POLLACK, MILTON

POLLACK, MILTON (1906–2004), U.S. judge. Born in Brooklyn, Pollack earned undergraduate and law degrees at Columbia University. He joined the Wall Street firm of Gilman & Unger and was made a partner in 1938. In 1942 he brought a stockholder suit against General Motors, charging that senior executives had been given improper bonuses in cash and stock of more than $4.3 million. Eight named executives were forced to return the bonuses, plus $2 million in interest. Flushed with success, Pollack opened his own firm in 1945 and continued to practice, specializing in cases related to finance, until appointed a federal district court judge by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967. In a prominent case for New York City, Pollack issued a decision in 1977 that forced the Port Authority to allow the Concorde supersonic jet to land at Kennedy International Airport. Later, past the age of 80, he began hearing the massive civil litigation involving the bankruptcy of Drexel Burnham Lambert and the prosecutions on securities charges of ivan boesky and michael milken . In 1992, Pollack oversaw a settlement and then the distribution of $1.3 billion in settlement funds to creditors who purchased junk bonds through Drexel. Pollack continued hearing cases until two days before his death at the age of 97. (Stewart Kampel (2nd ed.)