Just prior to his graduation, Goldin turned down several top Wall Street jobs, and instead chose to work during the Kennedy Administration as an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Civil Rights.
[1] After working two years with the Justice Department as a civil rights lawyer in the South, Goldin returned to New York and joined the prominent law firm Davis, Polk & Wardwell.
Though historian Kim Phillips-Fein has described conflict between city mayors and comptrollers as "more or less inevitable", Goldin was noted for his clashes with both, especially Koch, with an animosity that The New York Times said often ran "nasty and personal".
[1] He was then investigated later in the decade over his ties with trader Ivan Boesky, who had pled guilty to insider trading, but no charges were filed against Goldin.
In 1978, he ran for New York State Comptroller, but lost to Republican Edward Regan, who had been endorsed by retiring Democratic incumbent Arthur Levitt Sr.[1] In 1989, he ran in the Democratic primary for Mayor of New York City, challenging Koch, but was defeated by David Dinkins, coming in last place with only 2.7% of the vote.