Robert B. Steinberg

April 3, 1928 - April 12, 2021 Robert B. Steinberg, "Bob", passed away at dawn, on Monday April 12, at the age of ninety-three. Retaining his immense mental acuity to his last breath, he died at his home in Venice, California with his wife, Lenny, his three daughters, and his grandchildren by his side. Over the course of his sixty year legal career, Bob became a towering figure in California civil litigation. He practiced exclusively on behalf of those injured or made ill at work, by dangerous conditions, or toxic substances. He was a leader at Rose, Klein & Marias from his start in 1956, and was the acknowledged heart of the firm well into the new century. He retired at the age of ninety-two.Throughout his working life, Bob used his intellectual gifts to establish landmark law in the area of worker safety. He earned his widespread reputation as a clear and innovative thinker and an honest broker in courtrooms throughout the state and in the halls of the legislature. He helped to draft - and advocate for - many important pieces of California legislation in the areas of worker safety, tort liability, and workers' compensation. Bob was a gifted orator, whose persuasiveness stemmed from the genuine interest he took in people, and the respect he inspired in those around him, including clients, judges, and adversaries. Robert Myman, an attorney who assisted Bob in the civil action following the Sylmar Tunnel disaster, recalls seeing Bob in action: "I have a vision of watching him slowly rise, crane-like, to interrupt the judge. "Excuse me, Your Honor." Think Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird. Everyone in the room leaned forward to absorb his every nuance. Bob was dazzling, never flashing light on himself, but it seemed the light always found him."The most prominent cases of Bob's legal career include McFarland vs. Voorhees-Trindle, (1959) in which Bob argued successfully at the trial level, and then on appeal, that it was negligent to operate heavy equipment on a construction site without a back-up warning system. In The Sylmar Tunnel Explosion Civil Litigation, (1971) Bob was lead counsel working on behalf of the families of miners who were killed. The case was litigated with Bob leading the fight for the plaintiffs. It was a historic civil judgment in the state of California. As a pioneer and leader of asbestos litigation starting in the late 1970's, Bob prevailed in the case of Hogard vs. Raybestos-Manhattan Corp., et al., (1980) arguing the first asbestos exposure jury case west of the Mississippi and winning the largest personal injury award of that time with a $1.2 million verdict. This victory was the opening salvo in a protracted legal conflict that went all the way to the halls of Congress, as the other side attempted to evade responsibility for paying the injured workers by declaring bankruptcy. The Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Courts, headed by Senator Bob Dole, held hearings in which the company begged Congress to let it off the hook. Bob's reply in the hearing is quoted at length in journalist Paul Brodeur's celebrated expose of the asbestos industry "Outrageous Misconduct":"Too many victims of asbestos disease have died for their survivors and friends to shed a tear for a company that has shown so little compassion for the victims of its willful acts. If Manville is successful in this attempt to misuse the law to evade responsibility for its deliberate, intentional actions, then our faith in the legal system will also be shaken."As the fight for worker safety and fair compensation played out over the next decades, Bob continued to represent workers' interests at the highest levels, including helping to direct the asbestos bankruptcy trusts that collectively took responsibility for governance of over ten billion dollars in payments to injured workers. Despite his eminence, Bob was a lifelong advocate for working people, never losing his sense of which side he was on. He was not one to talk about his victories but, when he did, it was his client's story he recounted, not the legal issues. The laws and legal framework protecting worker safety in California is Bob's profound legacy.Born in 1928 in Rochester, New York, Bob grew up in the Jewish neighborhood around Joseph Avenue. His parents, Max (Mordecai) and Anna (Chana), worked at the Bond Clothing Company, a major clothing manufacturer of the time. Every day, after school and on weekends, Bob studied Torah at B'nai Israel shul, whose close proximity left little excuse for not attending. Being a good student, he felt some pressure to become a rabbi but he was more interested in becoming a jazz drummer or a cartoonist, or spending time working at Rochester's Red Wing Stadium, turning turnstiles and selling Cracker Jack during baseball season. In 1945, Bob moved with his family to Los Angeles settling into life in Highland Park, and attending Franklin High School for his senior year. His father owned a Liquor Store on York Avenue, but Bob's first job was at a haberdashery in the Eastern Building in Downtown LA, perhaps accounting for his timeless sense of style. After a year and a half at Los Angeles City College, Bob transferred to UCLA, where he claimed to be the only student to major in accounting and minor in philosophy, a dichotomy that sums up his capacity to simultaneously consider and comprehend the big picture as well as the specifics of things. He went on to study at Loyola Law School and then transferred to the brand new UCLA law school, earning his law degree in 1953, with UCLA's second graduating class. Within a week of graduation, he was shipped off to Fort Ord for basic training. After two years as an intelligence officer during the Korean War, he entered legal practice with Rose, Klein, and Marias, where he remained throughout his legal career.Bob married Lenore Gerstle "Lenny," in 1958 after being set up on a blind date because they were both tall. She was a music major at UCLA, going on to design furniture, interior architecture, and their home on Venice Beach. This was the center of family life in the most expansive sense. Their door was always open, and they created a life together where dance, music, art, and ideas flourished. The clamor of conversation among children, friends, and friends-of-friends was mixed with the sound of baseball and basketball on evenings and weekends; a lifelong fan and true aficionado of the game, Bob never missed a season. Bob remained an astute observer of politics and law into his 90's. A lifelong gatherer of facts and evidence, no day was complete without reading the newspaper cover to cover. Jokingly described as truly "the most interesting man in the world," he was frequently sought out by younger colleagues and friends for advice and discussion. Although Bob's intellect and moral exactitude gave him an aura of great authority, he took genuine interest in everyone he met. He was never too busy for a conversation, and he never condescended to others. His stylish flair, dry wit, and enthusiasm for life; his interest in the arts, history, philosophy, and geography; his knowledge of how to navigate a city and find the coolest, newest restaurants in any town; and above all, his expert judgment about human character and human affairs, made him a gentle guiding force to everyone around him.Bob served as President of the California Trial Lawyers Association from 1983-85, and remained on the Board of Governors for years thereafter. He was an active and respected member of the Board of Governors of ATLA (now known as the American Association for Justice) into the 21st century, and was a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and was on the Board of Governors of the Los Angeles County Bar Association for several years during the 1990's. He was a member and Trustee of the Asbestos Litigation Group, served as selected counsel for the Beneficiaries of the Manville Personal Injury settlement Trust and as a Trustee advisor to The UNR industries, National Gypsum, Eagle-Picher Industries and Raytech Corp. Asbestos victims' Trusts. Bob also served with distinction on the California Commission on Health & Safety and Workers' Compensation, having originally been appointed in 1993 by Speaker of the Assembly Willie L. Brown, and renewed several times by Brown's successors. Bob is survived by his wife Lenny, his daughters, Roxanne, Morleigh, and Eliza, sons-in-law Naoyuki Oguri ("Oguri"), David Evans ("Edge"), and Moshe Shloush and grandchildren, Zenji, Keiden, Sian, Levi, Qamai, Elai, and Micaela Ontiveros (“Micki”). Those who loved Bob think now of Yeats' words "In Memory of Major Robert Gregory": Our Sydney and our perfect man.