A. Leo Levin (January 9, 1919 – November 24, 2015) was the Leon Meltzer Professor of Law at the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and olde ...

Biography

Levin was born in New York City to Issaachar and Minerva Hilda (Shapiro) Levin, and grew up in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784. His father was an

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

and Mizrachi leader. He was Jewish. He and his wife Doris (née Feder) had two sons, Allan and Jay. Levin earned a B.A. from Yeshiva College in 1939, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of ''The Commentator'' and president of the Yeshiva College Student Council. He subsequently received his J.D. from the

in 1942, where he was an Editor of the ''

University of Pennsylvania Law Review The ''University of Pennsylvania Law Review'' is a law review published by an organization of second and third year J.D. students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. It is the oldest law journal in the United States, having been publishe ...

''.The Daily Pennsylvanian. A. Leo Levin New Vice Provost - Pdf
/ref> During World War II he was a

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a s ...

in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

from 1942 to 1946 in Europe. He taught at the

University of Iowa College of Law The University of Iowa College of Law is the law school of the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. It was founded in 1865. Iowa is ranked the 28th-best law school in the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or U ...

as an assistant professor from 1947 to 1949.A. Leo Levin: A Fond Tribute to the Master of the Classroom 148 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1999-2000
/ref> Decades later, in the 1990s, he returned there to teach. He was the Leon Meltzer Professor of Law at the

; he first joined the faculty in 1949, and became a full professor in 1953. Levin was the Director of the

Federal Judicial Center The Federal Judicial Center is the education and research agency of the United States federal courts. It was established by in 1967, at the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States. According to , the main areas of respo ...

from 1977 to 1987. He served as president of the

Jewish Publication Society The Jewish Publication Society (JPS), originally known as the Jewish Publication Society of America, is the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English. Founded in Philadelphia in 1888, by reform Rabbi Joseph Krauskop ...

, the ''

Jewish Exponent ''The Jewish Exponent'' is a weekly community newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the second-oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the United States. History ''The Jewish Exponent'' has been published continuously since Apri ...

'', Lower Merion Synagogue in

Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania Bala Cynwyd ( ) is a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania. It is located on the Philadelphia Main Line in Southeastern Pennsylvania, bordering the western edge of Philadelphia at U.S. Route 1 (City Avenue). It was originally two separa ...

, and the

Order of the Coif The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of advocates, the serjeants-at-law, whose courtroom attire included a coif—a white lawn or silk skullcap, whi ...

. He was also vice provost of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, and a vice president of the

Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America The Orthodox Union (abbreviated OU) is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. Founded in 1898, the OU supports a network of synagogues, youth programs, Jewish and Religious Zionist advocacy programs, programs for ...

. He was a founding director of the

National Institute for Trial Advocacy The National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) is an American not-for-profit organization that provides lawyers with training in trial advocacy skills. NITA's founding was brought about in 1971 by the Committee on Advocacy of the Section on Ju ...

, a member of the Standing Committee on Practice and Procedure,

Judicial Conference of the United States The Judicial Conference of the United States, formerly known as the Conference of Senior Circuit Judges, was created by the United States Congress in 1922 with the principal objective of framing policy guidelines for administration of judicial cour ...

(1977–78), a member of the

National Institute of Corrections The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is an agency of the United States government. It is part of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. History The NIC was created by the United States Congress in 1974, based on the recommendation of the National ...

, a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, an honorary trustee of

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, he, אוניברסיטת בר-אילן, ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic i ...

, a member of the board of directors of the

American Judicature Society The American Judicature Society (AJS) is an independent, non-partisan membership organization working nationally to protect the integrity of the American justice system. AJS's membership — including judges, lawyers, and members of the public — ...

, and served on the planning committee of the Claims Commission, which made recommendations regarding allocation of reparation monies to be paid to

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...

s. Among Levin's writings are A. Leo Levin, Philip Shuchman, & Charles M. Yablon, ''Civil Procedure: Cases and Materials'', 2d ed. (Foundation Press 2000), Russell R. Wheeler & A. Leo Levin, ''Judicial Discipline and Removal in the United States'' (Federal Judicial Center 1979), A. Leo Levin, Russell R. Wheeling & R. Pound, ''The Pound Conference: Perspectives on Justice in the Future'' (West 1979), A. Leo Levin, ''Problems and Materials on Trial Advocacy'' (Foundation Press 1968), and A. Leo Levin & M. Kramer, ''New Provisions in the Ketubah: A Legal Opinion'' (Yeshiva University 1955). Levin died at 96 years of age. The annual A. Leo Levin Award for Excellence in an Introductory Course was established in 2002 at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in his honor.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Levin, A. Leo 1919 births Jewish American attorneys University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni University of Pennsylvania Law School faculty Yeshiva University alumni University of Iowa College of Law faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences United States Air Force officers Jewish American academics 2015 deaths People from Trenton, New Jersey United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II American Orthodox Jews Lawyers from New York City New Jersey lawyers Academics from New Jersey Academics from New York (state) Scholars of civil procedure law 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American Jews Military personnel from New Jersey