Page 375 - WhyAsInY

Do a JoB—Harvey tHe litiGator
Hardman Aerospace, a maker of airline seats that were sold by Dayco to a company named Macrodyne-Chatillon. We also repre- sented the bank. Got that?)
Unfortunately, because of our success in the Lehrich appeal, Max had come to like me, and he had therefore tapped me to work on this huge case of his that, after some depositions, involved a trial in Los Angeles. You would think that that would be very appealing to me, but Max was far from fun to work for, and he was staffing the case not just with me but also with an associate, Bob Gottlieb, who was two years senior to me, liked to act it, and got the far better part of the assignments. I never saw a trial day in the courtroom. My job during the trial was to sit in Bungalow 7 of the Beverly Hills Hotel (not so shabby, you say) and summarize the daily transcripts (pretty shabby when compared with going to court, I thought). (I took no solace from the fact that my then friend and contemporary associate Stuart Rabinowitz was left in New York to do research; for the record, Stuie is now the president of Hofstra University.)
The trial lasted for about eight weeks, and at first, Max, Bob, and I would fly to and from L.A. on Sundays and Fridays, sitting in the upper level of the first-class section of a TWA 747 “Jumbo Jet” and working for the entire flight. This procedure struck me as one that could be made more productive. For far less money, I reasoned, the wives, none of whom had a paying job, could live with us in the hotel, and we wouldn’t have to do all the flying. Not only that, they could bring Bob’s and my young children with them.
Thus it was (a) that Phyllis and Danny (here I get a bit ahead of myself) lived in the Beverly Hills Hotel with me when Danny was still in a carriage, (b) that Phyllis was charged with the responsibility of buying a bathing suit for Max (as to which, when she showed up with one in blue, Max asked, “Young lady, have you reserved the right to exchange this suit?”—he wanted red), (c) that I made the in-retrospect-not-too-brilliant decision to have Sue Benson, the love of my college life who lived in Beverly Hills, join us for a day, most of which Phyllis and Sue spent without me, (d) that I found
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