Moe Levine

In the legal community, Moe Levine is a mix of pioneer, celebrity, genius, and hero. Moe Levine was arguably the greatest civil lawyer of his time and was revolutionary in his lectures on advocacy techniques. Levine was also a founding member of the Inner Circle of Advocates in 1972, shortly before his death. In fact, Inner Circle founder Richard Grand would regularly call Levine for advice on his cases in the years before creating the Inner Circle of Advocates.

For years, the best and brightest attorneys in the country have coveted Moe Levine's out-of-print books, sending prices well over $1,000 per book. They contain a wealth of trial tactics and trial themes perfected during Moe Levine's career of over 2,000 civil jury trials.  While his contemporaries include trial lawyer legends including Al Julien, Melvin Belli, Edward Bennett Williams, and Perry Nichols, Moe Levine remains highly influential today because his timeless concepts continue to work with today's jurors.  Trial Great Rick Friedman calls Levine "the Shakespeare of trial advocacy."  Many other Inner Circle members including Brian Panish, Don Keenan and Paul Luvera acknowledge the impact of Levine's work on their careers as America's leading trial lawyers.

Moe Levine was an eloquent speaker and frequent lecturer to legal audiences around the country. This included early lectures at the National Association of Claimants' Compensation Attorneys ("NACCA") [later ATLA and AAJ] annual conferences, as well as many state and private trial lawyer association meetings.  He developed the "whole man theory," and successfully argued to many juries that "you cannot injure part of a man, but that you rather injure the whole person." He argued that pain destroys a life, and that any loss of life, loss of mobility, or loss of ability, no matter how insignificant it may seem to society, has a ripple effect - impacting all of the people who loved that person. He had significant interest in the scientific details of medicine, and had great skill at interpreting that detail to juries.  Much like criminal defense legal icon Earl Rogers, Levine mastered his area of law by mastering the medicine involved in his cases.  

Mr. Levine lived in Mineola, New York, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and died in 1974.