Burns & Levinson* Alums Pay Tribute to Tom Burns
Burns & Levinson LLP Alumni Reunion
with Special Tribute Thomas D. Burns, Esq., Co-founding Partner
September 25, 2008
Speech by Mr. Thomas D. Burns, Esq.
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Burns & Levinson Managing Partner David Rosenblatt pays tribute to the firm's co-founder Thomas Burns |
When I think of the legal powerhouse that Burns & Levinson has become and that is represented this evening by its many graduates, I cannot help but think of how and where it had its start. That was 1948, sixty years ago.
Before there was a Burns & Levinson, Larry Levinson and I were young associates at the old Boston firm of Friedman, Atherton, King and Turner. I came there right out of the War, where I had been a naval officer in Europe and in the Pacific. Larry had left Harvard Law School to serve in the Army, as a major of engineers, with great bravery in combat in Europe, and was awarded the Bronze Star for gallantry in action. He came back and finished law school and clerked for a year with Judge Ford in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He was there during the treason trial of Best, “The Nazi Collaborator.” He then joined Friedman, Atherton, King and Turner, where he quickly distinguished himself as a business lawyer. We both had extraordinary chances there, as the partners were well on in life, and there was much legal business with great opportunities for ambitious young lawyers. I fell into the trial work, which is always what I wanted to do, and assisted Lee Friedman in many trials with the opportunity to observe, and assist a truly remarkable leader of the Bar and a very great man and an accomplished historian. He was the son of a confederate army veteran, was a classmate of learned hand and knew everyone in Boston. Percy Atherton had just passed away, then Paul Turner, and Louis King retired. Larry and I were both made partners when we were in our late 20’s.
When Lee Friedman died in 1956, it was apparent that there was going to be controversy about the direction of the firm and who would control it. I was pretty much on my own trying cases, but Larry was in serious and, at times, unpleasant competition with others in the firm to the point that we came to feel that we would do better to leave and start our own firm. We left with our hats and coats.
With Bob Weinstein and Bill Clancy as our associates, we flipped a coin as to the name of the firm to whether it be Burns and Levinson or Levinson and Burns, and I won. We started in a series of back rooms in a hallway at 77 Franklin Street. We had two secretaries— Dorothy Murphy and Honey Sharfman. Dorothy was my valued friend who stayed with me for 47 years. The few account books we had were tended to once a week by Larry’s lovely wife, Zoë, who kept them in her precise Vassar hand for the very few entries that had to be made. Her pay was a lunch at Barsantis. We inherited a set of Mass Reports from Larry’s father-in-law. That was our library. At that time, we both had growing families, big mortgages, tuition bills and the expenses of a new law firm. We kept a very close watch on the mailbox to see what checks would come in to finance our operations, but at the end of our first year, we had all our bills paid.
Larry and I were partners for 55 years and saw each other daily during a lifetime of work, and though it may be difficult to believe, we never had a serious disagreement or indeed any agreement in writing until the firm grew from its early days.
There was never any doubt in my mind who was the administrator, financial and business decisional maker of the firm. I was in the courthouse all of the time, and I knew that I did not have the business judgment for decisions which made us, in a relatively short time, a solid force recognized as such in the Boston legal community. His prudence and conservatism in guiding our development and in financial matters, was legendary. I had a friend who was a very senior officer at the State Street Trust Company, and one day he said to me that he had financed and lent money to most of the large Boston legal firms, but never had an approach on business loans from Burns and Levinson. What was wrong? I told him that was too bad but he didn’t know Larry Levinson, for he never spent a dollar until the money was in hand.
I cannot speak too much or too often about Larry Levinson, who was my life-long friend and to whom I, and this firm, owe so much. Our trust in each other was total. He was from Atlanta, a great lawyer, and adding to his brilliance, he had character, integrity and unerring honesty. He had a capacity for excellence from his college days, where he earned a Phi Beta Kappa Key and two Cum Laude degrees, one a Magna, from Harvard. Both of us were children of the depression where each of the large families from which we came had suffered great reverses.
I do not mean to neglect the hundreds of associates and partners and friends who have accomplished so much, many of whom share this wonderful evening, and who will always have my affection and regard when I single one out. Our first lawyer hired was Steve Subrin, who has gone on to great honor as a professor at Northeastern Law School, where he teaches many of the things he learned in the courtroom. Steve and I had lunch every Saturday at Locke Obers, at the end of which we would flip to see who would pay. I won almost every toss, and Steve was convinced that I had a two-headed coin.
As the firm grew, we attracted a huge amount of interesting and fascinating legal business. We represented the Boston & Maine Railroad, where my grandfather was killed as a trackman before the workmen’s compensation laws, when my father was 6 months old. One of the many cases I tried for them was one of the 1 or 2 cases recorded in railroad history where 2 trains on the same track going in opposite directions ran into each other with disastrous results. Our principal witness dropped dead in the federal courtroom.
We represented plaintiffs and defendants in liability and probate cases, will contests, newspapers in libel cases, major law firms, banks, public companies, schools, colleges, automobile manufacturers, municipalities and the gamut of the business community in every sort of conflict, reorganization and venture.
We had phenomenal growth and after ten years, moved to Old City Hall, an office building where we were able to take a down elevator to have lunch at the best restaurant in Boston. We went there to give us room for what we thought would be a firm of 35 lawyers. Then to three floors at 50 Milk Street, which we soon outgrew after another ten years. Our success and growth came from the ability to attract brilliant, young law school graduates who understood that at Burns & Levinson, young lawyers could early on, establish themselves and gain the ability to act on their own before it was possible in other firms. The independence and entrepreneurial ability of Burns & Levinson lawyers was proven over and again by the fact that many of our people have gone on to establish remarkable, successful law firms—more so than from any other Boston firm. Our alumni have given birth to Cetrulo & Capone; Conn Kavanaugh; Donovan & Hatem, Duane Morris; Goveno Law Firm; Posternak, Blankstein; Smith & Duggan; Cooley, Manion & Jones.
Our phenomenal growth has taken us from those few rooms in an old building to five floors in a downtown tower, offices in Providence and Hingham. Our alumni have attained phenomenal distinction—a Supreme Court and an Appeals Court justice, three Superior Court justices and two on the Probate Court. No other firm can equal or come close to that record. In this time of constant and severe competition, other Boston firms Herrick, Smith; Gaston Snow; Hill & Barlow; Withington Cross; Goldstein and Menelo; Testa Hurwitz; McCabe Gordon; Parker Coulter have ceased to exist.
How did it happen that we have survived so brilliantly? Certainly, much can be laid at the quality of the men and women that have had positions of leadership and by our management team, which is headed up by Boston’s premier managing partner, David Rosenblatt--a man with a calm demeanor in stress and crises. With older partners, he is dutiful and kind, and with young partners, associates and employees, respected and admired for his sure and steady demeanor and judgment.
The success of this great firm demonstrates that the successful practice of law is gained by unceasing service and innovative representation to clients and the public. There are so many here in this room men and women who have served our profession with the best of their great abilities. For me, this firm has brought the rewards of an incredibly happy life as a lawyer and with whom even after retirement, it is my good fortune to still remain in close association, even with an office with one less window. But as I say that, I am aware that the shadows inexorably grow. I try to take heart and comfort from what Oliver Wendell Holmes said when he was very old:
“The riders in a race do not stop short when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter before coming to a standstill. There is time to hear the kind voices of friends and to say to one’s self: ‘The work is done.’ But just as one says that, the answer comes: ‘The race is over, but the work never is done while the power to work remains.’ The canter that brings you to a standstill need not be only coming to rest. It cannot be, while you still live. For to live is to function. That is all there is in living.”
For everything that you have done for me, and for this great firm, and what you are, always in my grateful heart, I have not the ability to express my gratitude.
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