Haynes: The Bookmaker
12 Published by SURFACE, 1992 SY H A CUSE UN I VEI{S I TY MAGAZ I NE 1 Syracuse University Magazine, Vol. 8, Iss. 2 [1992], Art. 5
BOO It's raining best-sellers for lawyer turned literary agent Morton L. I anklow.
By Kevin Haynes
here are no magazines to Seems he's just finished the first browse through in the re drafts of two books by clients: a biogra ception area outside the phy of Harry S. Truman and- get New York City offices of this- a book about physics, Dreams ofa lawyer and literary agent Final Theory, by Nobel Prize-winning Morton L. Janklow. physicist Steven Weinberg. - Just books-nearly 40 "It's an analysis of a particle physi of them. All hardcover, mostly best-sell cist's pursuit of the final laws of science, ers. Danielle Steele, Judith Krantz, Sid the ultimate laws that govern the uni ney Sheldon, and Joe McGinnis are verse," Janklow explains in his rapid-fire among the featured authors, as are Tom delivery. Wolfe, William Safire, and biographer But Janklow doesn't stop there. Prone Robert Caro. The familiar titles are all to superlatives and hyperbole, he de neatly stacked and spread out beneath vours any suggestion that Dreams may be the square, smoked glass table that's the physics equivalent of Stephen nestled between a small sofa and two Hawking's recent (and unexpected) chairs, like an inverted window display best-seller, A BriefHi story of Time. at a trendy bookstore. · "It's a more important book than It's the equivalent of a trophy case for Hawking's," Janklow says matter-of-factly. Janklow and his partner, Lynn Nesbit, Likewise, he pronounces the Truman who three years ago teamed up to form bio by historian David McCullough, to Janklow & Nesbit Associates, the most be published in June, "one of the great financially potent literary agency in the est biographies I've ever read." world. Could be. But at the least both books Janklow reportedly earns more than seem atypical for the agent who helped $1 million a year by taking a 15-percent transform Judith Krantz from a Cos cut of the lucrative deals he negotiates mopolitan contributor to a multimillion for his well-known clients. He's also still dollar enterprise. a partner in the neighboring corporate "T hey're not a departure," Janklow law firm ofJanklow, Newborn & Ashley, insists. "I always get talked about as an though he estimates 90 percent of his agent for best-selling authors, which we time is spent on literary endeavors. are. But we have always had an enor So perhaps this goes a long way to mous number of intellectual books ward explaining why, when Janklow here." steps through the door and says hello, he Janklow fidgets in his chair. He con forgoes the small talk of "How are you?" stantly crosses and uncrosses the legs of to ask a more pertinent question: "What his gray plaid slacks, taps the toes of his are you reading?" black loafers, and folds his arms across an KEVIN HAYNES, a free-lance writer living Once inside his sleek office over aqua tie and monogrammed white shirt, in Brooklyn, is a 1979 graduate ofSyra looking Madison Avenue and 57th showing off gold cuff links the size of cuse University with a degree in magazine Street, Janklow is happy to answer his quarters. Maybe bigger. journalism. His previous articles for Syra own question. Surprisingly, neither title T hen Janklow cites a few more of the cuse Uni versity Magazine include a is likely to end up on the beach next lesser-known authors in his stable, in profile offashion designer Betsey Johnson. summer. cluding Craig Nova, a young novelist
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who has earned critical raves but little anklow's life story reads like the commercial success. Janklow thinks best-sellers in his office. He grew Nova might break through with his up TWO PRESIDENTS up in Queens, New York, the son coming book, Trombone. AND A DUCHESS of a lawyer whose success was Janklow is also high on the "verv eso squeezed by the Depression. teric" writing of poet Diane Ackerman. Thanks to an extraordinarily high In fact, Janklow is the subject of a poem Janklow's client list reads as much like a I.Q., he entered SU in 1946 at 16, major in Ackerman's most recent book,Jaguar glance through Who's Who as it does a browse ing in political science with a minor in ofSU!·eet Laughter. The poem, which is ti through your local bookstore. Here are some English and philosophy, although he tled "Letter of Retainer," begins: "Dear of the authors represented by the firm of Jan· spent much of his time playing poker. 1\lort (my fine agent whose name means "I was, in fact, a professional gam klow & Nesbit Associates: death) ..." bler," he says. "When I was in college and law school I played cards almost ev ot in the publishing world it PETER ARNm ery day of my life-almost any kind of doesn't. To Steele, Sheldon, BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD game for almost any kind of stakes. Thomas Harris (Silmce ofthe "There was a coterie of card players at PRESIDENT JIMMY (ARTER Lambs) and all tpe other Syracuse. You could lose $50 to $70 a - home run hitters on the Jan- (LARK CLIFFORD night, which in those days was a lot of klow team, the man is nothing less than a JACKIE COLLINS money." A losing streak forced him to godsend. MICHAEL (RICHTON start working a midnight shift at a freight "He is first and foremost a negotiat loading company. He says he hasn't ing lawyer and not an old-fashioned liter JOAN DIDION touched a deck of cards in 15 years. ary agent," says Safire, who met]anklow JOHN GREGORY DUNNE After graduating in 1950, he headed 45 years ago when both were freshman at SENATOR ALBERT GORE JR. to Columbia University's law school, SU, and has long been a client of his law where he earned his law degree in 1953. THOMAS HARRIS firm. "I knew that before anyone." Thirty years later, he donated $1 million When Safire's agent died in 1973, he ROBERT HUGHES to the school to establish the Morton L. asked Janklow to take over. "He said he MICHAEL KORDA Janklow Program for Advocacy in the did not have time for three-hour lunches JoNATHON KozoL Arts. He is also a member of several with publishers," Safire recalls. "I said, boards, including the Guggenheim Mu 'You don't have to be ordinary. You 're a JUDITH KRANTZ seum and the President's Independent rough-minded lawyer."' DOMINIQUE LAPIERRE Committee on Arts Policy. Janklow maneuvered a difficult fRAN LEIBOWITZ You might say Janklow is well-con course to sell Safire's book on the Nixon nected. His wife, Linda, is the daughter DAVID McCuLLOUGH Administration, Before the Fall. He was of Hollywood producer Mervyn LeRoy then retained by Bernard and Marvin JoE McGINNISS and the granddaughter of movie mogul Kalb, who were battling with their pub ROBERT PIRSIG Harry Warner. The couple, renowned for lisher over a biography of Henry Kis RICHARD PRICE their high-brow socializing and lavish singer. Convinced the book was worth a parties, have two grown children: Angela, lot more money elsewhere, Janklow re JANE BRYANT QUINN who writes for Vanity Fair, and Lucas, an turned the Kalbs' $20,000 advance to PRESIDENT RONALD AND NANCY REAGAN aspiring rock musician. their publisher and later resold the book JAMES RESTON J anklow's professional association to Little Brown. The price: $250,000. with Nesbit, in December 1988, made RICHARD RHODES How'd he do it? headlines. T he press hailed the merger Janklow smiles. "Sales techniques," ANNE RICE as a perfect marriage. There was a he says. "Part of my success was the fact A.M. RosENTHAL lengthy profile in the New York Times that I never wanted to be in the business WILLIAM SAFIRE Magazine, and a gushing tribute in New and therefore I was not very subject to York dubbed "MegaMort." (The nick pressure from publishers. I had no need CHANCELLOR HELMUT SCHMIDT name stuck.) The gist of every story was to curry favor from then1." WILFRED SHEED that Nesbit's more literary clients were a From day one with Safire, Janklow GAIL SHEEHY brilliant complement to Janklow's com has always considered himself a writer's mercial heavyweights. SIDNEY SHELDON advocate, not a mediator or broker be "We both laughed about that," Jan tween the author and the publisher. DANIELLE STEEL klow says. "At the time [Nesbit] came "I started with the assumption that I GAY TALESE here I had seven Pulitzer Prize winners represent the person who creates every HUNTER THOMPSON and five National Book Award winners. thing," Janklow says, "and it's up to me She had Sally Quinn, Michael Korda, to price it and decide who can [publish] GARRY WILLS and at one time she even represented it and what rights they should have. ToM WoLFE Kitty Kelly. Nobody paid attention." "When I call a publisher," he adds, THE DUCHESS OF YORK Not likely. The publishing world has "he knows there's only one direction to paid close attention to Janklow as he's my loyalty." negotiated one nifty deal after another.
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In the mid-seventies, Janklow pitted time. 'It's about doing it.' and that's what you're reading: who got the Literary Guild against the Book-of "I could sit down with an editor at what and for how much." the-Month Club in an auction for the lunch and between us we'll have 50 On his firms criteria for taking on a new rights to Safire's Full Disclosure. The ideas for great books by the time they client: "Interest. It can be piqued by a guild paid $275,000 instead of its initial serve the main course. But who's gonna brilliant piece of writing or something as proposal of $75,000 and the clamor later do them?" crass as 'Oh my God, can we make mon helped Janklow sell the paperback rights Especially these days. The entire in ey for this person."' to Ballantine for nearly $1.4 million. dustry is in a state of flux. Publishing On his clients: "There are some authors In 1979, he sold Bantam the reprint houses are merging, dumping divisions, who sign a contract, go away to write a paperback rights to Krantz's Princess or shutting down. Editors are routinely book and you don't hear from them for a Daisy for a record $3.2 million and later jumping ship and taking some of their year and a half. There are other authors sold astrologer Linda Godman's Love best authors with them. who are regularly in contact. I speak to Signs for $2.25 million, the most ever for "There's tremendous volatility in the Danielle Steele almost every day of my a nonfiction title. business," says Janklow. "The only sta life, at least once, if not more. And not In November 1989, he became the ble, dependable, ever-present resource frivolously. She's got a huge enterprise." first agent to have three titles top the for an author is his agent." On the recessions impact on book sales: New York Times' best-seller lists simulta Here's what else that fidgety, wealthy "There are fewer books being pub neously: Danielle Steele's Daddy (fic lished, but that's all to the good. The in tion), Nancy Reagan's My Turn (non dustry was publishing 50,000 books a fiction), and Sidney Sheldon's The Sands year and 47,500 were not being pub of Time (paperback). lished properly. Some modicum of judg "He's a tough and shrewd negotiator, ment on what to publish is long the best," says Michael Korda, editor-in overdue." chief of Simon & Schuster and a long On his personal taste: "Ifl was only go time friend and legal client of Janklow. ing to be involved with books that are to Korda is also a best-selling author in his my taste, I would have a much smaller own right (The Fortune). business than I have. A fellow who just "But I must say Mort is well-informed likes Brahms quartets is exhibiting a fine about what a publisher can give up and taste in music, but he's not gonna under what he can't give up," says Korda. "You stand Metallica. I like to think I can un may disagree with him, but he'll come up derstand both Metallica and Brahms with a sensible figure that he can defend. quartets." The number is just part of a package." On negotiating: "You have to know Korda is even more impressed by what your real objectives are. The sec Janklow's dedication to his friends. He ond most important thing is to under says if everyone carried a "God Forbid" stand what your opponent needs and card, for use only in dire emergency, he where his emotional vulnerabilities are. knows what would be on it. Sometimes people are triggered into "On one side of my card would be the emotional reactions by something that is name of the best criminal defense attor of very little consequence to the funda ney in New York City," Korda explains, mental discussion. You have to be sensi "and on the other side would be Mort tive to those kinds of things. You have to Janklow's home phone number. understand their strengths and weak "If you went to the Four Seasons at nesses and sometimes their neuroses." lunchtime," he adds, "and asked every On the value ofhi s legal experience: "It one at the bar whose name would be on agent has to say about the state of pub makes every difference in the world, their card, I'll bet a lot of them would say lishing and life as MegaMort: partly because everything that's done in Mort Janklow." On huge advances: "This is a business this business ends up in contractual of self-fulfilling prophecies. If you en form. Most agents who are not lawyers t's been said that Janklow exudes thuse the publisher and convince him are busy practicing law without a li power. To an extent, that's true. that this is a book that has a real shot, he cense- and most of them are incompe I But it's not the kind of power that conveys that to the sales force, which tent." instills fear, except perhaps in pub conveys it to the bookstore. One of the On thoughts ofr etirement: "None at all. - lishers. It's power as in the no-non ways you enthuse a publisher is by mak One of the things that's nice about this sense ability to get things done. ing him pay a lot of money." business is you could cut back in a way Success, says Janklow, may start with On his reputation for reeling in huge ad that you could not do with a law practice. a good idea, but it's achieved by action. vances: "That's what the press is attracted "I've always traveled a lot. I'm away "There are people who get wonderful to. T he press pretends it's interested in when I want to be. I'm terrifically in ideas all the time and never see them great literature, but it isn't really interest volved when I want to be. So I have a through," he says, his voice growing ed in literature at all. It's interested in ad very, very good life. It would never occur more insistent. "It's about doing it. vances and gossip. All you've got to do is to me to go play golf somewhere." • That's what I tell my children all the read the New York Times's book columns
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Hochberg was an
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challenge of a parental notification statute in Ohio for minors who want ac cess to abortion. She also defended a Cal ifornia clinic that was threatened by city government with the loss of community development grants if the clinic-which did not perform abortions--chose to do so in the future. Celeste Lacy Davis is one ofthe many lawyers In her short tenure with Planned Par enthood, Davis has developed a subspe who may someday settle the abortion question. cialty in clinic harassment issues. "I've developed intimate knowledge of [anti-abortion] groups like Operation By Renee Gearhart Levy Rescue," she says. "I deal with things like clinic blockades, fake abortion clin hen the Su category that numerous women's organi ics, and residential picketing related to preme Court zations support. abortion." hears the case She contacted psychologists and psy She fields legal questions from affili Casey v. Planned chiatrists to talk about the effects of ates-"We hear we're Operation Res Parenthood of women having to carry an unwanted cue's next target. What can we Southeastern pregnancy to term and also the effects on do?"-and advises them on legal tactics. Pennsylvania. a child who comes into a world unloved Many municipalities are attempting this term, the court will essentially be re and unwanted. to draft legislation-which she is often viewing the constitutional basis for its She searched out the viewpoints of called upon to analyze-to regulate the decision inRoev. Wade, which interpret eminent scientists to substantiate kind of First Amendment-protected ed the constitution to provide for wom Planned Parenthood's view that no one picketing that may go on in front of en's legal right to abortion. knows when life begins, and historians to health-care facilities. They are "trying to On both sides of this emotionally advise the court on how long liberty and describe as illegal those kinds of activi charged issue are teams of lawyers, privacy interests have been recognized ties that Operation Rescue gets involved equally determined to have their view in this country. in," says Davis. ruled the law of the land. She found physicians to declare abor Because of her expertise in this nar For Celeste Lacy Davis, senior attor tion less medically dangerous than carry row aspect of the law, Davis was asked by ney in Planned Parenthood's national of ing a baby to term, and other experts to the American Bar Association Journal to fice in New York City, the charge is to discuss how a disparate amount women write in its November 1991 issue on present an outcry to the court on the of color will suffer if the right of choice is whether the Justice Department was need to preserve Roe v . Wade on behalf of lost. right in intervening on behalf of Opera the pro-choice movement. She is in No doubt the opposing counsel spent tion Rescue in Wichita, Kansas, last Oc charge of coordinating Planned Parent the same six weeks assembling briefs ar tober. She argued in opposition to the hood's amicus (or "friend of the court") guing the opposite points of view. This is Justice Department's involvement; a effort. how social principles are pounded out in professor from Northwestern University T he court will be supplied with nu the American legal system. School of Law argued in defense. merous amicus briefs from various ex Davis, a 1971 graduate of Syracuse's Unlike corporate or criminal lawyers, perts in the subject at hand, in addition School, of Speech and Dramatic Arts who may not personally be lieve in the to reading arguments from both litigants and a 1986 graduate of the City U niversi cases they try, Davis says her conviction in the case. ty of New York Law School at Queens to the right of choice is essential to her "It's a rather massive undertaking to College, has worked for Planned Parent work. coordinate as many as 1,500 organiza hood for two years, after doing criminal "Public interest lawyers tend to be tions that will come together .. . to agree appeals for New York City's Legal Aid people who are committed about the on statements to be said to the court on Society and AIDS discrimination work causes they represent," she explains. the need to save Roev. Wade," says Davis. for the city's Commission on Human "That's why they do it. You don't get "It's a matter of bringing together a huge Rights. monetary gratification for it. I don't think number of forces from around the coun Ninety-five percent of the work con you could possibly be an effective advo try, to get them to work speedily to agree ducted by Planned Parenthood's legal cate in this area and not have a serious on some basic things." staff of seven involves reproductive conviction on one side of the question or From the time the court announced rights issues, namely women's access to the other." • on January 21 it would hear the case, abortion. Davis is responsible for a vari Davis had six weeks to pull together ety oflegal functions, but spends the ma briefs in six categories predetermined by jority of her time on litigation in state and Planned Parenthood: a scientist's brief; a federal courts throughout the country psychological violence brief; a medical representing individual Planned Parent brief; a historian's brief; a women of color hood affiliates. R ENEE GEARHART LEVY is senior associ brief; and a "Save Roe" brief, a catch-all Her cases are diverse, including the ate editor ofthis magazine.
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20 Published by SURFACE, 1992 SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE 9 Syracuse University Magazine, Vol. 8, Iss. 2 [1992], Art. 5
For fi ve years during the height of the civil rights movement Cohen roamed the country fo r the government in a job he describes as a "circuit-rider litigator." In IES 1967, he became director of compliance for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, hoping to use his position to ensure that blacks weren't unfairly de Litigator Vincent Cohen has spent his life and nied employment as he had been. "I thought we could eradicate corpo his influence trying to make them one. rate discrimination," Cohen says. "I learned there was politics involved." So in 1969, his idealism gone, Cohen By Michael Kranish did what he had always dreamed of do ing: he joined a major law firm, Hogan & hen Vincent each of his three varsity seasons, averag Hartson. He became a partner after three Cohen looks ing 24.2 points per game as a senior, a years and has remained at the firm ever out the win performance that is still considered one si nce, specializing in corporate litigation. dow of his of the greatest in SU history. But while corporate law pays his prestigous The defining moment in Cohen's life salary, Cohen would just as soon talk Washington, came shortly after his graduation in 1957. about his pro bono cases or his experience D.C., law of A professional basketball team offered in Washington politics, which has been fice, he sees two cities. The first of them, him a $5,500-per-year contract. At the bittersweet. the political city, has changed dramatical same time, SU's College of Law offered Cohen was campaign chairman for ly since he came to town an idealistic Cohen a $3,500-per-year scholarship. the mayoral candidacy of his former boss, young lawyer 30 years ago. As a result of Back then, professional basketball play Equal Opportunity C hairman Clifford years of effort by people like himself, the ers were paid much less than lawye rs, Alexander. Alexander lost that race, but city's political structure now reflects its and Cohen traded the basketball court Cohen went on to form close ties with population and is largely governed by for the law court. the new mayor, Marion Barry. Among blacks. "My mother made the point that it re other volunteer jobs, Cohen served on The other city Cohen sees, the eco ally was the time to come away from Barry's transition committee in 1978 and nomic city, has changed little, however. short pants and a bouncing ball," Cohen his campaign finance committee in 1986. Most corporations, banks, and law firms says. "She would always say, 'You're very But when Barry was convicted in 1990 are still dominated by whites. articulate. You talk like a lawyer.' So I al on the misdemeanor charge of possess While Cohen abhors this dichotomy, ways wanted to be a lawyer." ing cocaine, Cohen wrote a widely no he also understands it, because unlike Cohen, who says he was the only ticed Washington Post opinion piece urg most Washingtonians, he lives in both black at SU's College of Law during his ing Barry to get out of politics, saying worlds. A renowned litigator-he was 195 7-60 enrollment, graduated cum laude. Barry was "doing all in his power to pre profiled in a 1988 National Law Journal Then came one of the greatest disap vent the healing of the city or himself." chronicling 10 of the nation's top attor pointments of his life. Barry subsequently lost his race for city neys-Cohen is hired frequently by "When I graduated from Syracuse counci l. some of the nation's largest corporations University law school- in the top 10 per Cohen's mai n concern nowadays is his to handle multimillion-dollar cases. cent and on the law review-I went advocacy for civil rights and his be lief But some of these corporations hire down to a major firm in New York C ity that today 's college gene ration doesn't him for more than just his legal skills, and said, 'I'd like a job,"' Cohen reme m know enough about the discrimination Cohen says. They also hire him because bers. "They said, 'Vince, we'd hire you that his generation suffered. He says dis they believe a black attorney might have but we do not hire Negroes. We don't crimination is still pervasive, only less a better chance of winning a case in an hire Negroes because our clients perniCIOUS. urban courtroom. wouldn't like us to hire Negroes. It's not He tries to impress that upon his If there's a form of racism in this prac us. If we were hiring Negroes we would three children, Robyn, 26, Traci, 24, and tice, it doesn't trouble Cohen. "[Corpora hire you. You have fine credentials."' Vincent Jr., a 21-year-old reserve guard tions] open the door for me," he says. "If Cohen eventually found a job as a trial on SU's basketball team. Vincent Jr. did I'm bad, the door wouldn't be open. But attorney with the power company Con it the hard way, making the team as a if I'm black and I'm good-and I'm solidated Edison, where he stayed two non-scholarship walk-on. While he may good- the door wi ll open again." years. not be as big a baske tball star as his fa Cohen wasn't always so welcome. Then, in 1962, Attorney General ther, he has the same dream as his dad: When he graduated from law school, Robe rt Ke nnedy began a quest to hire He's headed for law school. • firms wouldn't hire him for the same rea highly qualified black attorneys. Whe n a son: his skin color. Justice Departme nt official call ed SU's As an undergraduate, Cohen had College of Law for suggestions, Cohe n MICHAEL KRANISH, a 1979 graduate of been a hero of the men's basketball was recommended and the Justice De Syracuse University, is the White House cor team. He led the Orangemen in scoring partment promptly hired him. respondent f or the Boston Globe.
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Folgers. Procter & Gamble, the con sumer-products colossus, had acquired San Francisco-based Folgers and began expanding the brand into markets in the EE East. Maxwell House, owned by Gene ral Foods, protected its turf by slashing prices, igniting a battle of nerves with its West Coast rival. Consumers benefited, For Christopher Gillam, daily issues but the titans' skirmishes ground up many small coffee companies. amount to more th.an just a hill ofbeans. T hen a young attorney with the Wash ington firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, Gillam went to work fo r By Jamie Beckett Hills Brothers and several other small coffee concerns. He had started out at he ent1cmg a roma of That job keeps Gillam on the move, the firm representing companies in dis fresh-brewed coffee fills one day solving a manufacturing problem putes over the N ixon adminis tration's the hallways of Nestle at a roasting plant in Suffolk, Virginia, and wage and price controls. Now, he put his Beverage Company's San the next hammering out a merger with a negotiating skills to work to persuade the Francisco headquarters. tea company in Los Angeles. Federal Trade Commission to put an end Giant advertising posters Legal issues percolating at N estle, to the coffee wars. T he FTC finally act - featuring Hills Brothers' one of the world's largest food compa ed in 1979, when it filed an antitrust law yellow-turbaned coffee drinker, 1940s nies, are similar to those at any corpora suit against General Foods. era housewives, and Norman Rock tion-employee discrimination, mergers Today, Gillam's battles are as often in wellian families extol the benefits of the and acquisitions, environmental laws, the marketplace as in the courts. Nestle deep brown brew. At a company store, and complying with burgeoning state is looking for ways to increase its market employees get discounts on jars of and federal regulations for product pack share at a time when coffee consumption Taster's C hoice, cans of C hase & San aging and labeling. is declining. In the early sixties, nearly born, bags of Sark's gourmet beans, or any "I've never encountered a situation three quarters of Americans could call other of Nestle's six coffee brands. where Nestle has asked me how to get themselves java junkies. Today, it's onl y On the third floor of this coffee tem around a law," says Gillam. "It's always, half. Nestle is targeting the industry's ple, Christophe r G illam sips from ace 'How do we comply?' It makes it a good few growth areas- gourmet, decaffeinat ramic cup e mblazoned with the Hills place to work- especially for a lawyer. " ed, and flavored coffees. In recent years, Brothers logo. His office is equipped One particularly prickly proble m in the company has launched more than a with its own coffee maker, as well as two volves a dump in Lone Pine, New Jersey, dozen new products, including canned special air filte rs to buffe r visitors from which the Environme ntal Protection iced coffee aimed at soft-drink loyalists, the smoke of his ever present cigar. It is Agency has designated as a Superfund and Perfect Balance, a ble nd of regular only a little after 9 a.m., but Gillam is al clean-up site. Nestle disposed of coffee and decaffe inated coffees. ready consuming his third cup of the 15 bean hulls there, but says other users ille One of Gillam's first assignments af he'll drink during the day. gally dumped toxic substances. Nestle is te r moving to San Francisco was negoti "My lawyer coll eagues thought I was now one of more than 20 companies ating a deal to grow coffee for the first crazy," recalls Gillam, executive vice wrestling with the questions of how to time on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. president for administration at Nestle clean up the site and who will pay. T he venture is expected to yield two Beverage, of his involve ment with the Another high-priority issue is sexual new products: whole Kauain beans to be company. In 1983, the father of three harassment, added to Gillam's agenda sold in specialty stores, and ground cof mortgaged his house and emptied his during the C larence Thomas Supreme fee that will be marketed as 100 percent savings accounts to join four othe r in Court confirmation hearings. It's Gil Kauain. Now G illam, the corporate vestors in the acqusition of Hills Broth lam's job to make sure e mployees know lawye r turned business executive, is ers, the n a struggling company with sales and obey laws relating to on-the-job dis working on a plan to make the plantation of$347 million. crimination and harassme nt. In the and processing plant a tourist \]. traction, As it turned out, Gillam, a 1966 grad months following the hearings, he met complete wi th tours and a gift shop. uate of SU's College of Law, wasn't so with the company's top Equal Employ He likes that divers ity. "I enjoy going crazy. In 1985, Hills was scooped up by ment Opportunity lawyer and human in in the morning and not being 100 per Swiss food giant Nestle S.A., a $2-billion relations personnel to decide how to in cent sure what's going to face me," says beverage e mpire. T hat same year, form N estle Beverage's 3,500 workers. Gillam. "I seem to get curve balls thrown Gillam left his job at a Washington, D.C., The solution: mass distribution of the in my direction every day." • law firm and moved to San Francisco af company's policy state me nt fo rbidding ter two of his investment partners- who sexual harassment and workshops on the became chairman and president of Nes issue for every employee. ] AMIE B ECKETT, a 1979 SU graduate with tle Beverage- asked him to join the m as G illam got his first taste of the coffee degrees in magazinejo urnalism and Ameri the company's third-ranking executive in business in the seventies, during a bitter can studies, is a business reporter for the San charge of, among other things, legal issues. price war between Maxwell House and Francisco Chronicle.
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system to the benefit of his candidate." Goldman has made e ne mies, roo. At home, he and Robb had a public falling out. In the national are na, Goldman ruf WI SIDE fled feathers at the De mocratic N ational Committee in Washington. Much ofthe crossfire, however, is be tween Richmond and Albany. No one is Paul Gofdman svis ion and moxie helped put quite sure how it began, this spat be tween political heavyweight Mario C uo the Virginia governor on the political map. mo and one of New York 's own migra nt sons. Some say it started whe n Goldman By Susan Feeney called C uomo "a Wall Street Democrat who sounds like Ronald Reagan." Or a\\· is Paul Goldman's pro Wilder had heard how the skinny North when, early on, Goldman pushed the na fession. Politics is his life. ern lawyer once outfoxed state party reg tional De mocratic Party to pass a resolu T he alter ego of Virginia ulars, helping populist former lie utenant tion rejecting all concessions to Saddam GoYernor L. Douglas Wild governor Henry Howell win the 1977 Hussein, after C uomo caught flak for e r, Goldman chairs the Vir Democratic gubernatorial nomination. ratsmg concesstons as an option. ginia De mocratic Party and Goldman's complaint against the par "It's just a strategy to build himself up is chief architect ofWilder's ty made gains, and the United States Jus by running down others," says C uomo political campaigns, incl uding his recent, rice Departme nt took up the case. A aide Brad Johnson. "We generally ignore aborted run fo r president this year. settle ment eventually followed. him." In Vi rginia and ew Jersey, Goldman Goldman worked behind the scenes Johnson also proudly repeated a state practices business and contract law, with in other campaigns, incl uding Virginia ment he made about Goldman to a New a li ttle lobbying thrown in. He says he Senator C harles Robb's successful 1981 York newspaper; "I said something like, li kes it. But it is poli tics that most often campaign for governor, befo re Goldman 'Paul Goldman is like a child pulling at makes his eyes twinkle and lifts his and Wilder forged the bond-some say your pant leg when you're trying to have bushy black moustache to reveal a wide near partnership-that put both men on a discussion with another adult. "' micheavous grin. the map. Some say it's an obvious routine. T he Washington Post call ed him Few Virginians, even in 1985, thought Wilde r as the good cop, Goldman as the Wi lder's "pit bull," and Washington busi the seat of the Old Confederacy was bad cop. Gold man is used to the cri ti ness magazine Regardie's titled a Gold ready to elect a black to statewide office. cism. And it amuses him. man profile " Evil Genius." Some ne rvous Democrats sche med to "Politics can be a d ifficul t business," "People complain," the magazine keep Wilde r off the ballot fo r lie utenant he says. "Th.ere's an old saying. If you've wrote, "that if they scratch Doug Wilder, governor. got the facts on your side, you argue the they'll find Paul Gold man with a South "You always hoped you wouldn't get facts. If you don't, the n you attack the ern accent." that kind of reaction in the 1980s, but you other guy." All thi ngs considered, that's some feat. did," Goldman says. "You hoped you Goldman says he doesn't worry about Goldman is a rumpled, Brooklyn-reared, could prove them wrong." detractors, though he's certainly going to health-food nut with a nose for political F inding staff for Wilder proved diffi take his licks for Wilder's be lly flop in the possibili ty and a face G ro ucho Marx's cul t and, as Goldman put it: " I said I'd presidential campaign are na. After a fo ur mothe r coul d love. He's a forme r VISTA just stick around until we hire some month effo rt, the governor's candidacy volunteer with inherited wealth and folks." It turned out otherwise. fail ed to make any discernible mark in three SU degrees (B.A., manage me nt, Goldman's sharp legal skills and New H ampshire. 1967; J.D., 1
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gration law. One student complains about the number of books required for the two credit course. "Well, we do it by the KU pound," quips Kurzban, a Phi Beta Kap pa, who earned his bachelor's degree in political science at SU in 1971 and mas Ira Kurzban, an immigrant's son, ter's and law degrees from Berkeley in 1973 and 1976, respectively. champions the cause oftoday 's huddled masses. One wonders if these future Clarence Darrows and Ellis Rubins appreciate the stature of the man before them. By Margo Harakas In case after case, this son of a-con tract painter with a sixth-grade educa tion has rewritten immigration law. He n Ira Kurzban's l\liami office president of the American Bar Associa proved the INS policy toward Haitians hangs a poster: "I shall continue tion called it the most significant case in was woefully high-handed and racially to be an impossible person so the last quarter century. biased. They and others were being long as those who are now possi "The Supreme Court is not big on jailed, he successfully argued, simply on ble remain possible." The giving rights to people these days," says the basis of race and national origin. And words are the legacy of 19th- farmworker advocate and lawyer Greg he secured for all refugees the funda - century political theorist Mich- Schell. "Yet Ira argued that case very per mental ri ght to apply for political asy ael Bakunin. suasively.... He got some votes that def lum. To Kurzban, the impossible people initely were not there in the beginning. In five years, three cases-all ofthem are the low- and high-level bureaucrats "He is a lawyer's lawyer." won before a conservative high court. who deny or pervert, often racially, the At Kurzban, Kurzban and Weinger Schell sees Kurzban as an example concepts of due process, equal protec (the first Kurzban is Ira's brother), the "of professionalism in the finest sense . . tion, equal access, and the presumption day begins with an hour-long conference .. Not only is he a superb lawyer, but he of innocence. call with the American Immigration feels a sense of obligation to give some Their victims are Kurzban's cause. Lawyers Association. Kurzban is general thing back several times over." Haitians primarily. But Mexicans, counsel to the Washington, D.C., group. Often in the face of bomb scares and N icaraguans, Guatemalans, and Salvado There are calls also from Florida Senator physical threats. rans, too. Penniless immigrants thrown Bob Graham's office and the Immigra "He and the people in the group who into a do-or-die flight from their home tion and Naturalization Service (INS). have represented Haitians over the past lands by violence and desperation, and And a visit from Rollande Dorancy, di 12 years or so have really accomplished now struggling for a normal life in the rector of the Haitian Refugee Center, something that no immigration lawyers land of the free and the home of the which Kurzban represents. or group of lawyers has ever before ac brave. Fifteen to 20 percent of Kurzban's complished," Sche ll contends, "They T he Brooklyn-born son of an immi professional time is devoted these days have been able to keep a group of immi grant who left Romania-alone-at the to pro bono cases (although thanks to one grants from a single country here against age of 12, Kurzban knows better than of his successful government challenges, extraordinary efforts to deport them." most the anguish of his clients. "The attorneys representing illegals are now Kurzban will tell you that his success struggling with the language, struggling entitled, should they prevail, to compen es have been collaborati ve. He credits to get work," he says- and struggling sation from the violating agency). the late Michael Hooper of the National most of all with a system they do not un The bulk of his practice, one that ad Coaliton for Haitian Refugees with initi derstand. mittedly provides a comfortable li ving, ating and pushing through the act that Kurzban was drawn to the practice of involves corporate clients and others who gave Cubans and Haitians an edge over law by the belief "that law is an impor can well afford his legal fees. other illegals trying to remain in this tant vehicle for social justice." On this day, the clients seeking help country. A million immigrant farm workers and with residency are white and middle And Father Gerard Jean-] uste for de amnesty applicants can tell you that it's class, primarily foreigners married to fe nding and publicizing the plight of so. T he class action suit he argued before Americans. Haitians in the United States. And Uni the United States Supreme Court on Dominican recording artist and come versity of Miami law professors Bruce their behalf established that even those dian Carlos Alfredo stops by to inquire Winick and Irwin Stotzky for joining the who come to this country illegally have how he and his fam ily, with no American battles against the INS. the right to challenge government ac- relatives, can qualify for residency in the And, of course, the Haitians them tions. United States. In a few weeks, Kurzban selves, whose stark and compelling testi- "Had the government won that case" tells him, a new law will go into effect of says Kurzban, "it would have wiped out fering special status to applicants of "ex all we'd done in the past 13 years." traordinary talent." Adapted with permission from the Sun-Sen That victory did no less than reaffirm At 4 p.m. Kurzban is off to the Univer tinel, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Margo the principle of class-action suits. The sity of Miami, where he teaches immi- Harakas is a Sun-Seminal staffwri ter.
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mony ultimately tipped the scale for makes a mockery of the concept of whateYer social justice was gained. THE CASES equal justice before the law, and Lm, savs 1-.:urzban, generallv fa paints the United States as a nation ,·ors the goYe rnment. "Immigration that tolerates inequality. law particularly is harsh and \Yith little Ira Kurzban's name is synonymous with immigra "We shouldn't be in the business forgiYeness." tion law. He is listed twice in The Best Lawyers in of de humanizing and institutionaliz l\lany people think that if a person America, under both immigration and employment ing people whose only crime is they works hard, pays his or her taxes, has law, and is author of the definitive Immigration came to the United States seeking children who are American citizens, Low Sourcebook. Following are a few more of his freedom," he says. " Right now, we and has not gotte n into anv trouble, notable cases: have a policy of incarceration. It's a that person should be welcomed in • Currently suing the city of Miami on behalf of policy that costs hundreds of millions this country. Haitian-Americans who claim they were beaten by of doll ars and hasn't proved to be a "The Ia\\· is not like that at all," deterrent." Kurzban savs. "Unless you fit into police during a demostration last year at a shop Kurzban says the policy is wrong one of the categories, it doesn't matter ping center. Kurzban believes it is the largest civil headed and under-funded, using un how exemplary vour behavior is." rights/police misconduct case in America. trained people and resulting in civil One of Kurzban 's earliest cases in • May 1991. Successfully argued before the Florida rights abuses and people often being volved an eight-year-old Haitian girl Supreme Court that illegal aliens whom the govern held in loathsome conditions. held for three weeks in a jail in \Vest ment does not intend to deport are entitled towel "We can work out something bet Palm Beach. Kurzban was horrified fare benefits. ter than that," he says. that in 20th-century America a child • March 1991. Filed a $120 million lawsuit against Case by case, he 's doing it. • could be so callously treated. "No farmer Haitian dictator Prosper Avril on behalf of way would they have allowed a white six Haitians who said they were tortured under his child to be detained like that," he regime. In Jonuory, os o new wove of Hoition immigrants says. arrived by boot in Florida, lro Kurzbon wos increasing Despite his significant successes, • January 1988. Won $504 million judgment against ly visible os o notional spokesman for the rights of Kurzban says the immigration syste m former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier on aliens. (He oppeors below speaking to earlier immi remains seriously flawed, that it behalf of the Haitian people. grants ot the Hoition Community Center.)
28 S Y R ACU S E UN I V E R S ITY M AGAZ I N E Published by SURFACE, 1992 17 Syracuse University Magazine, Vol. 8, Iss. 2 [1992], Art. 5
Higgins became Red Lodge's justice of the peace almost by accident. Twenty three years ago a friend suggested the former resort owner fill the justice of the J peace vacancy. She's been holding down the law in the county ever since. Origi nally appointed to the seat, she has been elected every four years since. Ifyou get chased by coyotes in Red Lodge, While court time takes up most of her day, Higgins also does a brisk business you need J. O.P. Elaine Higgins marrying off both the locals and tourists, performing about 100 weddings a year. A minister of the American Fellow By Andrea C. Marsh ship Church, Higgins marries couples in the Canyon Wedding Chapel, as well as a Iaine Stutz Higgins once re fish and game violations to tenant/land few other picturesque spots. She had the voked the driving privi lord disputes and civil action claims to chapel built at the foot of Beartooth leges of a local ranch hand traffic infractions. Mountain, overlooking Rock Creek. for driving under the influ Many of the cases heard in the Car "I do them on horseback, on skis, on ence. A few days later, the bon County Court House, though, areal the top of the ski mountain," she boasts. young man passed her win cohol-related. "We even have a hitching post out front dow toting a bale of hay on "We're a resort town and a lot of peo of the chapel, in case somebody wants to his bicycle. ple come here to play and recreate, so bring their horse." That's typical for Higgins, justice of that brings a bunch to court," she says. She once performed a Jewish wed the peace in Red Lodge, Montana, a "I once dealt with a guy for trespass ding service on horseback, but when the small mountain-resort town that serves ing. I asked him what he was doing in groom got down and broke the glass it as the Northeastern gateway for Yellow this other fellow's shed. He said, 'Well, spooked the horses-everybody quickly stone National Park. some people dropped me off on the road jumped back and scrambled away. Although not a lawyer, Higgins is the and a pack of coyotes was chasing me.' "I also did a neat wedding in front of a law in Red Lodge. As justice of the Of course, he was under the influence." teepee in four feet of snow," said Hig peace, she presides over the court oflim Last year, a man wearing only swim gins. "The bride wore buckskin, I wore ited jurisdiction for Carbon County, pop ming trunks was picked up for drunk my ski outfit and then went on skiing af ulation 7,000, hearing both misdemeanor driving. Higgins sentenced him to one terward." • civil and criminal cases. More serious of month in jail. A month later, however, fenses are heard in the state court. the weather wasn't quite so warm. Hig "I'm in court all day everyday," says gins had to fetch some clothes for him ANDREA C. MARSH, a 1987 Sl! graduate Higgins, who received her bachelor's de from the senior citizen's rummage majoring in magazine journalism andgeog gree in business administration from SU room-swimming trunks wouldn't have raphy, is an assistant editor of this maga in 1951. She handles cases ranging from helped him much in the snow. zme
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