Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Page 3
Services Today for Antitrust Attorney Jack Corinblit, Dead at 87
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Services for retired antitrust and securities attorney Jack Corinblit are scheduled for 1 p.m. today at Eden Memorial Park in Mission Hills.
Corinblit passed away this past weekend at the age of 87.
Former LACBA President Gretchen Nelson of Kreindler & Kriendler LLP said Corinblit had apparently had a heart attack and “died peacefully” in his sleep.
Nelson said she spent 10 years with Corinblit & Seltzer before it disbanded in 1998.
She praised Corinblit as “a true Renaissance man” who was “passionate about the law and loved digging into the documents to sort out the facts while at the same time researching every case necessary to make the appropriate arguments.”
Corinblit “was a tremendous mentor to those who worked for and with him and we will all be forever grateful to him for his kindness, friendship and his unwavering support,” Nelson said.
Seltzer, now an attorney with Susman Godfrey, recalled his former partner as “truly a great lawyer,” with “a brilliant, powerful and creative legal mind” as well as “an inherent sense of justice.”
He said Corinblit “had a wonderful sense of humor” and “came up with many memorable expressions, such as his explanation as to how one could tell whether a rule was a legal rule or not” by whether or not the rule was absolute.
“He said ‘If the rule has an exception, it’s a legal rule,’” Seltzer recalled.
Marshall Grossman of Bingham McCutchen LLP, said “one of the highest points” of Corinblit’s career was arguing In re Equity Funding Corp. of America Securities Litigation, 438 F. Supp. 1303 (C.D. Cal. 1977).
Grossman said he had worked with Corinblit on the case, which consisted of more than 100 consolidated class and private action cases, and was settled in 1976 for over $60 million, then the largest recovery ever achieved in a securities fraud class action.
Corinblit “was the principal architect of that litigation and his trial skills and business acumen were responsible for the remarkable results achieved in that litigation,” Grossman said.
Another notable case from Corinblit’s career was Beacon Theaters v. Westover, which held that where legal and equitable claims are joined in the same action, the legal claims must be tried by a jury before the equitable claims can be resolved. Corinblit argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1958.
As a child, Corinblit worked as a radio actor in Detroit, and his voice was heard in episodes of “The Lone Ranger” and “Causes of Crime.” He later attended Wayne State University but joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II.
Following his service he was able to enroll directly in law school at the University of Chicago without having to complete his undergraduate education. Corinblit and his wife supplemented his GI Bill subsidy and financed their education by writing fillers for pulp magazines.
He was admitted to practice law in California in 1952 and registered as inactive in 2006.
Corinblit is survived by his wife of 66 years, Nita Corinblit; three daughters, Meryl Marshall Daniels, Barbara Corinblit, and Nancy Corinblit; five grandchildren and his sister Esther Saritzky.
In lieu of flowers the family has requested that donations be made to the North Hollywood Interfaith Food Pantry, The Jack Corinblit/Martin Shapero Scholarship Fund at the University of Chicago Law School and the Corinblit Endowment Fund for the Arts at Adat Ari El Synagogue in North Hollywood.
Copyright 2010, Metropolitan News Company