Two Colleagues

My first legal job was with an old-line, white-shoe Wall Street law firm (that has, sadly, gone the way of the dinasour). There were two associates there who have attained fame. One is dead. The other is under siege.

The first was Ted Ammon. He left in the early 80s to go to a firm that I had, at thye time, never heard of called KKR. After making a fortune there, Ted left to start his own mergers and acquisitions firm. A few years ago, he was brutally murdered, probably by his estranged wife's lover.

I never really got to know him because he was shy and aloof. It was weird reading about his tragic end.

The other was Todd Stitzer. Todd was an extremely nice and friendly guy. He was also an outstanding tennis player, as I recall. While we were not particularly close, he always had a nice word for me, a younger associate. In 1983, we both left; Todd to join Cadbury and me to join a bank.

I'm thinking about Todd now because his company, of which he is CEO, is in the newspapers, under attack from a corporate raider, Nelson Pelz (ironically, I had lots of dealing with Pelz's company when I was counsel at a second bank).

I hope Todd makes it through this challenge. He is one of the genuinely nice guys who has made his way to the top. There aren't enough of those.