BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Amherst College alumnus/water polo athlete/former Chairman of the Amherst College Board of Trustees Andrew J. Nussbaum received an honorary degree from Amherst during the institution’s Commencement on Sunday, May 25.
Co-chair of the executive committee and a corporate partner at the New York law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he focuses on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity and corporate governance, Nussbaum is also a member of the executive committee of the Partnership For New York City, a bipartisan organization that seeks to build collaborations between business and government to strengthen the city, and previously served as chairman of the Board at Asphalt Green, a New York City nonprofit focusing on fitness and health for New Yorkers of all means and abilities. He also previously served on the Board of Governors of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
At Amherst, Nussbaum was a Russian major, a varsity swimmer, a member of the College’s water polo club team and president of Phi Beta Kappa.
After graduating with summa cum laude honors in 1985, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, earning a masters degree in Russian language and modern history from Oxford University. He went on to attend the University of Chicago Law School, serve as law clerk for Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia and embark on a successful career in law, all while remaining deeply connected to his alma mater as a class agent, member of multiple alumni committees and then the Amherst College Board of Trustees beginning in 2010.
In 2018 Nussbaum was elected chair of the board and faithfully served in that capacity until the summer of 2024.
During his tenure as a trustee, he participated in two presidential searches, helmed a number of major projects and campaigns, and served on various ad hoc committees on important College issues.
Nussbaum was interviewed for the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Remote series by Olympian/CWPA Hall of Fame member George Gross during the Spring of 2021:
