Schiff is District Attorney of New York County, and a graduate of Columbia University, where he served on the "Law Review". He began his career as an ADA in 1973. He is a pragmatic Democrat of faintly liberal stripe, but regardless of political inclinations, he is never perturbed by his critics nor by uncooperative judges. Political persuasions sometimes cloud his decisions with regard to certain cases such as the death penalty; however, he has moral objections to capital punishment, having written a brief protesting it in 1971, but is not averse to seeking it against a defendant if voters want such a sentence carried out. He is also pro-choice.