4460 Orchard Lake load
MI 48323
Rorie: 248.683.1010

West Bloomfield,

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Advocate For
Payment

William Marks says reparation
payments are a matter of justice.

HARRY KIRSBAUM
StagWriter

IV

illiam Marks says all his
angry clients don't faze
him even though he's
got 5,000 of them.
Marks, the only private practice
attorney who works solely on Holocaust
reparations, said he understands their
rage. "The money doesn't substitute for
what was done. They would much
rather not have any money and have
their families back," he said.
"When they do get money, it's
never enough," he continued. They
were robbed; they were violated and
they want justice."
At a Cardozo Law Society breakfast
last week in the Max M. Fisher Jewish
Federation Building, Marks spoke to
about 70 lawyers, and some of his sur-
vivor clients, about his background,
motivation and the state of reparations.
After earning an undergraduate
degree at Harvard University, Marks
moved to Capitol Hill to work for
then-U.S. Rep. Mel Levine of
California on Israel and Jewish-related
issues, attending Georgetown UniVersity
Law School at . the same time.
When Rep. Levine lost his bid for
California senator to Barbara Boxer,
Marks joined a Washington, D.C., law
firm as an associate in 1992.
A year later, after an introduction
from his brother-in-law, Marks found
himself representing Hugo Princz. The
man had spent 38 months in seven
Nazi concentration camps and lost his
family in the Holocaust, but was denied
restitution by the German government
because he was an American citizen.
Marks assumed the case would take
just a few months, once it was pointed
out to Germany "how stupid and out-
rageous" it was to deny his client com-
pensation.
"How wrong could I possibly
have been," Marks said. It took two-
and-a-half years — with the com-
bined forces of the highest levels of
the U. S. government, the media,
Jewish organizations and the judicial
system — to force an agreement to a
settlement between the German gov-

.

ernment and 10 American survivors.
"Mr. Princz was the tip of the ice-
berab , " Marks said. Other survivors were
deliberately excluded from receiving
reparations because of the "very per-
verse workings of German law." Marks'
calling became representing those who
had "slipped through the cracks."
Marks decided to open his own law
firm in 1996. He had intimate knowl-
edge of the Princz case and the
thought of helping other survivors
through the maze of the German
compensation scheme.
Within six months, Marks was repre-
senting the interests of 1,800 clients.
Now, he has 5,000 clients, a non-Jewish
partner in Germany and two people on
his staff in his Washington office.
His is one of about 20 law firms
working on a variety of reparations
issues.
In October 1996, because of his
good reputation with the survivor
community, Marks joined the team of
lawyers that eventually won a prelimi-
nary $1.25 billion settlement from the
Swiss banks in March 1999. The court
has assigned a "special master" to draw
up a distribution plan including
lawyer's fees, Marks said.
The attorneys seeking fees are not
seeking tens of millions of dollars,
which are numbers thrown about irre-
sponsibly," he said. "The critics are
certainly entitled to their opinion, but
the court will decide."
Marks said his clients criticize him
for not doing enough. "I say, look,
nobody will fight as hard for you as I
will. I may not be able to get the out-
come you want, but you will always
,,
have an advocate.
He said the game today seems to be
resolution through negotiation, not
litigation.
With slave labor, "a lot of very
unpleasant things will come out,
inevitably, in the course of discovery,
or in the course of a trial, and the
companies know that," Marks said.
"Is it vengeance for some people?
Yes, I think so, but for most people,
they want Germany to recognize and
atone and accept their responsibilities.
An apology only goes so far." L

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5/28

1999
Detroit Jewish News:23

