News
October 15, 2015Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP Attorney Honored With New York Law Journal’s Lifetime Achievement Award
Honorable Howard A. Levine, Senior Counsel with Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP, the Capital Region’s largest law firm, will be honored with the New York Law Journal’s Lifetime Achievement Award at a reception in New York City on Wednesday, October 14. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes lawyers each year who have built stellar reputations as advocates and used their positions to expose injustice and help bring about reforms making lasting impacts.
Howard Levine has enjoyed a distinguished legal career as a prosecutor, judge, litigator and advocate for children and families. His concern for young people and the family has been a constant. “I got really passionate about children and families, particularly poor children from poor families, single-parent families, and what was going on around them,” he said. “I particularly felt the juvenile justice system was not doing everything it could to help children who either were neglected or who had committed some kind of antisocial behavior.”
Levine remains convinced that harsh punishment is not an effective remedy for troubled youths. He believes that identifying youths at risk, providing supervision and making services available to address their problems is a better approach. “The trend is to get back to rehabilitation, juvenile-justice model,” he said. “The pendulum is swinging back in a positive way.” Two of Levine’s opinions of particular note were issued while he was an Appellate Division, Third Department Justice.
In Matter of Jamie TT, 599, NYS2d 892 (1993), the Third Department became one of the first courts in the United States to hold that a child who was the subject of an abuse or neglect petition had a right to effective assistance of counsel. The majority ruling was written by Levine.
In Rios v. Altamont Farms, 100 AD2d 405 (1984), Levine’s dissent, ultimately vindicated by the Court of Appeals, found migrant farm workers had the right to enforce default judgments entered in Puerto Rico against New York apple growers.
During his service with the Court of Appeals, Levine was largely pro-prosecution but also ruled against the government if he thought its actions were overreaching or contrary to the goal of “fundamental fairness.” After leaving the Court of Appeals, Levine served on several state panels and commissions at the request of former Chief Judge Judith Kaye and Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman.
In addition to his distinguished contributions in the legal field, Mr. Levine founded the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Children and the Law and has served on the Temporary State Commission on Child Welfare. He is a former President to the State Family Court Judge’s Association and in 1980 received the New York State Division for Youth’s “Service to Youth” Award. He was pivotal in raising funds during the Justice for All Campaign, which helps the poor by pledging financial support to the Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York.
As Senior Counsel at Whiteman Osterman & Hanna, Howard Levine concentrates his practice on arbitration, mediation, and appellate and commercial litigation, while mentoring young associates. Mr. Levine is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association and an elected, sustaining member of the American Law Institute.
