Victor Rabinowitz Walked the High Ground: A Great Man of The Left

After reading the recent Times obituary of Victor Rabinowitz, I'd like to add a personal note.

I write this after researching and talking to Victor for ten years for my book Family Circle, published by Alfred Knopf.

Victor was a great lawyer---on his own and with Leonard Boudin. The two men defended Black Panthers, Dr.Benjamin Spock, Dan Ellsberg, Julian Bond, Rockwell Kent, Dashiell Hammet, and Leonard's daughter.

As Leonard obliquely put it, "Victor is tougher than I am." He meant that Victor set the standard--he was committed to the moral high ground--in the practice of law and in his own life.

Victor wasn't perfect, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Victor tried harder than any lawyer I've met to use the law to do good works.

The meshing of the genius of these two great left wing and civil liberties lawyers is a complex one: Victor was the rainmaker early on and he brought Leonard into all his cases--against the Smith Act (a Supreme Court case he narrowly lost in 1948) and in many US court litigations for Fidel Castro's seizure of big US sugar properties and frozen assets.

Victor aggressively pursued the Cuban account and indeed it's my theory that the actual war with Cuba was conducted in Victor and Leonard's many US court battles against corporate lawyers defending Big Sugar ---and thus did not cost human lives.

Victor dragged Leonard into the anti-communist horrors of the 1950's and Victor assiduously defended average people---high school teachers and civil servants.

Leonard chased and represented dashing famous clients like Paul Robeson and Ken Tynan.

Victor was a very modest soul, very grounded, a genuine aristocrat who really didn't care much for what money could buy. He was a rock in his loyalties--and he didn't court followers, publicity or famous clients. His lifelong goal was to use the law to bring about justice and fair play.

This is a rarity among lawyers and Victor is admired by many people like Saul Kripke who had a family member defended by Victor against congressional subcommittees investigating domestic communism.

Victor was really proud of the lawyers and judges he helped pass bar exams by getting them acquitted of legal problems based on anti-war and civil rights protests.

Victor was also very proud of his daughter Joni's serious work for civil rights in the south.

He made sure I recorded it in my book.

Leonard was far more extroverted than Victor. Perhaps mercurial is a kind way to describe Leonard Boudin. He craved admiration of women and men and fought to be the star of his galaxy.

Leonard was an excellent lawyer who also threw everything he had into winning and like Victor, rarely lost a case.

Leonard merged abstract moral and philosophical statements and English common law in his arguments. Synthesis was his tool.

Victor was analytical and logical and fair-minded---frequently to the point of denying himself equal or fair authorial credit for briefs.

He rewrote and edited Leonard's briefs.

Leonard joked that he arrived at his fee scale by tripling Victor's. Victor charged little or nothing for his services.

Some part of their different personalities can be portrayed by their falling out.

Leonard decided it would bring money to the firm if they started to represent accused drug dealers.

Victor was horrified and argued vehemently against it---to no avail. He said he didn't want to think he'd in any way cause his young son to fall prey to such people.

Victor finally distanced himself by becoming "of counsel" to the firm he and Leonard had founded.

In fact, Leonard never did represent drug dealers because none wanted him.

But the two men never really reconciled.

Victor was openly a member of the Communist Party (he joined after we became wartime allies with the Soviet Union)and Leonard maintained that he liked the company of radicals but wasn't radical himself. This enabled Leonard to straddle all sorts of worlds--and he cultivated valuable friendships with important judges and members of the New York Times.

Victor was a serious, plodding union lawyer--determined to take every small case he could.

The secretaries in the office knew that Victor would help them with any and all legal problems. Although he was ostensibly a union lawyer, Leonard was disagreeably surprised when the secretaries in the office wanted to organize. "I'm fair to them," he said. "Why do they need a union?"

In this time of public relations coups and soi-disant heroes, Victor stood out.

He really stood out.

Comments

[sbrownmiller]

This is a lot more comprehensive than the obit in the NYT, where I frankly thought he'd make the front page. I have only one personal Victor Rabinowitz story. Years ago when I applied for a grant from the Louis Rabinowitz Foundation-- Louis R. was Victor's father who did well in the hook-and-eye business-- one of the lefty board members, troubled by my proposal for a book on rape which went against CP ideology, grumbled "How do we know she's not crazy?" Victor silenced him with a curt "We know she not crazy," and I got the money. Note to grant-seekers: I don't think there's a Rabinowitz Foundation today. It's my impression that Victor wanted to distribute his father's money with all deliberate speed. But I'm not the expert here; Braudy is.