Sheldon Oliensis (March 19, 1922 – May 14, 2001) was a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

, a president of the

Legal Aid Society The Legal Aid Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit legal aid provider based in New York City. Founded in 1876, it is the oldest and largest provider of legal aid in the United States. Its attorneys provide representation on criminal and civil matt ...

, and a president of the

New York City Bar Association The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...

Early life and education

Sheldon Oliensis was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

on March 19, 1922. He attended 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

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

, where he was president of the

Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 ...

Career

After a period of practice with another firm, Oliensis joined

Kaye Scholer Kaye Scholer was a law firm founded in 1917 by Benjamin Kaye and Jacob Scholer. The firm had more than 450 attorneys in nine offices located in the cities of Chicago, Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, New York City (headquarters), Shanghai, Palo ...

in 1960 as a

litigation - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

partner. In addition to his private practice, Oliensis was highly involved in public service. He was a longtime member of the

, where he chaired a number of committees, including the Grievance Committee, the Executive Committee and the Committee on Access to Legal Services. He served a president of the Bar from 1988 to 1990, and he was instrumental in establishing Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS), the Bar's ''

pro bono ( en, 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. In the United States, the term typically refers to provision of legal services by legal professionals for pe ...

'' legal service organization. He was also a president of the

from 1973 to 1975, was chair of the New York City Conflict of Interest Board, a director of the Fund for Modern Courts, and a director of the

East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...

Tutorial Program.

Death

Sheldon Oliensis died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

at his home in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

on May 14, 2001. He was 79 years old.

Sources

* Morris, Jeffrey B. ''"Making Sure We are True to Our Founders": The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 1980-1995''. New York, NY: Fordham University Press, 1997.
“Sheldon Oliensis, Former Bar Association Head; 79.” ''The New York Times''. May 15, 2001.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oliensis, Sheldon 1922 births 2001 deaths Lawyers from Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania alumni Harvard Law School alumni Presidents of the New York City Bar Association Kaye Scholer partners Lawyers from Manhattan 20th-century American lawyers