Jay graduated from Brooklyn College (with honors) in 1964, and from NYU School of Law in 1967, where he was an Editor of the Law Review and where he met his future wife and business partner. After a brief exposure to academia –as Research Assistant to an NYU Law professor teaching a seminar on legislative history–, as well as a brief stint in Big Law in New York, followed by a one year Appellate Division clerkship in New Jersey, Jay and Linda landed in a then small town on the Central Jersey Shore called Toms River.

After a few years, Jay and Linda decided to open up their own small law firm. In the 1970s, as Ocean County became one of the fastest growing counties in the entire United States, Jay and Linda’s law practice flourished. At the same time, they expanded their business interests to include real estate and other investments.

In the 1990s, the Grunins dissolved their law practice to concentrate full time on their two greatest passions, business investments and philanthropy. In 2013, their philanthropic endeavors were formalized with the creation of the Jay and Linda Grunin Foundation (now the Grunin Foundation).

Unfortunately, Linda passed away in April 2018, but her influential and inspiring legacy lives on.

Jay, among his other civic involvements, is currently Advisory Board Chair of the NYU Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship and Vice Chair of the Monmouth Medical Center Foundation Board.