Paul Howard Epstein

a short illness. Paul was a man of great warmth, curiosity, humor, and intellect who used his passions for

people, art, and languages to improve the communities of New York City and Israel and make lifelong

friendships. His lifelong passions for people and art took him from a childhood in Brooklyn, to Harvard

and, ultimately, to the classical cultures of the Mediterranean, especially the Levant.

Paul began life as the oldest child of Tillie and Frank Epstein, a first-generation Jewish immigrant family

from eastern Europe. He reveled in the immigrant milieu of 1940-1950s Brooklyn New York with the

cultural and linguistic mixture of Eastern European Jews and Italian Americans. One of his biggest

regrets in life was that he did not learn Yiddish from his grandparents and parents. While at Lafayette

High School he became friendly with the actor Paul Sorvino, the former Congresswoman Elizabeth

Holtzman, and the hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt.

Because of his academic performance in high school, Paul was admitted to Harvard College at an early

age to study English. While at Harvard, Paul was able to expand his horizons by becoming a member of

the Hasty Pudding Club and the Harvard Student Council. The American real estate tycoon Samuel J.

LeFrak was so impressed by Paul that he offered to pay for Paul’s education at Harvard if he would work

for him after graduation, it was gracious offer that Paul politely declined. While at Harvard, Paul became

a lifelong friend of the author Peter Benchley, enjoying weekend trips with Peter to Manhattan for

dinners in private clubs while wearing tuxedos. During his studies at Harvard Paul took summer jobs that

he was most proud of – as a merchant marine. It was these journeys that first took him to Israel, a

country that he loved and traveled to for the remainder of his life.

Upon graduating from Harvard College, Paul, in his usual fashion, was not sure of what to do so he went

to Harvard Law School. His fellow law school study group partners forgave his disinterested approach to

studying law and still helped him prepare for exams with class notes. The disinterest in the law also

prompted Paul to get a Master’s degree at Harvard (concurrent to his LLB) in Arabic under the tutelage

of famed Scottish historian and Orientalist, Sir Hamilton Gibb. Upon completion of his Law and Arabic

studies at Harvard, Paul enrolled at Hebrew University to maintain his student deferment from the Viet

Nam War draft and Ulpan Etzion so he could learn Hebrew that would allow him to work in the Ministry

of Finance for Israel.

Paul returned to the US from Israel at the beginning of 1967 to start his career in the law at Proskauer

Rose LLP, where he remained for his entire legal career, becoming a partner in 1974. Paul used his

education, intellect, and passion to handle copyrights for composers, choreographers, playwrights,

authors and graphic artists. For over three decades, Paul’s practice focused upon using the law to help

creative artists such as Leonard Bernstein, George Balanchine, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Gian Carlo

Menotti, and Twyla Tharp. Paul also relished in finding new talent for Proskauer. He was happiest going

to university law schools to recruit the men and women who shared his view on how law can be used for

the greater good.

Part of Paul’s novel approach to using the law to benefit artists was the creation of The George

Balanchine Trust, a then novel approach to rights management after the passing of the artist. Paul was

motivated to create the Balanchine Trust because of his love of the choreography of George Balanchine.

During the late 1960s and into the early 1980s, Paul was at virtually every performance of the New York

City Ballet, often guiding Allegra Kent to the New York State Theater for a performance. It was the

infamous Lindsey snowstorm of 1969 and having to walk through the snow to get to a performance of

the NYCB that prompted Paul to move to the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where he lived for the

remainder of his life - first in the Hotel des Artistes and then for 44 years in the famed Dakota.

Paul’s desire to help artists ultimately prompted him to co-found the non-profit Volunteer Lawyers for

the Arts (VLA) and serve as its initial Chair of the Board of Directors in 1969. The first client of VLA was

the famed American dancer, choreographer, and author Twalya Tharp. Because of Paul’s co-founding of

VLA, Leonard Bernstein approached him in the mid-1970s to ask, if in addition to working for free, would

Paul work for pay. Paul continued to work for Leonard Bernstein until his passing in 1990 and for the

family as Executive Vice-President of the Leonard Bernstein Office when Paul retired from the law in

2003 and most recently as a Sr. Consultant working on special projects. Paul was especially proud of his

latter efforts for the Bernstein office which included the Bernstein Centennial celebration, the West Side

Story 2020 revival, early work on the 2021 Steven Spielberg West Side Story film and early work in the

upcoming Bradley Cooper biopic about Leonard and Felicia Bernstein.

Other arts and education related positions for Paul included: Arts Program Consultant, The Ford

Foundation (1976-1979); Chairman, New York City Ballet Tchaikovsky Festival Committee (1981);

Chairman, New York City Ballet Stravinsky Festival Committee (1982); Director, Playwrights Horizons,

Inc. (1981-1984); Member, National Committee, Harvard University Center for Jewish Studies (1975-

1955); Director, American Friends of The Hebrew University; Governor, The Hebrew University; Director,

The Leonard Bernstein Jerusalem International Music Competitions (1994-1998); Director, American

Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (1980-2010). He has also managed various matters

individual artists such as Michael Tilson Thomas, the Estate of Keith Haring, Michel Delacroix, and Pierre

Le-Tan.

Paul’s legal work often took him back to Israel. It was that legal work that resulted in many associations

with the leaders of Israel. One such event was during the early 1990s when Paul hosted a private event

for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Binyamin Netanyahu in his apartment at the

Dakota. When it was time to go to the public function, the US Secret Service delayed the departure due

to a bomb threat in the lecture hall. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin calmly sat down in the courtyard of

the Dakota to enjoy a leisurely cigarette while waiting for the clearance to go. Years later Paul’s Harvard

connections took him to the American Consul in Jerusalem for drinks. While enjoying drinks, word came

that Yasser Arafat wanted to meet with the American consul and an Israeli representative about

potential peace talks. The American consul encouraged Paul to join the talks because he would be one

of the few people fluent in English, Arabic and Hebrew. Paul graciously declined the offer because of his

lifelong general dislike of politics.

Paul’s early legal efforts in Israel soon caught the attention of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, of the

Geneva branch of the famous banking family. Paul worked for the Baron for many years in Geneva and

in Israel, most notably focusing on the Caesarea Edmond Benjamin de Rothschild Foundation activities.

Paul and the Baron got on so well that one time when Paul was unwell while returning to New York from

a vacation in France aboard the same Concorde flight with the Baron that the Baron had the flight

delayed so that medication could be retrieved for Paul.

Languages were always one of Paul’s great passions during life. During the summer of 1983 Paul took a

course in Italian at the Società Dante Alighieri in Venice. Only Paul and one other student took the class

seriously. That student, Ömer Koç, happened to be the scion of the Koç family of Turkey who remained

close friends for almost 40 years. Paul loved to visit Istanbul to marvel at mix of the ancient world with

the modern world, to see the Yalis along the Bosphorus, to wander in the Hagia Sophia ( a private tour

was arranged for Paul by Ömer of the closed Hagia Sophia), and, most of all, to be stunned by the

architecture of the Mosque of Süleyman.

Anyone who knew Paul for any period of time came to know of his love of nice clothes and parties, Paul

loved to get dressed up for a party. Paul worked collaboratively with his close friend, famed Illustrator

Pierre Le-Tan, to design annual booklets that would tell the story of the year and be an invitation to

Paul’s annual birthday party bashes, usually attended by well over 100 of his friends. The party was

attended by many of the notable performing artists he worked with or knew. People such as Lauren

Bacall, Roberta Flack, Adolph Green, Phyllis Newman, Betty Comden and the legal force of nature Floria

Lasky all attended. For decades Paul also had select parties several times per year that he called Sunday

Suppers. The theme of these all-male parties was performing arts. During one of these parties 10 years

ago, the American television personality Dick Cavett arrived uninvited. He had come to the Dakota to

attend another party but ended up at Paul’s Sunday Supper in error but stayed because he had such an

interesting conversation with Sir Peter Shaffer, of Amadeus fame.

Paul is survived by his husband/partner of 28 years Garry Parton, his sister Marilyn Mitchell, his brother

Arthur Epstein, his mother-in-law Grace Parton, his nephew and his wife Philip and Gwen Weiss, their

children Joey and Jamie, his nephew Michael and Beth Weiss, their children Jacqueline and Rebecca, and

his nephew and his wife David and Erin Parton. There will be a celebration of Paul’s life later this fall in

lieu of a funeral service. People wishing to make a donation in the memory of Paul Epstein should make

the donation to Volunteer Lawyers For the Arts.

Honors and Awards:

Distinguished Service Award {as Founder), Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, November 7, 1994

Honored by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela for Work on Behalf of El Fundaci6n del

Estado para el Sistema de Orquesta Juvenel e lnfantil de Venezuela, January 11, 2008

Floria Lasky Award 2012