[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 40 (Monday, April 3, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E491]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 IN RECOGNITION OF ROBERT J. LEVINSOHN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, April 3, 2006

  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Mr. Robert J. 
Levinsohn, an outstanding New Yorker who has devoted himself in service 
to others throughout his career. Robert Levinsohn has distinguished 
himself both as an attorney in private practice and as a driving force 
behind New York County's pioneering role in fostering a reform of its 
judicial culture, rendering it free of corruption and unwarranted 
partisan political influence.
  A member of our Nation's greatest generation, Robert J. Levinsohn 
proudly served his country in the United States Army during World War 
II. He went on to graduate with a bachelor of arts degree from Yale 
College in 1946 and from the Columbia University School of Law in 1948, 
where he was named editor of the prestigious Columbia Law Review.
  In 1952, Robert J. Levinsohn joined Proskauer Rose LLP, one of the 
Nation's oldest, largest and most highly respected law firms, and one 
of the first in the Nation to develop a specialized practice in tax 
law, which became Mr. Levinsohn's area of professional expertise. Named 
a partner of the firm in 1963, he continues to represent clients in the 
firm's New York office to this day. In addition, Mr. Levensohn's 
professional qualifications and impeccable reputation for probity and 
integrity have led his colleagues to name him to numerous leadership 
positions in the New York State and City Bar Associations as well as 
the New York County Lawyers' Association.
  A lifelong activist devoted to the highest ideals of the Democratic 
Party, Robert J. Levinsohn naturally assumed a series of important 
positions of leadership in the world of politics and public policy. An 
active member and longtime Executive Committee member of the Lexington 
Democratic Club, one of the first political organizations in the Nation 
devoted to reform of the political and judicial system, Mr. Levinsohn 
also served as president of the Columbia Law School Democratic Club; 
president of the New York Young Democratic Club; chief campaign legal 
aide to the late, much beloved, Manhattan Congressman William Fitts 
Ryan; cochairman of the Committee for Democratic Voters and of the New 
Democratic Coalition; cochairman of the New York County Democratic 
Committee's Law Committee; vice chairman and member of the New York 
City Council Districting Commission; and a delegate to New York County 
Democratic Party judicial conventions for more than 35 years. 
Throughout his professional and civic obligations, Mr. Levinsohn 
remains devoted to his beloved wife, Louise Katz.
  It is in Robert Levinsohn's extraordinary success in reforming New 
York's judicial and political culture that he will undoubtedly bestow 
his most enduring legacy on the citizens of our Nation's greatest 
metropolis. A leader of Manhattan's postwar political reform movement 
from its first origins, Mr. Levinsohn helped spearhead the drive to 
remove the taint of political influence from New York's judicial 
branch. The key to this movement's ultimate success was the reform of 
the process selecting nominees for judicial office through the 
establishment of nonpartisan judicial screening panels. This long-
sought goal of civic activists like Mr. Levinsohn was finally realized 
in 1977 under the leadership of former New York County Democratic Party 
Chairwoman Miriam Bockman.
  The judicial reform package promoted so ably by Robert J. Levinsohn 
and like-minded advocates of good government succeeded in establishing 
``doubleblind'' independent judicial screening panels that effectively 
removed partisan political considerations from the judicial nominating 
process in New York County. Mr. Levinsohn's efforts to ensure the 
independence of the judiciary was further ratified after a fellow 
reform advocate, Congressman Edward I. Koch, was elected mayor of New 
York City and instituted a merit selection process for mayoral 
appointees to the bench. The reforms advocated by Robert J. Levinsohn 
have now become a model which is the envy of every other county in the 
Empire State.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that my distinguished colleagues join me 
recognizing the enormous contributions to our civic and political life 
made by Mr. Robert J. Levinsohn, a true reformer in the finest 
traditions of our great republic.

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