| Judge Bentley Kassal | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | Bentley Kassal February 28, 1917 New York, NY |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Democrat and Liberal |
| Spouse(s) | Barbara Joan Wax Kassal |
| Alma mater | Townsend Harris High School (1933)
University of Pennsylvania B.A. (1937) Harvard Law School LL.B (1940) |
| Occupation | Litigation Counsel at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (1998-date) |
| Law School | Harvard University, 1940 |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | World War II Veteran, three invasions on D-Day at Gela, Sicily, Salerno, Italy and St. Tropez, France, 30 months overseas, 1942-1945, Bronze Star Medal (1944), French Legion of Honor Medal (Normandy, 2009) |
Bentley Kassal (born February 28, 1917) an attorney, is a litigation counsel with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York City. He is a retired New York State Assemblyman, a retired judge of the New York State Courts, at every level, and a World War II veteran. As an early rugby football player, he was a member of the 1940 Harvard Rugby Football team which was the undefeated champion of the Eastern Rugby League. Kassal is married to Barbara Joan Wax Kassal, a retired business executive from Bonwit Teller in New York City.
Born in the Harlem area of Manhattan, New York City on February 28, 1917 to Pauline Nirenberg Kassal and Hyman Kassal, born in Poland and Austria, respectively. Kassal graduated from Public School 86 in the Bronx (1930), Townsend Harris High School in Manhattan (1933), University of Pennsylvania, B.A. (1937) and Harvard Law School, J.D. (1940) where he received a merit scholarship for his third year. He was admitted to the New York State Bar in September 1940 and was an associate in two mid-sized law firms until Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
Kassal was a member of the Townsend Harris High School soccer, track and baseball teams. At the University of Pennsylvania, he was on the 150 lb. football team as a quarterback/line backer until he fractured his left elbow. In 1940, his third year at Harvard Law School, he played rugby football as the left wing on Harvard’s undefeated Eastern League championship team and scored three tries. The following year, 1941, he played the same position on the New York Rugby Club. After World War II, he resumed playing tennis, golf and skiing until 1998 when he had a double knee replacement. His original 1940 Harvard Rugby Jersey is on permanent exhibit at the Harvard Club of New York City together with his French Legion of Honor Medal Certificate and his photograph with his wife Barbara at Normandy with President and Michelle Obama.
Kassal enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces in January 1942 by volunteering one month after Pearl Harbor and after six months at Mitchel Field, Long Island, he was assigned to the Officer Candidates School in Miami Beach, Florida, where he met the actor Clark Gable, who was in the squadron directly next to his. One of his memorable experiences there was on anti-submarine patrol on the beach at night to guard against German submarines landing spies. He graduated with honors and was assigned to Air Combat Intelligence School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, again graduating with honors.
In the March 15, 1943 edition of Life Magazine, Kassal wrote a letter to the editor that appeared on page 6 wondering "what formula" enlisted war hero Herman J. F. Bottcher used to "secure his rapid promotion" from the rank of Sgt to Captain in the span of 1 week. The editors of Life simply said: "Heroism". Sadly, Bottcher would later be killed in action in Leyte. In the following two editions of Life Magazine, letters to the editor were critical of Kassal's question and accused him of being a jealous "90 day wonder"; a disparaging term used for newly minted officers from higher class families who went through accelerated officer programs as Kassal did.
Given his choice of world-wide air intelligence assignments, Kassal, as a second lieutenant, opted for North Africa. After three months in an officer replacement center in Algeria, he was chosen by General George Patton’s intelligence officer at the Seventh Army to plan and participate in the D-Day landings at Gela, Sicily, which he did on the U.S.S. Orizaba, as part of the Second Armored Division’s initial landing force. Two months later, he was chosen to plan and land on D-Day with the Fifth Army at Salerno, Italy on an LST and he personally briefed General Mark Clark on the Salerno beach. After the capture of Naples, he again planned air intelligence missions and, especially with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's approval, the air bombardment of the Montecassino Abbey, occupied by critical German artillery units which for some period had blocked the infantry’s passage to Rome. At Cassino, he was assigned to brief General "Hap" Arnold on the military situation at Montecassino.
After the almost completed conquest of Italy, Kassal returned from north of Rome to Naples for the D-Day invasion by the Seventh Army at St. Tropez, France on August 15, 1944. He personally briefed General Patch. Shortly thereafter, he took 17 German soldiers prisoner at Salon-en-Provence. Although a prisoner, the German Commander of the prisoners arrogantly declared that Adolf Hitler and Germany would nevertheless win the war to which Kassal responded "Did you ever think you would be taken prisoner by a Jew?" The troops in Southern France moved swiftly to the north and through Alsace-Lorraine where they were caught in the midst of the Battle of the Bulge and General Patton’s counter-attack. Thereafter, Kassal’s unit quickly moved through Bavaria and was at Augsburg when D-Day was declared. However, because of his extraordinary intelligence knowledge of the Luftwaffe, he was assigned to London to prepare for the invasion of Japan since it was anticipated that German pilots would be part of the Japanese air defense.
He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, three Bronze Arrowheads for three D-Day invasion landings and Seven Campaign ribbons in the European Theatre. He was in the Army Air Forces for 4 years and served overseas for 30 months in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany.
Recipient of "Top Secret", highest intelligence classification throughout the war as well as intelligence data from the "Ultra Secret" (the result of breaking the German code, through "Enigma").
Discharged December 31, 1945, as Captain and, presently, a Major, U.S. Air Force, Reserves (Retired).
Other contributions of World War II mementos made to U.S. Air Force Museum, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, including photos of invasions, prisoner of war camps, targets and German equipment.
On June 5, 2009, he received the French Legion of Honor Medal from the French Defense Minister Herve Morin at Les Invalides in Paris with a ceremony at Colleville-sur-Mer (Omaha Beach) Normandy where he and his wife were photographed with President and Michele Obama on June 6, 2009.
He has given talks about his World War II overseas experience with photos at the Harvard Club of N.Y. City, the N.Y. City Bar Association (2009), the Harding Club at Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (2009) and at Skadden Arps' New York offices (2008 and 2009) and Skadden, Arps' London office in May 2010.
The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City has several war mementos which he donated for its permanent exhibit "Ours to Fight For." In addition, its exhibit contains his video oral testimony including the surrender of 17 German soldiers in Salon, France. The donated items include several Nazi daggers and swords and his two volume hand-written personal diaries. This exhibit has been shown in several U.S. cities.
On July 16, 2009, he was awarded membership in the American Society of French Legion of Honor.
Kassal immediately after the war, became very active in liberal causes on the upper West Side of Manhattan, like the Americans for Democratic Action, the American Veterans Committee, the Draft Eisenhower Movement (for the Democratic nomination) and the Volunteers for Stevenson. He also joined the local anti-Tammany Democratic Club and ran and lost in a contested primary for the State Assembly (1950). Later, in 1956, he was elected as the first Reform Democrat Assemblyman in the N.Y. State legislature. In 1962, he was in a contested primary against the incumbent Congressman and was unsuccessful. He resumed his law practice as a single practitioner and, in 1969, he was successful in another contested Democratic primary for the Civil Court.
As an Assemblyman, Kassal was regarded as one of the most liberal legislators. He is most proud of two achievements: (1) As his assembly district included the Lincoln Center of the Arts, he introduced and had enacted into law the first Arts Council in the United States (which he modeled after the Council for the Encouragement of the Arts that he first became aware of in England during World War II); (2) He was the only legislator to vote against the annual re-enactment of the Security Risk Law, mandating that all state employees execute loyalty oaths during the Cold War. As a result, the bill was never re-introduced.
Also see N.Y. Post column by Murray Kempton, April 29, 1962, "Power House" as to Assemblyman Kassal's bill and his debate regarding Con Ed – (to require advance notice before cut off of electricity).
Listed in "Who's Who in American Law" and an AV rating in Martindale Hubbell.
Except for his four year period of military service, as a single practitioner, his specialties were civil litigation, real estate, estates and matrimonials. His sole criminal matter was representing Lenny Bruce, the famous comedian, on his arraignment on obscenity charges at Cafe Au Gogo in Greenwich Village. During almost this entire period, he was a regular guest commentator on radio night talk shows, first with Barry Gray on WMCA and then with Long John Nebel on WOR.
Serving in the Civil Court of the City of New York for six years (1970–1976), he was the judge assigned to establish the Housing Court and he also introduced the Small Claims Court into the State of Israel. Thereafter, he served in the N.Y. Supreme Court for six years and was appointed by Governor Hugh Carey to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Department in 1987 where he served for 12 years. During this period, he was appointed by Chief Judge Sol Wachtler to serve for the April/May 1985 term at the New York Court of Appeals, the State’s highest court. Additionally, he acted as a Special Judge to try judges for ethical violations and recommended significant sanctions, including removal, for several judges.
He has a total of 259 reported decisions. In the appeal on the America's Cup Race trial decision, he wrote a dissent in favor of the New Zealand team based primarily on sportsmanship, fair play and equity in that, although not violative of any specific rules, holding that the use by the United States of a catamaran was contrary to the spirit of the race since no catamaran had ever been raced previously and, critically, no catamaran had ever lost to a single-hulled sailboat.
In Morgan v. Morgan, on the basis of equity, fairness and justice, he ruled in favor of providing maintenance to the wife who had supported her husband while he completed his legal education and became an attorney. She had sought similar support while a pre-medical and medical student. Although reversed on appeal, shortly thereafter the Equitable Distribution Law was enacted providing for this form of relief. (Subsequently, she became a doctor and a photo article with Kassal was published in the New York Times).
In People v. Shelton, his decision, the first to interpret the statutory language "Extreme Emotional Disturbance" in a jury charge as mitigation on a murder charge, was affirmed by the Court of Appeals.
In Gordon v. American Museum of Natural History, his opinion at the Appellate Division, requiring actual or constructive notice of a physical condition as a condition for negligence liability, was affirmed by the Court of Appeals.
In 1976, as a Civil Court Judge, he decided, in Parkwood v. Marcano, that a landlord has a duty to mitigate damages upon a tenant's default, similar to all contract damages. This was reversed on appeal.
On April 22, 2003, he acted as amicus for Brennan Center for Justice (NYU) in filing a brief at the New York Court of Appeals supporting stringent ethical rules for Judges.
Since 1998, he has been a counsel in the litigation department at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. He is an arbitrator and mediator, advises attorneys on arguments and appeals, reviews and revises briefs and memoranda, prepares and circulates memoranda on current litigation topics, engages in moot court arguments, delivers an annual C.L.E. talk on “Effective Appellate and Trial Advocacy” and is the annual reporter since 2004 for the New York State Bar Association Journal on the subject of appellate statistics, most recently entitled “Did the Appellate Odds Change in 2008” with the article for 2009 scheduled for publication in the fall of 2009.
A Traphagen Distinguished Alumni Speaker at Harvard Law School on three occasions.
In his third five year term on the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics (Office of Court Administration)Committee on Character and Fitness (Appellate Division, First Department) Mayor's Committee on City Marshals, Special Master, Pre-Argument Conferences (Appellate Division, First Department), Lecturer on Active Post-Judicial Legal Retirement (Supreme Court Justices and NY State Bar Association) Annual Article, N.Y.S.B.A. Journal on Appellate Statistics, published every year since 2002.
He delivered a talk about his career and 70 years changes in the practice of law at Oxford University Faculty of Law on May 13, 2010. He and his wife were special guests at the Dinner for Legal Academics on May 11, 2010 at the Inner Temple of the Inns of Court in London.
On May 29, 2010, at Cambridge, the 1940 Harvard undefeated Eastern Rugby League championship team was honored by the Harvard Rugby Football Club. (His original 1940 football jersey is on permanent exhibition at the Harvard Club of the City of New York).
On May 20, 2010, he took photos of the Jewish cemetery in Oxford and obtained historical data for the Jewish Heritage Research Center as to the destruction by floods of three synagogues in Bath, England in 1938.
On January 9, 2009, the New York City Bar Association presented as its bi-annual program, "Twentieth Century Traveler: The Life and Perilous Times of the Hon. Bentley Kassal."
Testified as an expert witness on New York law, pertaining to pre-nuptial agreements in London at the High Court of Justice in 2003.
Acted as a neutral arbitrator, appointed by Movie Fone in the A.A.A. arbitration Ticketmaster v. Movie Fone, in 1996.
Member of the London Court of International Arbitrators (2005).
Lecturer at NITA programs (2005).
Continuing to the present, he has undertaken 81 photographic missions throughout the world and covering 158 countries. The New York State Bar Association Journal featured an article about an exhibition of Kassal's photographs.
On April 12, 2010, he took photographs at the Statesville, North Carolina Synagogue for the Jewish Heritage Research Center (Syracuse University).
Among the charitable groups he has taken photographs for 17 charities, including Save the Children, World Monuments Fund, Human Rights Watch, the Asia Society, UNICEF, the International Survey of Jewish Monuments, the Coalition for Soviet Jewry, United Jewish Appeal and others.
His photos have appeared on numerous occasions in the media and his photo for Save the Children remained on its poster for more than ten years. He has also exhibited at the City Bar Association and several court houses. As recently as June 2009 in Southern France, at the age of 92, he took photos of three synagogues at Nice, Carpentras and Cavallion in France and three synagogues in North and South Carolina. He has had a special photo exhibit at the Save the Children headquarters, "Beyond the Bench."
In January 2000, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York presented an exhibition of Kassal's photography.
His photograph of the original Buddha Statue is featured in the "Vanishing Histories" published by the World Monuments Fund.
On September 11, 2001, from the 48th floor of Skadden's Times Square office, he photographed the second plane crash within minutes after the incident and, two days later, he took photos directly at the scene.
Asia Society—February, 1982 "Tiger's Nest". Tiger's Nest in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, a monastery built on the side of a sheer cliff.
World Monument Fund—Spring-Summer 2001 issue: Buddha Statue in Afghanistan". The Buddha Statue was subsequently destroyed by the Taliban but it is being rebuilt by a Basel, Switzerland museum, based upon the previous photo by Kassal.
New York Observer—June 3, 2002
Save the Children – Poster Child. This photo was taken outside of Beirut, Lebanon during the Christmas holidays when Kassal had one and a half hours during Christmas provided to him by the local representative for photos. This became the official Save the Children poster child and remained so for more than twenty years and appeared in N.Y. Times Magazine, Saturday Review World, Newsweek, Natural History, The New Yorker, Times of Israel, National Jewish Weekly and Unitarian Universalist.
Joint Distribution Committee of the United Jewish Appeal (July, 1975) Coalition to Free Soviet Jews (1983 and 1985) International Rescue Committee (1983 and 1986) Human Rights Watch (1986, 1988 and 1989) Lawyers Committee on Human Rights (1990)
In 2002, participated in construction of model house at Grand Central Station for Habitat for Humanity. On January 18, 2010, at Hunts Point Middle School and Hyde Leadership Charter School, he assisted in the construction of book shelves.
On June 13, 1986, Kassal married Barbara Joan Wax, a retired Bonwit Teller executive, who had started the S'Fari Room. They have no children and live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City.
(a) Published Letters to the Editor (All N.Y. Times)
August 17, 2000 – "60 Years of Progress" (nomination of Joseph L. Lieberman for Vice-President)
October 18, 2001 – "The War Over There"
August 25, 2002 – "Another Dirty Trick" (Sports Section)
March 7, 2003 – "Judges and Politics"
October 16, 2003 – "The Pledge: Recite or Rewrite?"
December 25, 2003 – "Lenny Bruce, Vindicated at Last"
April 3, 2006 – "Mandatory Retirement Age for Judges"
(b) Articles About Bentley Kassal
Knickerbocker Times – March, 1960, "voted one of the 10 best dressed State legislators"
New York Times – "Focusing on the Children of the World" – October 2, 1981 by Judge Klemesrud
New York Times – February 21, 2010, "Senior Counsel, Very Senior Counsel" (Metropolitan Section)
"Controversial Alimony Case Ends Happily with a Degree (Morgan v. Morgan) by Georgia Dullea
New York Law Journal –
July 26, 2002 – "Short Note for Review in Lawyers Bookshelf" pertaining to "The Courage of Strangers" by Jeri Laber
February 28, 1992 – Article – "Foreign Correspondence – a Judge's Odessa File" with photo, discussion of Odessa court system with local judges in Odessa
March 7, 2003 – "Judges and Politics" supporting the rule excluding judges in political activities December 9, 2005 – Article – "Conversations with Bentley Kassal" by Tom Adcock
AM LAW DAILY On June 5, 2009, the AM LAW DAILY published an article "Skadden's Bentley Kassal Honored at 65th Anniversary of Normandy Invasion"
(c) Published Articles by Bentley Kassal
New York Times – September 10, 1980 – "Problems Judges Face" (with Mr. Justice Peter J. McQuillan)(Op-Ed)
Construction of model house at Grand Central Station for Habitat for Humanity (2002)
Presided over moot court for Clinton Public School (Manhattan) 2009, 2010 and 2011 (Skadden project)
Construction of book shelves at Hurits Point Middle School (January 18, 2002) (Skadden project)
Painted walls (and photography) at I.S. 292, Brooklyn, on Martin Luther King Day (January 17, 2011) (Skadden project)
At Mass Moca Museum, North Adams, MA on September 8, 2007 – research and photographs for pro bono litigation (Skadden project)
Post-Judicial Retirement Seminars at New York State Bar Association of Supreme Court Justices (2007, 2008 and 2009)
"Out the Door but Not Over the Hill" – N.Y. State Bar Association program (Albany and N.Y. City), May 6 and 14, 2008
Mentor at Harvard Law School Connect – for students and graduates (2011)
New York County Lawyers Association – Task Force on Transitioning and Unemployed Lawyers (2011)
Donated 69 pints of blood to New York Blood Center
On April 21, 2003, on behalf of the N.Y.U. Brennan Center for Justice, presented amicus brief to Court of Appeals upholding the N.Y. Canons of Judicial Ethics
World Monuments Fund – Afghanistan (1971) Joint Distribution Committee of the United Jewish Appeal (July, 1975) Coalition to Free Soviet Jews (1983 and 1985) International Rescue Committee (1983 and 1986) Human Rights Watch (1986, 1988 and 1989) Lawyers Committee on Human Rights (1990)
Committee on Character and Fitness (1993 – present)
Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics (1993 – present)
Mayor's Committee on City Marshals (1993 – present)
Special Master, Pre-argument Conferences – Appellate Division, Supreme Court, First Dep't. (1993 – present)
Association of the Bar of the City of New York (1953 – present)
New York State Bar Association (2000 – present)
Entertainment Committee – City Bar Association (1975 – present)