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Do a JoB—Harvey tHe litiGator
was sold at auction for $86.9 million in 2012, committed suicide. In 1971, suit was brought against his executors and Marlborough Gal- lery, alleging essentially that a substantial number of his works had been sold to Marlborough at prices that were significantly below market, only to be resold at huge profits, of which a large percentage had been kicked back to his financial advisor, who was also one of the executors. Ralph Colin, the second of the name partners in the firm, was the head of the Art Dealers Association and represented Marlborough. (He also represented CBS, which he famously lost as a client when he got into a fight with William Paley, the controlling stockholder in CBS, in a matter involving the Museum of Modern Art. Needless to say, Colin’s partners were not pleased with his pro- pensity to act on principle; neither were astute associates. Paley was heard to say that Colin, contrary to his assertions, was not his friend; he was only his lawyer.)
So Larry Eno, a tough senior litigating partner (who, it was rumored, had run guns to the Irgun, the Zionist paramilitary group that had blown up the King David Hotel), had me research the question whether the Surrogates Court had jurisdiction. Of course, having worked there when I was at United Lawyers Service, I knew that the answer was yes. I also knew that that would not cut it with Colin or Eno (and not just because my prior time was not billable). So I went through the steps for which they were paying me. The answer was still yes. Two weeks after I turned in the memo, the firm resigned the representation. I hasten to add that there was no causal nexus.
• CBS v. FTC and RCOA v. CBS Records. These matters were impor- tant not so much for the legal work that I did on them (research and memo writing with respect to alleged anti-competitive practices) but for the people with whom I worked. Asa Sokolow (known as “Ace”), the partner, and Renée Roberts, the senior counsel, could not have been more encouraging, engaging, instructive, human, and just plain fun. (When I got to Rosenman, Renée was the only woman.
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