ROBERT HINERFELD

HINERFELD--Robert E., a lawyer who prosecuted Mafia bosses and errant lawyers, represented the RAND Corporation in the Pentagon Papers case, and later President Richard M. Nixon, died July 29 in Santa Monica, CA. He was 85 and the cause was dementia. Robert is survived by his sons, Daniel Slocum (Laura Kleinhenz) and Matthew Ben (Nora Jaskowiak, MD); five grandchildren, Sophie Rose, Eli Milton, Theo Jonathan, Willa Belle, and Maude Hall; and by his older brother, Norman M. of Larchmont, NY. "He was a wonderful, brilliant, delightful one-of-a-kind man, and a true force for good as a lawyer," said Howard Frumes, a former law partner of Robert at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Fresh from Harvard Law School, Robert became an assistant U.S. attorney handling organized crime cases. In 1961, under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, he prosecuted Frankie Carbo, a notorious Mafioso who controlled the boxing industry, sending him to prison for extortion. In 1973, Robert was special counsel to RAND Corporation and its former President, Dr. Henry Rowen, in U.S. v. Ellsberg, the "Pentagon Papers" case. Daniel Ellsberg, an analyst at RAND, released a top- secret Pentagon study of the Vietnam War, causing a national controversy and fueling the anti-war movement. Later, Robert successfully represented former President Nixon (whose presidency he condemned) against a taxpayer claim that Nixon's income from interviews and publications after Watergate belonged to the American people. Robert served as Associate Independent Counsel investigating officials in the administration of President George H.W. Bush for searching the passport file of then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton. "Bob Hinerfeld had a rigor and an energy for law that set the standard by which I and many of my colleagues measured ourselves," said Diane Faber, a former colleague from Manatt. Former Manatt partner Susan Troy said, "we young women lawyers were not as prevalent [then]. We kind of felt that we were pioneers and could do it all. He really encouraged that way of thinking." As lead counsel for the State Bar of California, Robert prosecuted the Legal Clinic of Jacoby & Meyers in a disciplinary proceeding for violating the prohibition of lawyer advertising. It was a pivotal test case that Robert won at the trial and intermediate appellate levels, but the California Supreme Court overturned the result, opening the floodgates to lawyer advertising. In a case involving a driver blinded when the wheel of another car shattered her windshield, Robert created a new American tort known as intentional spoliation of evidence. "He was extremely intelligent and precise and careful and very ethical," said Manatt, Phelps & Phillips name partner Lee Phillips. "We lost somebody who was the ultimate lawyer." In 1979, Robert was elected to the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and became the group's president in 1988. He served on the State Bar's Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation from 2000-2004. Robert's son Matthew said, "he believed that the practice of law was a noble profession and an integral part of civilized society." "He was brilliant, exuberant, powerful and generous, and above all else, principled," said Robert's son Daniel. "He loved his family fiercely." Robert Elliot Hinerfeld was born May 29, 1934 in New York City, son of Benjamin B. and Anne (nee Blitz) Hinerfeld, and raised in Passaic, NJ. He graduated from Harvard College, magna cum laude, 1956, and Harvard Law School, 1959. Robert met Susan Hope Slocum during a Harvard-Wellesley dance mixer at which they both were ditched by their dates. They married at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in 1957 and left Cambridge for Los Angeles when Robert had finished law school. They were married for nearly 59 years, until Susan's death on April 30, 2016. A memorial is planned for the fall. Email: hinerfeldbrothers@ gmail.com; cell (310)710-3111