By MATT CHANDLER
Buffalo Law Journal

Harold Halpern is a storyteller.

Sitting down for a chat inside a boardroom at Calamar Enterprises Inc., where he serves as a vice president and general counsel, Halpern shared many war stories as he reflected on being chosen to receive the 2009 Nathan Benderson Community Service Award from the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo.

He's also a straight shooter. He had this to say about the volunteer contributions that earned him the award, and what motivates people to volunteer: "It's not for recognition, but it is for ego, and most people won't acknowledge that," he said. "It makes me feel good that people are listening and that I am achieving something, so it is not a selfless act."

Born and raised in Western New York, Halpern and his brother, Ralph, an attorney with Jaeckle Fleischmann LLP, were raised by parents who stressed academics and guided them in the direction of the legal world.

"(Our father) owned his own pharmacy, where he worked 14 hours a day, and he made sure neither my brother nor I were pharmacists," Halpern said. "It was anticipated that we would have to be professionals. That was the ethos of the day: Nice Jewish boys went to professional schools," he continued. "So what profession would we choose? My uncle was an extremely well-known lawyer - he was a judge in the Appellate Division, Philip Halpern - and he was sort of the hero of the family."

And so it was, Halpern recalls, that he and his brother became lawyers, with Harold graduating from the University at Buffalo Law School in 1958.

"When I began practicing law, the economic conditions weren't the greatest, and I was one of the highest-paid members of my graduating class at $75 a week," he said.

After honing his skills as a general practitioner working for other lawyers, Halpern and a lifelong friend, Morton Levy, founded their own firm. It was 1970, and the step would mark the beginning of a 36-year career as a litigator and as a transactional attorney, handling contracts and negotiations for clients.

"It's a very unusual combination to be a very active trial lawyer and a transactional lawyer," Halpern explained, "but I love what I do."

While it might seem natural that two brothers, graduating from law school at similar times and practicing law in the same city, might be inclined to join forces, Halpern says it was never something the siblings considered.

"Once, we were on the same side of a case. My father being a pharmacist, every once in a while he needed some legal representation, and my brother and I decided, ‘We'll both represent Dad,' " he said. "Within a half hour of the hearing starting, the hearing officer said, ‘Both of you are lawyers, and one of you is going to go out of here.' And I think that is a good answer. We are both strong individuals, and I think it was better that we could share stories rather than cases."

Though their paths rarely crossed in the legal arena, each brother has great respect for the work the other does, with Ralph Halpern calling his brother "an excellent trial lawyer who is well-deserving of this award he is receiving."

After deciding to retire in 1999, Halpern soon realized he missed doing what he loved so much.

"In 2001, while I was in Florida, a friend of mine called me and said, ‘I'm looking for a lawyer, I'm selling my business. Can you recommend someone?' Halpern recalled. "I thought for a moment and said, ‘OK, I have that lawyer for you - it's me. I just came out of retirement.' "

After less than two years of semi-retirement, Halpern was back in the courtroom, and although he shifted his work to focus more on transactional deals, at 75, he still argued three trials this summer.

"I really enjoy the practicing of law, the intellectual stimulation, the new learning, and I really missed that excitement of being a lawyer," he said.

Today, although he focuses the bulk of his time on his role at Calamar, a Wheatfield-based construction and real estate company, Halpern still maintains a small private practice.

"Litigation never ends," he said. "I still have a loyalty to my clients of long standing and I feel a responsibility that they don't need to find someone else."

Calamar Chairman and CEO Ken Franasiak, who encouraged Halpern to come work for him as his general counsel, calls the lawyer "a great shepherd" for his company.

"He's a great counsel, a great friend, and he has done so much for the community," Franasiak said. "If you hadn't reminded me that he was 75, you would never know - he's got more energy than people half his age. He enjoys life, and his depth of knowledge is just invaluable."

"Harold has certainly displayed a willingness to mentor and a willingness to lead," added Dan Kantor, executive director of the Jewish Federation. "He's the kind of person whose wisdom and experience people respect. There are a lot of people who are active in an organization that don't have a vision of where they want to go and often don't even have the respect of the folks they are working with. Harold has both the respect and the vision - the vision of a changing community."

Asked how things have changed since he took his first case more than a half-century ago, Halpern smiled.

"I think older lawyers tend to say we're less collegial now, but I don't know if it's true," he said. "I had three trials this summer, and I didn't find it any more or less collegial."

Does he find it difficult to try cases against people who weren't yet born when he was already in the thick of his legal career?

"I will say this about age: It has this advantage - judges tend to think that my misbehavior is humor," he joked. "But there is a degree of more patience - an older attorney will generally have more patience from others."

Asked whether he had a favorite case, Halpern's eyes lit up as he recalled a long battle against the U.S. Postal Service on behalf of Benderson Development over a building dispute. After Benderson sold the postal service a chunk of land on Hertel Avenue, restricting the size and location of any structures to be built there, the postal service began work on a much larger building that would obstruct a nearby shopping-plaza project. Halpern was called in to stop the project.

"It took 11 years, back and forth from court to court," he recalls. "Eventually, Judge (John) Elfvin sent the case out of his court (U.S. District Court, Western District of New York), and I took it to the Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C."

Halpern argued that the building violated the contract the parties had, and that the only course of action was to tear down the facility.

"The presiding judge said to me, ‘Mr. Halpern, do you really think you can get a court to order the building to be torn down?' " Halpern said. "This was one of those moments you have as a lawyer, and I looked at him and said, ‘Your honor, I have the right to lose this case in the court of my choosing.' "

He won that right, and the case was returned to Buffalo, where, in a landmark decision, the court ruled that the postal service had erred, ordering that the building be torn down. Ultimately, the two sides reached a "significant" cash settlement, but for Halpern, it was a sweet victory, more than a decade in the making. "My satisfaction in that case was in achieving what no one thought was possible."

Does Halpern see himself returning to the warm weather of Florida to resume his retirement and work on his tennis game anytime soon? His answer to that question suggests that he has more than a few cases left in him.

"While I am modest - I'm not someone who will go to a party and talk about my cases - ask me if I think I am a good lawyer, and I think I am a very good lawyer. There are very few attorneys who can do what my brother and I do, and I still enjoy it immensely."