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  • InsideTrack
  • April 01, 2015

    Alan Levy: The Jimmy Hoffa Story and 50 Years in Labor Law

    Milwaukee lawyer Alan Levy has some good stories to tell, including one involving Jimmy Hoffa. But it’s his 50 years in labor law that takes the cake, and he’s still going.

    Joe Forward

    Alan LevyApril 1, 2015 – It was 1965 and Alan Levy was a newly minted lawyer in his first job at the Milwaukee firm representing James R. Hoffa’s powerful Teamsters union. The union’s pension fund had a legal question, and the firm tapped Levy to answer it.

    A Teamster worker with both legitimate and illegitimate children had died in Missouri. The pension fund, with a board of trustees chaired by Hoffa, wanted to know if the fund was required by law to pay the employee’s illegitimate child as a pension beneficiary.

    “I sent a letter back saying some states only require payment for legitimate children, and some states require payment to both,” Levy recalled. “Missouri is one of the states where they treat all children equally, so, I said, ‘you’re going to have to pay the bastard.’”

    The pension fund trustees, and Hoffa, were amused by Levy’s play on words. “Hoffa said something like, ‘that’s the guy I want handling my pension questions!’” joked Levy. “I wasn’t trying to be insensitive. It was the 1960s, and the clients were union guys.”

    Years later, in the 1980s, Levy became the pension fund’s senior counsel, just one feather in Levy’s labor law cap. Celebrating 50 years in the legal profession this year, Levy is still going strong, winning two cases at the Wisconsin Supreme Court this term.

    Getting Started

    A Milwaukee native, Levy obtained undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Chicago. In law school, Levy learned that only two paths seemed to lead to immediate trial work: criminal law or labor law. He wanted to be a trial lawyer, but not in criminal law.

    “I was always enamored with the idea of being a trial lawyer. It wasn’t just because I was short and I had a big mouth,” Levy joked. “My parents were from modest means, my father was an immigrant from Scotland. This was the adventure of people who were just starting out in the middle class. It just seemed like a great profession.”

    He landed his first job at Milwaukee-based Goldberg, Previant & Uelman, a national law firm that had a labor group. The Teamsters were on its client list. Levy got to work.

    He recalled Milwaukee in the 1960s as a much different time. “You could go to the dining room on top of Gimbels [department store] on Wisconsin Avenue and see half of Milwaukee’s lawyers having lunch there. There were not that many of us.”

    At that time, local law firms that represented Milwaukee family corporations began to change as mainstay businesses were sold or merged with outsiders. “I was fortunate to be with a firm that didn’t have those pressures, and I stayed for 16 years.”

    Levy spent most of his time on union-side work for the Teamsters – officially called the International Brotherhood of Teamsters – a labor union of truckers and other blue collar workers. In 1982, he moved his family to Chicago to become counsel for the Teamsters’ pension fund, conducting administration duties and litigating on the fund’s behalf.

    A New Beginning

    It was a colorful time. But after three years with the pension fund, Levy and his family wanted to get back home. Chicago, he said, wasn’t worth the hassle.

    He returned to Milwaukee and joined what was then Smith & O’Neil, where he stayed for six years developing a management labor law practice and doing some different types of work, including commercial litigation. He also started teaching labor law courses at a U.W-Milwaukee, as an adjunct professor.

    “It was a sort of rejuvenation for me,” Levy said. “I was able to recharge my batteries and do some things I had not done before. For instance, I had a five-week jury trial against an accountant who had given some bad information. An interesting case.”

    Joe ForwardJoe Forward, Saint Louis Univ. School of Law 2010, is a legal writer for the State Bar of Wisconsin, Madison. He can be reached by email or by phone at (608) 250-6161.

    But in 1991, Levy found his new home away from home. He joined Lindner & Marsack S.C., his current firm.  He was back to labor law full time.

    Now representing employers, instead of unions, Levy admits it was a tough transition – like a long-time Packer who joins the Bears (or the Vikings). How can a union lawyer now represent management?

    “There’s always been this feeling that unions and management are like the Hatfields and McCoys. They just don’t get along,” Levy said. “Lawyers represent their clients.  Nevertheless, the unions are skeptical because you switched, and management wonders whether you can be a true advocate for them.”

    In addition, the switch meant Levy had no clients. “I didn’t have any clients to bring with me to a management-side firm,” Levy recalled. “At the same time, I knew the ins and outs of union-management relationships, such as multi-employer pensions.”

    It took a couple years, but Levy was off and running. And he’s still going. Recently, Levy won two cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, representing Milwaukee County.

    “There’s nothing sweeter than winning a case,” Levy said. “It’s a terrific challenge and a terrific sense of accomplishment when you can successfully argue the case. Any lawyer would be proud to master litigation over the course of 50 years, and I’ve done that.”

    Not Done Yet

    Levy never learned to play golf, and he doesn’t like sitting around. “I would rather be in the office or in the courtroom, working a case, than sitting in a retirement village,” he said. He’s still litigating cases, and he’s still teaching labor law courses at U.W.-Milwaukee.

    Over the years, Levy gained admission to the federal appeals courts in six circuits and six federal district courts. He was also admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981. He was an advocate in more than 100 published opinions in federal and state courts. In short, Levy has litigated labor law cases throughout the country, and he’s not done.

    But, after 50 years in practice, Levy acknowledges the new-age challenges for older lawyers. For one, technology continues to change at a rapid pace. Second, the new lawyers today didn’t grow up with the same frame of reference, such as the John F. Kennedy assassination. They have 9/11.

    “It’s a generational challenge. Some days, the younger lawyers just don’t know what I’m talking about. Several years ago, I had a very bright student in my labor law course. She knew Jack Kennedy was president, knew he did not run for a second term, but didn’t know it was because he had been assassinated.”

    “Trying to maintain intelligent connections and discussions with younger people can be a challenge because all those years make for different experiences,” he said. “Challenges aside, I’ve had a wonderful time in my legal career, and I’ll keep going as long as I can.”


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