In the spring of 1968, Arthur Kramer, a Yale-educated lawyer who had a distinguished career in the U.S. attorney’s office, and his friend Lou Lowenstein, a corporate lawyer practicing law at Hays, Sklar & Herzberg who earned a law degree from Columbia University, walked around Fountain Square in Larchmont, NY, talking about the law and life. They soon settled on a common goal: to join forces to build a new law firm. But not just any firm would do.
Arthur and Lou would commit themselves to building a top-tier firm with a first-class group of lawyers who would compete against the major firms of the day — with a unique, egalitarian and democratic partnership model and a respect for work-life balance.
Soon after, Lou and Harvard Law School graduate Sherwin Kamin, with whom Lou shared an office as a junior associate at Hays Sklar, departed Hays Sklar with a handful of other associates to join forces with Arthur Kramer and Maury Nessen’s boutique litigation firm, Kramer, Nessen & Hochman. On July 1, 1968, Kramer, Lowenstein, Nessen & Kamin was born. The firm opened its doors with six partners and eight associates.
Gene Nickerson, a descendant of President John Quincy Adams, joined the firm in 1971, prompting the firm to change its name to Nickerson, Kramer, Lowenstein, Nessen & Kamin. Gene, another Columbia Law School graduate, practiced with the firm until his appointment to the federal bench in the Eastern District of New York in 1977. George Soll joined as a name partner in 1973 and remained in practice with the firm until his untimely death in 1980. George, also a Columbia Law School graduate, was active in the American Civil Liberties Union, including serving as staff counsel and a member of the organization’s board, for nearly 30 years.
The firm’s current name, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP, emerged as a result of further comings and goings of distinguished partners over a number of years. Lou left the firm in 1978 to serve as president of Supermarkets General Corp., a client, before joining the faculty of Columbia Law School in 1980. Yet another Columbia Law School graduate, Ezra Levin, joined the firm as a name partner in 1979, bringing with him a stable of corporate partners from Marshall, Bratter.
Marvin Frankel, a celebrated legal scholar who is credited with helping to establish sentencing guidelines for the federal court (and another Columbia Law School alum), served as a judge in the Southern District of New York for 13 years before joining the firm in 1983 as a name partner. Marvin made his last argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in February 2002, days before his passing and the 50th anniversary of his first argument before the Court.
Gary Naftalis, partner and co-chair of the firm’s Litigation Department, joined the firm in 1981 and became a name partner in 1992. Before he entered private practice, he served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1968 to 1974, holding the title of deputy chief of the Criminal Division. Gary, also a Columbia Law School graduate, established our White Collar Defense and Investigations practice at a time when no other New York elite firm handled such matters.