Nussbaum has been the recipient of a number of awards from charitable, educations and legal organizations. In 1993 he was awarded an honorary LL.D. from The George Washington University National Law Center. He has served as Vice President of the New York City Bar Association and as President of the Federal Bar Council, a Bar Association whose membership consists of lawyers and judges who practice primarily in federal courts within the Second Circuit. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial lawyers, a select professional association of trial lawyers from the United States and Canada,