New Republic
1969	August 16	Legal Nonsense	The New Republic
1969	November 1	Prison: The National Poorhouse	The New Republic
1969	Dec 13	The Conspiracy for Correctional Reform	The New Republic
1970		Maryland's Defective Delinquency Law and The Patuxent Institution (with Linda Singer)	Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic 223
1970	July 19	Weekends In Jail: A Useful Technique	Washington Post
1970	January 1	Different Ways To End Recidivism	Washington Post
1970	June 24	A Clear Message From A Ghetto Walk	Washington Post
1970	March 21	Social Revolution May Bring About Prison Refo	Washington Post
1970	October 28	The Horror of Prisons	New York Times
1970	March 1	A Brief for Preventive Detention	New York Times
1970-71		Redressing Prisoners' Grievances (with Linda Singer)	George Washington Law Review
1971	June 6	Just Ask the Man Who's Been There	Washington Post
1971	March 14	Closing America's Debtor's Prisons	Washington Post
1971	Sept 25	The Need For A Way To Deal With Prison Griev	Washington Post
1971	October 12	How Maximum Can You Get?	New York Times
1971	Nov 21	Voices From Inside the Prisons	Washington Post
1971	July 27	Why Don't We Tear Down Our Prisons?	Look Magazine
1971	December	Disaster Road: The American Prison System	Intellectual Digest
1971	December	The Voices Inside	Juris Doctor
1972	June 1	Cajun Cooking of New Orleans	Washington Post
1972	January 27	Super Supper in New Orleans	Washington Post
1972	January 20	A "Non-Architecture" Way to Prison Reform	Washington Post
1972	Nov 29	Criminal-Victim Encounter Proposed	St. Louis Globe-Democr
1972	March 28	A Plan for Repaying victims of Crime	Washington Post
1973	Dec 27	Jobs Replace Jail Terms	Washington Post
1973	June 5	Bobby Baker's Return	Washington Post
1973	May 11	Survivors of the System of Justice	Washington Post
1973	October 7	Summer Rites and Rights	Washington Post
1973	April 24	Prison Riots and Reform	Washington Post
1973	May 11	Survivors of the System of Justice	Washington Post
1973	July 15	Trial and Prejudice	Washington Post
1973	August 2	Rape and Law Reform	Washington Post
1973	October 12	Time Catches Willie Mays	Washington Post
1973	June 5	The Watergate Hearings: No Time For A Circus	Washington Post
1974	June 23	Please Pass The guilt	Washington Post
1974	May 16	A Prisoner at the Crossroads	Washington Post
1974	August 14	The View from Peaceful Valley	Washington Post
1974	January 6	The Permanent State of Emergency	Washington Post
1974	July 10	Executive Privilege And The Public Interest	Washington Post
1974	February 17	Free Pres-Fair Trial and Watergate	Washington Post
1974	February 27