Judicial Remembrance by Philip R. Schatz Hon. Harold Baer Jr. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on. Harold Baer Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York died in May 2014, from complications following a fall. At the time of his death, he was still performing full-time duties as a senior U.S. district judge. HHe leaves behind a powerful legacy of commitment to equal rights and diversity. Proud Product of New York City A close reader of the New York Times for Feb. 18, 1933, would have noticed this small announcement that the popula- tion of the country’s largest city had just increased by one new baby boy: The Harold Baers Have a Son. A son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Harold Baer of 240 East Seventy-Ninth Street, last Thursday at the Lenox Hill Hospital. Mrs. Baer is the former Miss Edna S. Jacobus of this city. As Judge Baer sometimes joked, he was extremely lucky in his choice of parents. His father, Harold Baer Sr., was a lawyer and later a justice of the New York State Supreme Court.1 His mother, Edna Jacobus, earned both a law degree and a mas- ter’s degree in social work and served as president of the board of trustees of Columbia’s School of Social Work. Both parents were prominent, respected, and successful New Yorkers, and Before becoming a federal judge, Baer had a distinguished both worked tirelessly on behalf of the less fortunate. career in private practice, both as a partner engaged in white- After high school at Bronx Science, Judge Baer went to collar criminal defense at Guggenheimer & Untermeyer and Hobart College in New York’s Finger Lakes region. “I wanted to as the executive judicial officer of the newly formed Judicial go to Cornell, but Cornell didn’t want me,” he laughed. “It’s just Arbitration and Mediation Services. But he really made his as well; Hobart turned out to be the right place for me.” Judge mark in public service, as a federal prosecutor, bar association Baer graduated magna cum laude from Hobart with a degree president, state court judge, and member of the famous Mollen in history and then earned his law degree at Yale. Commission investigating police corruption. Phil Schatz is a partner at New York City litigation firm Wrobel Schatz & Fox LLP, a former presi- dent of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, and a member of the editorial board of The Federal Lawyer. JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 • THE FEDERAL LAWYER • 27 Federal Prosecutor Under Robert Morgenthau and members of the ‘moneyed’ bars [like NYCLA and the City Whitney North Seymour Bar],” said Judge Baer, “and whose interests weren’t neces- Judge Baer was one of the original 13 people hired by then- sarily being heard.” U.S. Attorney Robert Morgenthau, under whom he served as Characteristically, he proposed a solution, starting an the chief of organized crime and racketeering. Morgenthau inclusive new organization combining the leaders of the is a titan of the New York City bar. He was Manhattan’s city’s many smaller, more specialized bar associations and district attorney for 35 years after his federal service. Now the leaders of the “moneyed” bars. The resulting Network 95, he still practices law, at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. of Bar Leaders is New York City’s most diverse bar associ- “Harold was a relentless and independent investigator,” ation, giving voice to the many minority, ethnic, specialty, says Morgenthau. “He followed the trail wherever it led him. and women’s bar associations in the city. Ray Dowd, an He didn’t care if he ruffled prominent people. His grand jury art litigator at Dunnington, Bartholow & Miller LLP and a questioning was fearless.” The focus of Judge Baer’s grand past president of the network, says Judge Baer formed the jury investigation was racketeering in the garment industry. network “to give diverse lawyers a seat at the table with the He examined David Dubinsky,2 the pugilistic president of most powerful, an idea that was controversial at the time.” the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, a sea- The incoming president of the network, Queens County soned union heavyweight whose voice “started at a shout Supreme Court Justice Bernice Siegal, says that “Judge and went up from there.”3 Judge Baer’s questioning was Baer opened up the halls of justice to practitioners who so bruising that Dubinsky complained to Attorney General otherwise were not allowed in the room,” and promises to Bobby Kennedy. “Harold Baer harness the network’s collective power to carry on his mis- was a great credit to the office sion of openness and inclusiveness. of United States Attorney,” “Harold was a relentless says Morgenthau. State Court Judge: Happenstance or Fate? and independent investi- Whitney North Seymour One might contend that Judge Baer became a justice gator,” says Morgenthau. Jr., known to his friends as of the New York State Supreme Court in 1982 by sheer “Mike,” became the Southern accident. Most judges are elected in New York state. Within “He followed the trail District’s U.S. attorney after New York City, the candidate endorsed by the Democratic wherever it led him. He Morgenthau. Seymour, too, is Party is ordinarily guaranteed election. As a last-minute didn’t care if he ruffled a luminary of the New York nominee of the tiny Liberal Party (of which his parents City bar and still active into his had been founders),4 with no Democratic endorsement prominent people. His 90s. Judge Baer served as chief after stepping down as nominee for lieutenant governor, grand jury questioning of the SDNY Criminal Division Judge Baer normally would have had no chance. But the was fearless.” under Seymour, and Seymour Democratic nominees were stricken from the ballot after became Baer’s lifelong men- party leadership missed a filing deadline, and Judge Baer tor. “I owe much of what I was elected—“the first time since Fiorello La Guardia’s have accomplished in life to years that non-Democrats won a borough judgeship.”5 “My Mike Seymour,” said Judge Baer. Seymour is equally will- father thought this was the most wonderful thing that could ing to credit Baer. “Harold, like Justice Thurgood Marshall, have possibly happened,” chuckled Judge Baer.6 believed the law should be fair,” explains Seymour. “He had But one could make a solid argument that he was fated an intense passion to help people.” to be a judge. He was sworn into office by his father, who received a special dispensation to administer the oath. President of the New York County Lawyers’ Association, Some years after his election, Judge Baer was assigned Founder of Network of Bar Leaders the same chambers as his father, who had retired in 1977. That passion to help people made Judge Baer prodi- When he opened his chambers’ closet, he found his father’s giously active in bar association activities. old robes, bearing the initials “H.B.” New York City has two citywide bar associations, the As a New York County Supreme Court Justice, Judge New York City Bar Association (the “City Bar,” formerly the Baer was always respected but sometimes also feared. “He Association of the Bar of the City of New York), located in ran a tight ship,” says Herbert Rubin, the founding member midtown, and the New York County Lawyers’ Association of Herzfeld & Rubin, and another notable New York City located downtown. The NYCLA was formed in 1908 to pro- attorney still practicing law into his 90s.7 “He expected test then-existing discriminatory membership practices at lawyers to be prepared and keep their commitments.” “He the City Bar, which has long since removed any barriers to was always prepared, and expected lawyers to be prepared membership. The two organizations now engage in friendly too,” says his former law secretary and current first deputy competition and frequent collaboration, and many New chief clerk of the New York County Supreme Court, Robert York City lawyers are members of both. C. Meade Jr. “He truly believed justice delayed is justice Judge Baer was named NYCLA’s president and made the denied, and felt that courts should work with as much dis- extraordinary determination that his own bar association patch as possible.”8 didn’t fully represent the interests of all lawyers practicing Unlike his father, who never lost his temper and was in New York City. “There were a lot of lawyers who weren’t considered a model of judicial decorum, Judge Baer could 28 • THE FEDERAL LAWYER • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 be irascible. “I wish I had my father’s judicial tempera- Judge Baer also presided over Lillian Hellman’s libel suit ment,” he said. “I have a note on my bench to remind me to against Mary McCarthy for telling Dick Cavett that “every keep my temper. If I had my druthers, I’d spend 15 minutes word [Hellman] writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’” Under a day meditating or doing yoga.” Seymour says there was New York law, the suit died with Hellman. more similarity than difference. “He had the same cham- bers and the same robes, and the same progressive sense The Mollen Commission on Police Corruption of fairness.” Judge Baer resigned the state bench in 1992. He wrote an op-ed for the New York Times warning that huge caseloads A “One-Man Law Improvement Commission” and inadequate funding and facilities were damaging the This sense of fairness was paired with intellectual curios- judicial process.