In Memoriam: Chris Katzenbach

Chris Katzenbach was one of the stalwart and brave attorneys that AUD was able to refer rank and file clients to over the past 20 years. Herman Benson once said of Chris, simply, “There is no one better.” He recently passed away, and we offer these tributes.-eds.

 

John  Katzenbach (brother)

Chris was born in Oxford, England in March of 1949, the first son of Nicholas deB. Katzenbach and Lydia Phelps Stokes Katzenbach, when his father was attending Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. He grew up, first in Chicago, then Washington, D.C. when his father was a member of both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. He attended The Phillips Exeter Academy, Stanford University and Yale Law School. After graduating from Yale, he worked briefly for the National Labor Relations Board, then subsequently for a private law firm in Chicago before moving to California and opening his own labor-related law practice in San Francisco and Marin County.

He was a dedicated, fire-breathing progressive throughout his life — tirelessly fighting for individual and civil rights from his undergraduate anti-war activist days, up to the time of his passing. On his resume were one arrest, protesting the Viet Nam war  (“If you don’t at least get a scent of tear gas, it’s not a real demonstration,”) — an extremely brief stint working on an assembly line manufacturing Ford Pintos (“Don’t buy one of these, especially one I worked on…”) so he could better understand the situation ordinary workers found themselves in — and some intern work in a public defender’s office (“It’s always a challenge to get that breathalyzer report suppressed by a judge…”). He was thoroughly dedicated to comprehending the impact that the law and court decisions would have on individuals — a quality that set him apart from many in his profession.

Chris read voraciously and loved mystery, spy and thriller novels — especially the old practitioners, Dashiell Hammett, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Elmore Leonard and John LeCarre. As a child, he was enthralled by science fiction, devouring the stories from Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. He became what he modestly characterized as an average guitarist — deeply influenced by his time at Stanford, when on weekends he haunted The Fillmore West, listening to the great rock bands of that era. Although he passed on Woodstock — “I think it’s going to rain,” he accurately predicted to his brother — he was at the infamous 1969 Altamont Free Concert where the Rolling Stones witnessed a murder in front of the stage, although afterwards he said, “From where I was, all I could see was the melee and the music stopped and instantly I figured nothing good was happening…”

He loved to cook. His Thanksgiving turkey was famous amongst family and friends, primarily because it was a day-long, multi-oven, grill and fryer enterprise that exhausted everyone engaged in the process.

He loved humor — especially British comedy — Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and The Black Adder. He was a devoted father to his three children, Wolcott, Phoebe and Hugh and to his wife of four decades, Kerry Stoebner. He is also survived by one brother, John, and two sisters, Mimi and Anne.

 

Melissa Antablin (client)

One of the last comments I made to Chris Katzenbach about his representation of me in a labor litigation was to say, “I think briefs bring out the best in you.”  Chris wrote a total three briefs for me during litigation:  2 opening briefs, and 1 reply brief.  The pleadings were high quality. Yet it was his briefs on appeal in which authenticity and principled arguments affirmed union members’ irrevocable civil rights and freedoms; sort of a silky, persuasive thread knotted to a keen understanding of original, legislative intention.  Inspiring.

I observed Chris deal with opposing counsel and adversarial parties with dignity and integrity.  Over time, I observed Chris freely share his expertise with other union members.  A powerful advocate, I came to understand Chris preferred the path of peace, and he engendered goodwill amongst union members and adversaries both.

I believe his elegant education and cultivated legal acumen could have led him to many more opportune and exciting career paths.  And yet, for some reason, Chris dedicated his career to those of us in the “everyday” world.

 

Marc  Norton (client)

I first met Chris in mid-2021, when we consulted about some serious (lack of) democracy problems in my union, UNITE HERE Local 2 in San Francisco, which I have belonged to since 1976. He gave me some very helpful advice about the law, which as we all know is one thing while justice is often something very different. Chris was always willing and eager to share his knowledge. I talked to him on the phone several times at length, and always ended the call with a request that he send me a bill, because I thought he should be paid for his work. He never sent me a bill. I will definitely miss his help.

 

Cathy Highet (attorney and AUD Board member)

We recently lost a brave, smart, tenacious union democracy attorney, Chris Katzenbach.

I worked closely with Chris on a lengthy, complex case against the McCarron administration of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters.  Chris had an amazing knowledge of case law.  He knew cases for all sorts of obscure legal points – sometimes dating back to the 1800’s.  He combined this knowledge with intelligence and creativity to come up with surprising and excellent arguments.

Chris was also remarkably tenacious.  I watched him defend a steward against the UBC’s aggressive litigation for years.  The UBC had the union treasury at its disposal to fund the litigation, and Chris had just his client and his own determination.  Yet he never gave up.  He kept fighting for that steward until the very end of his life.  He had other cases that he stuck with for years as well.  And he was a union democracy attorney for many decades.

Chris’s tenacity was fueled by deep beliefs.  When union leaders tried to hoodwink or bully their members, when they were dishonest or dictatorial, Chris was offended on a deeply personal level.  Chris cared about ordinary union members.  He believed deeply in their right to run their own unions and be treated with the dignity and respect we all deserve.

 

Thank you, Brother Katzenbach.