Abraham Pomerantz
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Abraham Louis Pomerantz (March 22, 1903 – November 20, 1982) was an American attorney who "pioneered shareholder suits against major corporations and for a time directed the prosecution of German industrialists after World War II." He also defended Soviet diplomat Valentin A. Gubitchev in the 1949-1950
Judith Coplon Judith Coplon Socolov (May 17, 1921 – February 26, 2011) was a spy for the Soviet Union whose trials, convictions, and successful constitutional appeals had a profound influence on espionage prosecutions during the Cold War. In 1949, three majo ...
case.


Background

Abraham L. Pomerantz was born on March 22, 1903, in Brooklyn, New York. In 1924, Pomerantz studied at
Brooklyn Law School Brooklyn Law School (BLS) is a private law school in New York City. Founded in 1901, it has approximately 1,100 students. Brooklyn Law School's faculty includes 60 full-time faculty, 15 emeriti faculty, and a number of adjunct faculty. Brookly ...
at night.


Career


Law

Pomerantz started the practice of law at $4 a week. The ''New York Times'' wrote of him "He championed the virtues of
Socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
and the rights of the poor while commanding large legal fees." Pomerantz was a founding partner of the law firm of Pomerantz Haudek Block Grossman & Gross LLP. He is considered by many to have been the "dean of the
class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...
bar". He pioneered suits by small shareholders against officials of such big corporations as
McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it produ ...
Corporation and the
Dreyfus Fund Dreyfus is an American investment management company that deals with investment products and strategies. It was established in 1951 and is currently headquartered in New York City. Dreyfus currently is a subsidiary of BNY Mellon Investment Man ...
. In 1933, Pomerantz brought his first major shareholder suit by representing an investor with twenty shares of
National City Bank of New York Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...
against the bank's chairman and CEO. He also won in cases involving Canadian Javelin,
Warner Brothers Pictures Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, Fairchild Camera,
First National City Bank Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...
, Hearst Consolidated Publications,
Brooklyn Union Gas KeySpan Corporation was the fifth largest distributor of natural gas in the United States. KeySpan was formed in 1998 as a result of the merger of Brooklyn Union Gas Company (founded 1895 by merging several smaller companies) and Long Island Light ...
, and two odd‐lot brokers, Carlisle & Jacquelin and DeCoppet & Doremus. He specialized in so-called derivative suits, in which the company receives the award and passes it on to all stockholders. That original law firm is now called Pomerantz LLP and no longer embraces the derivative suit approach. It currently specializes in bringing lucrative class action lawsuits against high-profile companies. Prominent legal cases include: * 1946: Strike by
American Communications Association The American Communications Association (ACA) was a telegraph and radio workers union, founded in 1931. History In 1931, ACA was founded as the American Radio Telegraphists Association (ARTA) by Mervyn Rathbone. The union represented telegraphists ...
CIO v.
Western Union Telegraph Company The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...
(motion by Western Union to disqualify ACA attorney Pomerantz) * 1948:
Kaiser Aluminum Kaiser Aluminum Corporation is an American aluminum producer. It is a spinoff from Kaiser Aluminum and Chemicals Corporation, which came to be when common stock was offered in Permanente Metals Corporation and Permanente Metals Corporation's ...
* 1969: Shareholders v. Hartford Fire Insurance Company * 1970: ''Ross v. Bernhard, 396 U.S. 531'': Right to trial by jury in derivative actions * 1970: Case against
Morgan Guaranty Trust Company J.P. Morgan & Co. is a commercial and investment banking institution founded by J. P. Morgan in 1871. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the company is now a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase, one of the largest banking institutions in th ...
and
Chemical Bank of New York Chemical Bank was a bank with headquarters in New York City from 1824 until 1996. At the end of 1995, Chemical was the third-largest bank in the U.S., with about $182.9 billion in assets and more than 39,000 employees around the world. Beginning ...
* 1973: Putnam Management * 1982 ''Gartenberg v. Merrill Lynch Asset Management, Inc., 694 F.2d 923'' in the second circuit: Investment company advisory fee may violate Section 36(b) of
Investment Company Act of 1940 The Investment Company Act of 1940 (commonly referred to as the '40 Act) is an act of Congress which regulates investment funds. It was passed as a United States Public Law () on August 22, 1940, and is codified at . Along with the Securities Exc ...
when lacking reasonable relationship to services rendered) * 1987: ''Kronfeld v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 832 F.2d 726'' in the second circuitL Corporation may have to disclose ongoing merger negotiations


World War II

In 1946, Pomerantz went to Germany and led the prosecution of German industrialists for collaborating in Nazi war crimes, as U. S. Deputy Chief Counsel in charge of the industrialist cases. In this role, he proposed prosecuting corporations in their corporate capacity, a proposal that was rejected for pragmatic reasons. "Eight months later, he left Germany after accusing the Truman Administration of not really wanting to pursue the trials."


Coplon Case

In 1949, Pomerantz defended Valentin A. Gubitchev, a Soviet diplomat accused of having conspired with
Judith Coplon Judith Coplon Socolov (May 17, 1921 – February 26, 2011) was a spy for the Soviet Union whose trials, convictions, and successful constitutional appeals had a profound influence on espionage prosecutions during the Cold War. In 1949, three majo ...
, a Department of Justice analyst, to funnel defense secrets to the Soviet Union. Pomerantz countered the government prosecutor's closing arguments with a different interpretation of their circuitous meetings–as not espionage but romance. Gubitchev, he argued, was a married man with children, a "crazy, crazy man" torn by romantic loyalties. Coplon's attorney Archibald Palmer also portrayed the relationship as romantic. In 1950, Gubitchev and Coplon were convicted in 1950 and received 15-year sentences. However, Gubitchev received a reprieve on condition he leave the country, while Coplon was freed on bail. 16 years later the indictment was dropped by the Justice Department.


Alleged communism

On July 9, 1947, US Representative
George Anthony Dondero George Anthony Dondero (December 16, 1883 – January 29, 1968) was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan. Background Dondero was born on a farm in Greenfield Township, Michigan, which has since become part of ...
named Pomerantz while publicly questioned the "fitness" of
United States Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the President of the United States, U.S. president's United States Cabinet, Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's Presidency of George Washington, administration. A similar position, called either "Se ...
Robert P. Patterson Robert Porter Patterson Sr. (February 12, 1891 – January 22, 1952) was an American judge who served as Under Secretary of War under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and U.S. Secretary of War under President Harry S. Truman. He was a US circuit ...
for failing to ferret out Communist infiltrators in his department. Dondero cited Pomerantz for denouncing President Truman's loyalty purge, and addressing a Communist-controlled organization. Dondero's speech on the House floor asserted that Patterson had not shown the ability to "fathom the wiles of the international Communist conspiracy" and to counteract them with "competent personnel." Dondero cited ten government personnel in the War Department who had Communist backgrounds or leanings: Colonel
Bernard Bernstein Bernard Bernstein (30 November 1908 – 6 February 1990) was an American economist and public official. Background Bernard Bernstein was born on November 30, 1908, in New York City. He had at least one brother and one sister. He receive ...

Russell A. Nixon
Abraham L. Pomerantz,
Josiah E. DuBois Jr. Josiah Ellis DuBois Jr. (October 21, 1912 – August 1, 1983) was an American attorney at the U.S. Treasury Department who played a major role in exposing State Department obstruction efforts to provide American visas to Jews trying to escape Nazi ...

Richard Sasuly
George Shaw Wheeler George Shaw Wheeler (May 22, 1908 – October 18, 1998) (known also as George S. Wheeler) was an American economist and advisor to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, best known for being the first American to defect over the Iron Curtain ...
,
Heinz Norden Heinz Norden (born London, 1905, died London, 1978 from injuries sustained in hit-and-run traffic accident) was an author, translator, tenant rights leader, and editor of ''Heute''. An early victim of post-World War II anti-communist hysteria, he ...
,
Max Lowenthal Max Lowenthal (1888–1971) was a Washington, DC, political figure in all three branches of the federal government in the 1930s and 1940s, during which time he was closely associated with the rising career of Harry S. Truman; he served under Osca ...
, and Allan Rosenberg (member of Lowenthal's staff). Dondero stated, "It is with considerable regret that I am forced to the conclusion the Secretary Patterson falls short of these standards."


Personal life and death

Pomerantz married Phyllis Cohen; they had two children, Charlotte Pomerantz (who married
Carl Marzani Carl Aldo Marzani (4 March 1912 – 11 December 1994) was an Italian-born American political activist with a series of careers as a volunteer soldier in the Spanish Civil War, organizer for the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), United States intellige ...
) and Daniel Pomerantz. In 1974, Pomerantz joined a new formed Committee on Qualifications to Practice before the United States Courts in the Second Circuit, announced by Irving R. Kaufman, chaired by Robert L. Clare Jr., with Robert D. Lipscher as secretary and including: Frederick van Pelt Bryan, Simon H. Rifkind, David W. Peck,
Paul J. Curran Paul Jerome Curran (February 21, 1933 – September 4, 2008) was an American Republican politician who served in the New York State Assembly and fought corruption as a federal prosecutor and as the state's commissioner of investigation. Early ...
, Joseph McLaughlin, Maurice Rosenberg, Howard Greenberger, Robert Courtney Jr., Osmer Fitts, Samuel Gates, Paul C. Gouldin, John D. Kelly, George S. Leisure Jr., and Leon Silverman. Abraham Pomerantz died age 79 on November 20, 1982, in New York City.


Legacy

The law firm of Pomerantz LLP provides some continuing support for the Abraham L.Pomerantz Lecture series, of which two lectures have been held between 2009 and 2013 at the Brooklyn Law School. The lecture series focuses on topics of corporate securities law and related issues of professional responsibility.


Works

* "Point of View" (1971) * "Letters to the Editor" (1974) * "Letters to the Editor" (1975)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pomerantz, Abraham Brooklyn Law School alumni 1903 births 1982 deaths 20th-century American lawyers American Jews