Marvin Comisky

Marvin Comisky (1918–2010) was a major figure in the Philadelphia legal community for decades. Chairman emeritus of the law firm Blank Rome and former head of the Philadelphia and state bar associations, he halted discriminatory hiring practices in Philadelphia law firms, and is one of few attorneys to be regarded as a legend in the profession.

Largely regarded as a co-founder of the Blank Rome that exists today, Comisky first joined what was known as Blank & Rudenko in 1959. That firm eventually became Blank Rome Klaus & Comisky in 1968 and, in 1979, changed again to Blank Rome Comisky & McCauley, the nameplate that endured until 2003, when the firm shortened its brand to simply Blank Rome. In 1969, Comisky was elected the firm's first managing partner and held the position until the mid-1980s. He was renowned as a trial attorney, but was perhaps better known as a talented appellate litigator who could bring cases back from the brink.

One of the most prominent examples of Comisky's character came in 1964, just before he began his term as chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. In a 2006 interview with the Philadelphia Business Journal, he recalled his efforts to push Philadelphia's largest law firms to halt religious discrimination in their hiring practices. A few months before stepping into his role as chancellor, Comisky approached Chancellor Theodore Voorhees about the doctrinal discrimination that existed within the city's legal community.

"There is this problem, Ted," Comisky told his colleague. "I'd like you to address it before I become chancellor in a few months because if you don't, my first speech in December 1964 will be addressed to this issue."

Voorhees spoke with the leading partners at major law firms and by the time Comisky took his position, religious considerations in hiring had been dropped.

"They became statesmen all of a sudden," Comisky said. "They believed it was time to enlarge the view of the bar."

Comisky made other important strides during his tenure as chancellor, creating a plan in which Philadelphia lawyers would make legal services available to the poor and establishing a fund for underemployed lawyers. Comisky also created the Philadelphia Bar Association's first published annual report.

When Mr. Comisky became president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association in 1970, he called for "a 'Manhattan Project' approach to the war on crime in which crime prevention, apprehension, trial, sentencing, correction, probation, and rehabilitation are merged under a solitary unit of control in a humanist approach."

He later became chairman of the firm that by the 1980s was the city's second-largest, with 208 lawyers in offices in Philadelphia, Miami, and West Palm Beach, Florida. In 1990, he assumed the role of chairman emeritus and officially retired in 1994, splitting his time between his homes in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, and Florida. He continued to come into the office to provide advice and guidance on important matters long after his retirement, and attended a meeting at the law firm just one month before his death.

In a tribute in the law magazine The Shingle in 1965, William Rudenko said of his partner, "Marvin is a realist who has never lost his idealism. He is a compromiser who despises mere expediency. He is forthright and decisive. Although he can be, and often is, not only firm but stubborn after making up his mind, he tolerates and respects differing opinions."

According to Rudenko, Comisky was devoted to the reform of criminal law and served on criminal procedural rules committees, citing a run-in of his own.

In 1943, while in the Army, Comisky received a weekend pass to travel from Harrisburg, where he was stationed, home to Philadelphia. On the train, military police checked his pass and discovered that it had been dated for the weekend before. Despite his protest that he was the victim of a clerical error, he was arrested as AWOL. Denied the right to make a phone call, he spent the night in a military jail. His worried family finally contacted police, who got in touch with his commanding officer and he was released "haggard, hungry, and shaken," Rudenko wrote.

Comisky grew up in South Philadelphia and graduated from Central High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from Temple University and was a scholarship student at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. After graduating, he received a Gowen Fellowship to study for additional years. He then was a law clerk to a superior court judge in Philadelphia.

During World War II, he served in the Army in the States. After his discharge, he clerked for a Pennsylvania Supreme Court judge. He then practiced law with Lemuel B. Schofield and later was in a partnership with John B. Brumbelow. In 1959, he and Brumbelow joined the firm of Blank, Rudenko, Klaus, & Rome. It later became Blank, Rome, Comisky, & McCauley and is now Blank Rome.

Between his practice, firm leadership and involvement in the community and the local bar, Comisky was a constantly busy man, but he always made room in his packed schedule for family time. With his wife, Goldye Elving Comisky, he had three children, all of whom are lawyers: Ian and Matthew are partners at Blank Rome and Hope Comisky is a partner at Pepper Hamilton. Blank Rome named its conference center at its One Logan Square headquarters after Comisky. It is affectionately referred to as "The Marv."