Marsha E. Swiss

SWISS

MARSHA E. SWISS (Age 82)

Marsha E. Swiss, died October 5, 2022, peacefully and without regret, following the Jewish Kol Nidre service. She died at her second home in Corrales, NM, as she had wished, at the side of her husband of 49 years, Ronald M. Costell, M.D. Until weeks before her death from colorectal cancer, Marsha continued actively to practice fiduciary law in DC. She gave good counsel and support to colleagues and clients. Her grace, generosity, good humor and intellect were appreciated by all who knew her. Marsha grew up as an only child in Pittsburgh, PA. Her father, Irwin Swiss was a U.S. attorney as well as a Shakespearian and Hebraic scholar. Her mother, Anne X. Alpern, was one of eleven immigrant children, who became City Solicitor of Pittsburgh and was appointed by Governor David Lawrence as the first woman state Attorney General in the U.S., as well as to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Marsha was an honors program graduate of Swarthmore College. She was one of a small group of women admitted to the class of 1965 at the Harvard Law School. At Harvard she was renowned for an audacious classroom retort to a taunt by Professor Clark Byse, model for the character Charles Kingsfield in "The Paper Chase." Marsha was active with the DC Bar in promoting alternative forms of dispute resolution, although she reveled in litigation in support of clients and patients who had been abused by the skullduggery of professionals. She had a keen aesthetic sense and delighted in both classical and contemporary art and the welcoming of guests to a beautiful dinner table set with flowers from her garden. In the Southwest she reveled in ambitious hikes in the National Parks and in the environs of Albuquerque. A memorial service will be held in the new year.