In 1974, when a search committee picked Phillip I. Blumberg out of a field of nine candidates to be dean of the University of Connecticut School of Law, he far outshone the competition. Hugh C. Macgill, then a young law professor on the committee, said Blumberg’s brains, accomplishments and erudition made all the other applicants look drab in comparison.
And like Cinderella on the eve of the ball, UConn law school didn’t need any more drabness. Blumberg didn’t pretend to own a magic wand, but he had something better, as it turned out. He was an accomplished lawyer who had also been a rollicking success on Wall Street, helping corporate financial institutions outsmart banks with pioneering financing tactics and aggressive tax lawyering.
