Disbarred

Few rituals in U. S. life hit so hard, go so deep, are so unsparing and dramatic as the disbarring of a prominent lawyer. Disbarment is to the lawyer what being read out of meeting was to the New England villager. It is a judgment that a man who has made his name at courts of law is not fit to practice the law. Disbarment is not common: painful and shocking as is the impeachment of a judge, the disbarment of a prominent corporation lawyer is almost as exceptional.

Last week a prominent corporation lawyer was barred from ever again practicing in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York. His name was Louis Samter Levy. For 37 years sharp, shrewd, able Louis Levy has practiced law in New York. For most of these years he was reputed a wizard at piercing the tangles and thickets of corporation and other law. His office in Wall Street--shared with various capable partners--flourished through the worst years of Depression: from 1932 to 1938 Louis Levy made $1,396,000. In 1933 alone he made $336,000. He bought Harold Vanderbilt's Palm Beach villa. He had great clients--among them American Tobacco Co. Defending him last week was the famed, high-priced lawyer and onetime Presidential candidate, John W. Davis.

Louis Levy was born 62 years ago in the little town of Forkland, that lies near the Mississippi border in southern Alabama. At 17 he was in Yale. In 1901 he was at Columbia Law School, where one of his classmates was a heavyset, luxury-loving youth named Martin Thomas Manton. By 1910 he was the junior partner in the firm of Stanchfield & Levy. Stanchfield was one of the powerful Democrats who labored mightily to impeach Governor William Sulzer back in 1913. Louis Levy was then a well-groomed, sharp young lawyer. In this same year he was closely questioned by a New York County Grand Jury because of his part in settling a bankruptcy.

His reputation for sharpness grew; his well-placed friends multiplied; names accumulated on the office door. After 1920 he saw more & more of his old classmate, Martin Manton, by then a Federal Circuit Court judge, became interested in two of Manton's many enterprises. And during the Depression something happened that was to bring the careers of Louis Levy and Martin Manton crashing down together.

Loans. In 1931 a Manhattan lawyer decided that his shares of American Tobacco Co. stock would be worth more if the company officers paid back bonuses they arranged for themselves and got no similar ones in the future. He slapped on two stockholders' suits in which the corporation, although named as defendant, would recover all the benefit.

The U. S. District Court found for the stockholder lawyer in one case, against him on technical grounds in the other, but the cases were fought on into the U. S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where Martin Manton was senior judge. Judge Manton was already so hard-pressed for cash that he often borrowed money from friends.

Walking downtown one day with Louis Levy, he mentioned his need for money, mentioned a loan of $25,000, suggested that such a sum be loaned to his own business partner, the late James Sullivan.

Louis Levy called on Paul Hahn, vice president of American Tobacco Co. Louis Levy suggested to Paul Hahn that $250,000 be borrowed from Albert Lasker, then president of Lord & Thomas, advertising agency. Lord & Thomas handled the tobacco company's advertising, amounting at the time to some $19,000,000 annually (commission: $2,800,000).

Hahn sent Sullivan to Lasker, who lent the $250,000 under the impression that it was to be used to cover stock losses. A month later, the Second Circuit Court of

Appeals, with Judge Manton writing the decisions, threw out both suits against American Tobacco Co., one judge dissenting. Judge Manton was convicted last June for conspiring to sell decisions of his court. And, as a sequel of the Manton conviction,' Judge John Knox of the United States District Court last week, wrote a 50-page decision ordering Louis Levy's disbarment.

Conscience. Wrote Judge Knox: "In my judgment, however, Levy, in mind, heart and action, was venal and corrupt. . . . By virtue of the statute of limitations, he cannot here be prosecuted, but he can and will be disciplined. The discipline to be administered will be his disbarment from further practice before this court."

Judge Knox cleared American Tobacco's Paul Hahn of anything worse than "poor judgment," declared that innocent Lord & Thomas' Albert Lasker had been "shamefully treated." He said that the relations existing between Levy and Judge Manton were such that Judge Manton should have retired from the case of his own volition. "When he was not moved to do so, there was a duty which imposed itself upon Levy. Trained lawyer that he is, and possessing an experience gained in more than 30 years of practice, he should have appreciated instantly that his dealings with Manton had been such that . . . they might well be calculated to warp or bias Manton's judgment. . . . Had Manton's colleagues upon the court been advised of the connection existing between him and Levy, it is unthinkable that either of them would have sat with Manton upon the appeals.

"But Levy stood mute, being ready, willing and anxious to accept the judicial favor of one he hoped, believed and expected would soon be his own and that of his clients."

In his office at No. 50 Broadway last week Louis Levy sat biting off bits of an unlit cigar, tossing them on the floor. Not until after the entry of the formal order would the disbarment be complete, would still be subject to possible stays. Disbarment from practice in this Federal Court would not prevent Louis Levy from continuing the practice of law in State courts. But almost automatically a record of the proceedings and Judge Knox's opinion would go to the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court. If disbarred by the Appellate Division the name of Louis Levy would also be stricken from the list of lawyers eligible to practice law in all New York State courts. Day after Judge Knox's decision, the law firm of Stanchfield & Levy was dissolved.

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