[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_4″ last=”no” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_imageframe lightbox=”no” lightbox_image=”” style_type=”none” hover_type=”none” bordercolor=”” bordersize=”0px” borderradius=”0″ stylecolor=”” align=”none” link=”” linktarget=”_self” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” hide_on_mobile=”no” class=”” id=””] 
[/fusion_imageframe][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”3_4″ last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]By Mark Curriden
(Feb. 13) – Harold Kleinman was on the job at Thompson & Knight only a couple weeks when he was assigned a case involving a corporate officer of a firm client who had invested in a project that claimed to produce sows with extra ribs.
The dispute was whether a sow was pregnant or not. Only a few hundred dollars were at stake. Kleinman says the evidence was clear.
“The sow was not pregnant, and there were no extra ribs,” Kleinman says. The case settled before trial with the client getting his money back.
Kleinman’s time in litigation was short-lived. He spent two years in the law firm’s tax department before being transferred to mergers and acquisitions.
Six decades later, Kleinman is considered a pioneer of the modern-day corporate M&A law practice in Texas. He has represented Neiman Marcus, Centex, Lone Star Steel, Noble Energy and Lennox International in landmark mergers and acquisitions.
He led Thompson & Knight for decades, making the firm a powerhouse in the energy sector. And he was a founding father of Texas Access to Justice, which provides funding for poor people to have a lawyer.
Kleinman, now 86, sees himself in a much simpler light.
“I was just a lawyer who represented clients and believed everyone deserved a fair shake under the law,” he says.
One of the most prestigious awards honoring lawyers and judges in Texas for their commitment to the legal profession and public service is called the Harold F. Kleinman Award. Former Texas Supreme Court justices Deborah Hankinson, Tom Phillips and Craig Enoch are past recipients of the Kleinman Award.
“It is very nice having that award named after me – an extraordinary honor,” he says.
“Anything worthwhile that I may have accomplished is directly attributable to the culture and talent of the firm I was fortunate enough to join.”
He also readily admits that he wouldn’t have experienced any professional achievements without the support of his wife, Ruth, who he met in college more than six decades ago.
Kleinman was born in Dallas in 1930. His parents, who were immigrants from Eastern Europe, owned and operated a clothing store on Elm Street in Deep Ellum, but moved to West Texas when Kleinman was still a boy. They lived in McCamey, an oil boomtown during the 1930s when Humble Oil operated a refinery there.
He went to college and law school at the University of Texas in Austin, where he received his law degree in 1954. He says it wasn’t difficult getting into law school back then because “all you had to do was show up.”
“Having experienced Austin, I really didn’t want to go back to the small town,” he says.
Kleinman was drafted as the Korean War was winding down. The U.S. Army originally signed him to work with a dental team.
“The dentist found out I was a lawyer and he was furious,” he says. “He walked me over to the Judge Advocate General’s office and told me he was leaving me there.”
He served two years as a Private First Class, spending most of his time at Fort Lee in Virginia.
“I handled all sorts of military matters and business issues involving huge contracts, including some over-billing by contractors,” he says.
In 1956, Kleinman went searching for a job. He was the first lawyer on either side of his family. He wanted to move to Houston, but most of the corporate firms there still didn’t hire many Jews.
The Dallas firm Thompson, Knight, Wright & Simmons – later renamed Thompson & Knight – offered him a lawyer position for $300 a month.
“There was no such thing as billable hours back then,” he says. “We just sent the client a bill that we thought was fair.”
Partners initially assigned Kleinman to work in the firm’s litigation section.
“The idea was that you first had to learn to be a general lawyer and then you could be a specialized lawyer,” he says. “Looking back, it was an excellent idea. Being in litigation taught me what can go wrong if a contract is flawed. I still think law firms should consider doing that.”
The young associate spent two years at the firm in litigation and two years in the tax law department before being assigned permanently to the corporate M&A section.
Kleinman says the corporate law practice blossomed in the 1960s and 1970s as more companies went public.
In 1968, Kleinman helped long-time Thompson & Knight client Neiman Marcus merge with California-based Broadway-Hale Stores. He then advised the combined company when it went public a couple years later.
General Portland, then the second largest cement producer in the U.S., hired Kleinman in 1980 to represent the company against a hostile takeover effort by French cement giant Lafarge Corp. The dispute sparked litigation, but Kleinman eventually helped engineer a settlement between the two corporations.
“We did such a vigorous job representing General Portland that Lafarge hired us to handle its legal matters in the U.S.,” he says. “That is always a nice way to gain a client, when they have learned to respect you as a lawyer against them.”
Kleinman also represented homebuilder Centex and air conditioning and heating giant Lennox International in several M&A and corporate transactions. Accounting firm Arthur Anderson hired him to advise it on a myriad of legal issues.
“Harold was the go-to lawyer for Noble Energy for many years,” says Jeff Zlotky, a former partner at Thompson & Knight who is now general counsel at Dallas-based Natural Gas Partners. “The most iconic company in Texas – Lone Star Steel – viewed Harold Kleinman as their guy, their lawyer. He was a critical adviser to George W. Bush and the Texas Rangers when the team was sold to Tom Hicks [in 1998].
“Harold was the busiest lawyer in Dallas, but he always returned the calls of young lawyers,” Zlotky says.
In 1977, Thompson & Knight partners named Kleinman the firm’s managing partner – a position he held for a dozen years.
“He led the firm during its greatest growth,” Zlotky says.
Two of Kleinman’s lasting legacies are his role in the creation of Texas Access to Justice and his five children.
Two of his sons are lawyers – Pioneer Natural Resources General Counsel Mark Kleinman and Bill Kleinman, who is a corporate law partner at Haynes and Boone. He has three non-lawyer children – Lee is a member of the Dallas City Council, Jay is an executive in the healthcare industry, and Max was a partner at a prominent global consulting firm.
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