Legal pioneer Arthur Olick dies at 85
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Arthur S. Olick, one of Anderson Kill P.C.'s first partners and a longtime chair of its bankruptcy and restructuring group, has died at the age of 85, the law firm announced.
Mr. Olick, who died Saturday of complications from multiple sclerosis, was a former federal prosecutor who joined New York-based Anderson Kill — which became Anderson Kill & Olick P.C. — in 1974 and retired in 2010.
He was one of the nation's foremost bankruptcy attorneys and a pioneer in the formation of asbestos bankruptcy trusts and the orderly dissolution of major law firms, the firm said in a statement Wednesday.
Mr. Olick was an architect of the Manville Reorganization Trust, the first asbestos bankruptcy trust of its kind, in connection with the reorganization of Johns Manville Corp. and was trial counsel for many asbestos producers in personal injury litigation, the law firm said.
He was also a major factor in the reorganization and dissolution of numerous professional partnerships and law firms, including Lord Day & Lord and Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdon L.L.P.
Mr. Olick also represented celebrities including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Peter Max, Don McLean, Meatloaf and Gloria Swanson on various commercial matters. More recently, Mr. Olick had concentrated on insurance recovery
Before joining Anderson Kill, Mr. Olick was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and chief of the district's civil division. He received a law degree from Yale Law School and a bachelor of arts, magna cum laude, from Yale College, Yale University's undergraduate liberal arts college.
“He treated his junior colleagues as autonomous, capable and hard-working — but also always had our backs when we needed him most,” Mark D. Silverschotz, co-chair of Anderson Kill's bankruptcy and restructuring group, said in the statement.
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