Albert I. Edelman

Albert I. Edelman, a top international lawyer in New York and a former law partner of Sen. Jacob K. Javits and of John J. McCloy, died Jan. 9 at St. Clare ' s Hospital and Health Center in Manhattan. He was 86 and lived in Bronxville and East Hampton, N.Y.

The cause was complications of a stroke he suffered the previous week while working in his office, his family said.

Mr. Edelman, an international litigator, practiced law in New York for more than six decades. Most recently he was senior counsel to the firm of Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw.

He was born in New Haven, Conn., and graduated from Columbia College in 1936 and from Columbia Law School in 1938.

After military service as a lieutenant commander in the Navy in World War II, Mr. Edelman joined the military government of the American zone of occupied Berlin, led by McCloy. He was named chief of its industrial investigations branch, which looked into the wartime conduct of I.G. Farben and other leading German companies.

He was a judge on the International Court in Germany. After that he was a trustee and general secretary of the Benjamin Franklin Foundation, which was formed to assist in the reconstruction of Germany, and worked with Willy Brandt, then the mayor of West Berlin.

Back in New York, Mr. Edelman joined the firm of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy. In 1958, he was a founding partner, with Javits, of Javits Trubin Sillcock & Edelman.

In its heyday, the firm had 60 lawyers and was best known for its work in banking and real-estate finance matters.

In Mr. Edelman ' s specialty, international law, he acted as counsel in business ventures and mergers between foreign companies in Europe, South America and Southeast Asia.

When Javits Trubin disbanded in 1984, Mr. Edelman joined Javits, no longer a senator, as a partner in the firm of Parker Chapin Flattau & Klimpl. He became associated with Mayer Brown after Javits ' death in 1986, and opened the firm ' s offices in Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne.

Mr. Edelman is survived by his wife of 53 years, the former Eleanor Weisman; three daughters, Gwen of Paris, Cornelia of London, and Jennifer Lemler of Manhattan; a son, Thomas of Manhattan; a brother, Daniel J. of Chicago; and two granddaughters.