LEONARD JOSEPH

JOSEPH--Leonard. Passed away peacefully at home from natural causes on March 6, 2019. He was 99. In an exemplary legal career, he rose to become chairman of the management committee and chairman of the litigation department at Dewey Ballantine, the New York firm. He was a leading lawyer on some of the most significant anti-trust cases of his time, including the government's case against AT&T and the Bell system, and the case against DuPont for its stake in General Motors. Joseph was born June 8, 1919 in Philadelphia. He won a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a B.A. in 1941. Although he was class valedictorian, he was not invited into Phi Beta Kappa, a slight he never discussed but did not forget. His Harvard Law School studies were interrupted by service in the United States Army from 1943 to 1946. Returning to Harvard, he was an editor of the Law Review and graduated in 1947, third in his class. He clerked for the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Calvert Magruder. In 1948 he joined the firm that became Dewey Ballantine. A pioneer, in 1957 he became the firm's first Jewish partner. In 1975 he was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers. He retired from Dewey in 1986, and in 2005 his colleagues recognized him by naming the firm's moot courtroom for him. With his keen intelligence and wry wit, Joseph was admired for his judicious temperament, deep knowledge of the law and unassuming decency. He served as a mentor to generations of lawyers at his firm. "To him the law was a high calling," said Harvey Kurzweil, a lawyer who worked with him at Dewey. "He never lost his temper and he treated everybody with the same measure of respect, whether a chief executive officer or a messenger from the mail room." Joseph is survived by his wife, Norma (Hamberg), with whom he shared a devoted and happy marriage of 76 years; his sons, Gilbert M. and Stuart A.; his daughter, Janet Hope Fitzgerald and son-in-law Michael Fitzgerald; his grandchildren, Sarah, Matthew, Heather Jennings, and Reid and Laura Fitzgerald; and his great-granddaughter, Hailey Jennings. Please send donations to the United Jewish Appeal Federation donorcenter@ujafedny.org