Ernst C. Stiefel

Ernst Carl Stiefel (/ˈstiːfəl/ STEE-fəl; 27 November 1907 – 3 September 1997) was a German American jurist. Of Jewish background, he left Nazi Germany in 1933.[1]

Born in Mannheim, he earned a doctorate in law from Heidelberg University in 1929 and started practicing in his hometown in 1933.[2] When his licensure was struck off due to the Gesetz über die Zulassung zur Rechtsanwaltschaft only two weeks later, he emigrated to Strasbourg, France, working for an insurance company.[1][2]

On the brink of World War II, he emigrated to the United States in 1939 working as a plongeur. He was drafted into the United States Army as an enemy alien in 1943, and served in the Office of Strategic Services. In 1944, he became a US citizen. He returned to Germany after World War II had ended, and helped lay the legal groundwork for a system of restitution and reparation to Holocaust survivors living abroad.[1]

Returning to the US in 1947, he passed the bar exam in New York and starting working at the newly founded Cleary Gottlieb Friendly & Hamilton. In 1971, he became a senior counsel for Coudert Brothers, and from 1975 on we was a Professor of Comparative Law at New York Law School.[1]

While living in US, Stiefel visited Germany annually, and died in 1997 during a stay in Baden-Baden. He was married briefly and left no issue.