Abraham Pomerantz

Abraham L. Pomerantz was born on March 22, 1903, in Brooklyn, New York. In 1924, Pomerantz studied at Brooklyn Law School at night.

Pomerantz started the practice of law at $4 a week. The New York Times wrote of him "He championed the virtues of Socialism 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 bar".{{cite web|url=http://www.pomerantzlaw.com/Pomerantz/about.cfm |title=The Pomerantz Law Firm - About Us |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090123195259/http://www.pomerantzlaw.com/Pomerantz/about.cfm |archive-date=2009-01-23 }} He pioneered suits by small shareholders against officials of such big corporations as McDonnell Douglas Corporation and the Dreyfus Fund.

{{cite news

| first = Robert D.

| last = Hershey Jr.

| title = Agree to Settle Charge of Illegally Profiting on '65 Stock Sale

| work = New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/20/archives/agree-to-settle-charge-of-illegally-profiting-on-65-stock-sale.html

| date = 20 July 1971

| access-date=2018-12-22}}

{{cite news

| title = Judgment Withheld on Dreyfus Accord

| work = New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1971/09/29/archives/judgment-withheld-on-dreyfus-accord.html

| date = 29 September 1971

| access-date=2018-12-22}}

{{cite news

| first = Leonard

| last = Sloane

| title = People and Business

| work = New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1973/03/03/archives/pomerantz-gets-mixed-tidings-people-and-business.html

| date = 3 March 1973

| access-date=2018-12-22}}

In 1933, Pomerantz brought his first major shareholder suit by representing an investor with twenty shares of National City Bank of New York against the bank's chairman and CEO. He also won in cases involving Canadian Javelin, Warner Brothers Pictures, Fairchild Camera, First National City Bank, Hearst Consolidated Publications, Brooklyn Union Gas, and two odd-lot brokers, Carlisle & Jacquelin and DeCoppet & Doremus.

{{cite news

| first = Robert D.

| last = Hershey Jr.

| title = Fidelity Fund Case Hands Pomerantz a Setback

| work = New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1970/08/23/archives/fidelity-fund-case-hands-pomerantz-a-setback-opinion-in-demand.html

| date = 23 August 1970

| access-date=2018-12-22}}

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 CIO v. Western Union Telegraph Company (motion by Western Union to disqualify ACA attorney Pomerantz)

{{cite news

| title = Fight on arbitrator is referred to Levy

| work = New York Times

| url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/02/22/91610630.pdf

| date = 22 February 1946

| access-date=2018-12-22}}

• 1948: Kaiser Aluminum

{{cite news

| first = H. Walton

| last = Cloke

| title = Kaiser Litigation 'Conclusive': Pomerantz, New York Lawyer, Tells SEC Inquiry That Situation Was 'Dirty'

| work = New York Times

| url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/05/25/85257820.pdf

| date = 25 May 1948

| access-date=2018-12-22}}

• 1969: Shareholders v. Hartford Fire Insurance Company

{{cite news

| first = Robert E.

| last = Bedingfield

| title = Hartford Fire

| work = New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1969/06/07/archives/hartford-fire-meeting-asked-itt-offer-at-issue-meeting-is-sought-at.html

| date = 7 June 1969|url-access=subscription

| access-date=2018-12-22}}

• 1970: Ross v. Bernhard, 396 U.S. 531: Right to trial by jury in derivative actions
• 1970: Case against Morgan Guaranty Trust Company and Chemical Bank of New York

{{cite news

| first = Robert D.

| last = Hershey Jr.

| title = The Week in Finance

| work = New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1971/01/24/archives/needler-teaching-the-banks-virtue-needler-of-banks.html

| date = 24 January 1971

| access-date=2018-12-22}}

• 1973: Putnam Management

{{cite news

| first = Robert J.

| last = Cole

| title = Putnam to Return Money To Funds to Settle Suits

| work = New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1973/02/23/archives/putnam-to-return-money-to-funds-to-settle-suits-hearing-is-set.html

| date = 23 February 1973

| access-date=2018-12-22}}

• 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 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

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.{{cite web |last1=Van Schaack |first1=Beth |title=Symposium: The lessons of Nuremberg |url=https://www.scotusblog.com/2017/07/symposium-lessons-nuremberg/ |website=SCOTUSblog |date=25 July 2017 |access-date=13 September 2021}} "Eight months later, he left Germany after accusing the Truman Administration of not really wanting to pursue the trials."

File: FBI arrests Judith Coplon, March 4, 1949.jpg (here, arrested by FBI agents on 4 March 1949)]]

In 1949, Pomerantz defended Valentin A. Gubitchev, a Soviet diplomat accused of having conspired with Judith Coplon, 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.

{{cite news

| first = Charles

| last = Grutner

| title = Coplon Jury Asked to Judge 'Romance'

| work = New York Times

| url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/01/27/87016816.pdf

| pages = 12

| date = 27 January 1950

| access-date = 23 December 2018}} 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.

File: George A. Dondero (Michigan Congressman).jpg (here from 1953 Pocket Congressional Directory of the 83rd Congress) accused Pomerantz of Communism]]

On July 9, 1947, US Representative George Anthony Dondero named Pomerantz while publicly questioned the "fitness" of United States Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson 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, [http://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal48-1408381 Russell A. Nixon], Abraham L. Pomerantz, Josiah E. DuBois Jr., [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47db-e1c9-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 Richard Sasuly], George Shaw Wheeler, Heinz Norden, Max Lowenthal, 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."

{{cite news

| title = Ex-Army Men Hit as 'Red' Backers

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/07/10/87780862.pdf

| pages = 13|url-access=subscription

| date = 10 July 1947

}}

Pomerantz married Phyllis Cohen; they had two children, Charlotte Pomerantz (who married Carl Marzani) 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, 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.

{{cite news

| first = Arnold H.

| last = Lubasch

| title = Panel Formed to Raise Criteria For Lawyers in Federal Courts

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1974/01/08/archives/panel-formed-to-raise-criteria-for-lawyers-in-federal-courts.html

| date = 8 January 1974

| access-date = 22 December 2018}}

Abraham Pomerantz died age 79 on November 20, 1982, in New York City.

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.brooklaw.edu/news/newsarchive/2002-04-25pomerantz.php |title=Brooklyn Law School: News and Announcements |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060906033528/https://www.brooklaw.edu/news/newsarchive/2002-04-25pomerantz.php |archive-date=2006-09-06 }}

• "Point of View" (1971)

{{cite news

| first = Abraham L.

| last = Pomerantz

| author-link = Abraham Pomerantz

| title = Point of View

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/25/archives/class-suits-defended-actions-protect-stockholder-and-small-consumer.html

| date = 25 April 1971

| access-date = 22 December 2018}}

• "Letters to the Editor" (1974)

{{cite news

| first = Abraham L.

| last = Pomerantz

| author-link = Abraham Pomerantz

| title = Letters to the Editor

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1974/06/25/archives/letters-to-the-editor-class-action-lawyers-for-the-defense.html

| date = 25 June 1974

| access-date = 22 December 2018}}

• "Letters to the Editor" (1975)

{{cite news

| first = Abraham L.

| last = Pomerantz

| author-link = Abraham Pomerantz

| title = Letters to the Editor

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/26/archives/letters-to-the-editor.html

| date = 26 November 1975

| access-date = 22 December 2018}}

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Category:Brooklyn Law School alumni

Category:1903 births

Category:1982 deaths

Category:20th-century American lawyers

Category:American Jews