- [Narrator] This original WSRE presentation is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

- A tribute to famed trial lawyer and philanthropist.

Fred Levin on this edition of Conversations.

(upbeat music) In January of 2021, Fred Levin passed away.

Levin's name was synonymous with the legal profession, but in addition to his legal prowess Levin had built a reputation as a philanthropist donating tens of millions of dollars benefiting numerous charities in his hometown of Pensacola, Florida.

Over 20 million to his Alma mater the University of Florida law school which now bears his name.

9 million to the University of West Florida, and 2 million to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Those are just the ones we know about.

Friends and family are quick to point out that Levin helped numerous others with gestures that never made the headlines.

Over the years we had the opportunity to interview Fred Levin on several occasions.

On this edition of Conversations, we'll look back at those interviews and you'll get to hear the story of how a small town lawyer became a marquee name, in the legal profession.

- Well, up until I got into law school, it was like I said, it was pretty much a joke.

Even in high school, college back then, it really didn't make any difference.

If you had a high school diploma you could get in the University of Florida.

If you had a degree, you could get into law school.

So I can remember I was sitting in the auditorium there were 360 new young law students.

And they said, look to your right, look to your left.

Neither one of them will be here when you graduate.

And I got to thinking out of the three, make a long story short 60 out of the 360 actually did graduate.

And it scared me cause I said, well, like they're going to get rid of people.

And I started, I guess for the first time in my life really got down to hard work and I studied day and night, didn't attend any football games or anything.

I just worked straight through, seven days a week.

And it was fortunate that I did.

I felt a sense of satisfaction and of accomplishment for the first time in my life.

- You just found your passion essentially.

- Well, I, yeah, and it was really the sense of accomplishment.

I mean, to have gone through your whole life and everything was fun was, I mean, this was the fifties.

It was just a great time.

Just everything was wonderful.

Everything was happy, but no real accomplishments or anything.

I mean, I had to go to summer school at the University of Florida to make a 2.0, to get out, to go to law school.

- His accomplishments went beyond grades.

Levin realized early on he could be a champion for those who were wronged.

This was September, 1958, and 360 white students in the auditorium.

We didn't, we had no idea what was getting ready to happen.

But the back doors of the auditorium opened up and here were two or three US marshals with this black gentleman, dressed appropriately.

We were all in shorts and, you know, that kind of stuff.

And he was dressed in a suit and all of the students except, well, I didn't, they started shuffling their feet like you would in prison if you disappointed in something or disagree.

And so we, it was divided into two sections and George Stark was in my section.

And so I was in every class with him.

And every time he tried to say something, it was horrible.

They would mock him, they would shuffle him.

He'd walk down the halls, they'd use the N word.

And, I really felt for a lot of reasons, I felt for him, but I didn't have the guts to stand up.

There were only two people in that whole section that did not have a study partner.

And that was George because he was black, and me, they knew that I had to go to summer school just to get a 2.0, to get into law school.

So I didn't have a study partner cause I was stupid, and he didn't have one because he was black.

All right, well, at the end of the semester who's leading the class me, alright, George walks into the library and they start that shuffling again.

And all of a sudden just I got up from and walked over, sat down next to him.

And I said, George, you need any help?

He says, I sure do.

I said, why don't you and I become study partners?

And we did.

And the thing that was amazing to me was, now, to keep in mind out of these 360 students, we've got Supreme court justices later, US senators, governors, and all of them were part of this game until I befriended George.

And then what was amazing was more and more people started coming around, and the true racists, you could've counted on one hand.

So we became friends.

Unfortunately, they flunked him out.

They were gonna, they flunked out five out of every six, only 60 of us graduated.

And then 50, well, actually more than 50 years later, the first black to have ever graduated, the University of Florida, was a 50th anniversary.

They asked me to come do the keynote address, which I did.

And George came, and for the first time I asked him, I said, you know, what was a shame was they flunked you out because you missed the exam that you and I had studied for all night long.

I said, you slept through it.

He said, no, no, no, no.

I showed up about five, 10 minutes late and the professor wouldn't let me in.

And that was the reason he flunked out.

- Fresh out of law school.

Fred Levin planned on being a tax attorney, but a bluff by a local hot shot lawyer changed that.

- I actually was going to go into tax law.

And I had, when I had graduated law school, the last thing in the world I ever thought about was trial law.

I had never actually spoken in front of anybody in my life, scared to death.

And so I went in with Levin and Askew, and all we did was basically divorce cases, and some little bit of criminal cases.

And so I was waiting around a year till I actually would go to NYU tax law school, because I was good in math.

But, and I did have great grades in law school.

And this is where I was going to, I had assumed, have my career.

To make another long story short, a lady came in and, and her name was Angelica Theodore.

And she had a house out on scenic highway and it had burned down, and it was Allstate Insurance company.

And they offered her like $15,000 to settle, for the fire and she wanted 18,000.

And so I filed a complaint and on the other side was Bert Lane and Bert was the meanest toughest lawyer this town had ever seen.

And he called me up and he said, Fred, this is Bert Lane.

I had not asked for a jury trial.

And he said, I've convinced Allstate to go to $15,750, and if you don't settle, I'm going to have to ask for a jury trial.

God, I mean, he was the baddest man on the planet and the, I never had, like I said, I never had spoken in front of anybody in my life.

I couldn't sleep, I called Ms. Theodore in and I told her I'd waived my attorney's fees, if she had take it, almost begging her to take it.

Nope, she wanted $18,000.

So anyhow, again, to make a long story short, I go to trial.

I remember it was in federal district court and what was now the Arnow building.

And I can remember the bailiffs, the marshals, everybody, are you going up against Bert Lane?

Are you crazy?

And I'm sitting there just shaking like a leaf.

And anyhow, I went to trial and I worked so hard, and all of a sudden I went in front of the jury and incredibly I got a $50,000 verdict, and that set the stage.

I figured maybe I got something going here.

And, so that started my career.

And I said, to heck with the tax law.

- Got something going, was an understatement.

- Well, probably the case that my career took off on is Thorshov V.L&N.

This was the train that came through Pensacola and overturn out on Gull Point before you get to the, well, there wasn't an interstate bridge back then and it overturned, and there was anhydrous ammonia that escaped and it killed Dr. Thorshov and his wife, and I handled the case.

And at the time it was the largest jury verdict in the country and for the death of a wage earner, and for the death of a housewife, - What was that number?

- It was $18 million he made, and that was 1980 or '81.

- But the case that brought him national prominence was a true David and Goliath story.

- I was in Whistler, British Columbia, and I was a smoker back then, I was smoking a cigarette and having a drink at the bar when a guy, a friend of mine came up and he said, we're thinking about bringing a lawsuit for the state of Mississippi against the tobacco companies.

Would you be interested in Florida doing this?

And I said, absolutely not.

Tobacco had never paid one cent in any case, this would have been '97, somewhere around 15 years ago.

Anyhow, I came back to Pensacola, and I was just looking through the statute books.

And all of a sudden I looked down and there was this statute called a Medicaid Recovery Act.

And it allowed Florida to sue anybody who causes an injury to a citizen of Florida, that the Florida Medicaid recovery, the state had to pay for the medical bills.

And I realized that just with a change in the statute here, a comma, there are just a few word change, that I could make this statute apply to tobacco.

A lot of little things that, which would not be significant to your audience, but there were a lot of little things that would have kept us going forever.

If under the regular law, anyhow we eliminated all of those things then went to W.D.

Childers, who was the president of the Senate.

We went and talked to Governor Chiles, Governor Chiles said he loved it.

He loved the idea.

And I can remember, I said, well, let's just go have a press conference.

And he said, no, there's no way this would ever pass.

He said, we can't get a five cent tax on tobacco.

They're too powerful.

So it actually, the statute was passed.

These minor changes were, Senator Childers took care of, it passed, and then all of a sudden tobacco realized what had happened.

They came in the next session of the legislature.

They got them to repeal the law.

The governor vetoed the repeal.

Then the next session of the legislature they came within one vote of overriding the veto.

It just go to show you how powerful tobacco was, and the lobbyists, they had, oh, they spent millions of dollars.

As a result of that statute tobacco then it went up to the Florida Supreme Court which said it was constitutional.

And as a result, every state would have done the same thing.

It didn't make any difference, because Florida ended up getting $13 billion.

So tobacco knew at that point, they were in trouble, because no matter how powerful they are, the state of Alabama is not going to turn down $4 billion.

And this was 15 years ago.

and so they made a national settlement as a result.

I think, that tobacco over a period of 25 years was gonna pay out like $350 billion to the different states.

The significant thing was that a lot of that money was used in advertising.

You see it now on these tobacco ads, and a lot of it raised the price of cigarettes substantially.

So that today there are 20% less people smoking today than there were back then, new smokers coming on, the bottom line is that probably within the next two or three years, because it's been going on for 10, 12 years.

It will save about a hundred thousand American lives each year in this country, as a result of that tobacco case.

That's as many American lives in one year, as we lost in Korea and Vietnam combined all because, really I look at it, but I'm just flipping through a statute book, and looked and saw nobody had ever thought about doing it.

And so the amazing thing, the thing that I feel so good about is you think that some stupid little local yokel lawyer in Pensacola probably saved more lives today, then, like I say, than we lost in Vietnam.

More American lives, than Vietnam and Korea combined.

- Levin, the ultimate showman with a sense of humor, enjoy the irony of his success.

One of my favorite parts of the book was after the big tobacco, you get a lot of publicity and (laughs)- - I know what you're gonna say.

- Well, I like it, I know, I was sharing this with someone I told, I'd read the book that I guess you're on ABC 20/20.

- Yes.

- Okay, and I believe it was John Stossel was interviewing you, and he's talking about how much money you have taken away from the tobacco company, and you fire up a cigarette.

- All right, well, I mean, I realized they had interviewed, Oh God, 20 different lawyers from around the country, but only one was gonna be on the show, and Stossel hates lawyers.

I mean, something must have happened in his life somewhere.

So he's asking questions.

And I always think back to lawyer Shaky Latham back in Pensacola when I first started and he said whatever you do, it doesn't make any difference what they say about you.

Just make sure they spell your name correctly.

So I wanted to get on that 20/20 show and Stossel is asking questions.

And I said, John, do you mind if I light up a cigarette and you would've thought I lighted up the whole studio.

Oh, go right ahead.

So I light up a cigarette and I'm smoking and he is, he just couldn't wait to at the end to really lay it on.

Well, of course I P.O.

'd all the other lawyers for a lot of reasons.

One is, they said, you made us look like a bunch of idiots.

But like I say, the one thing was, that there I was.

- Levin's success was not limited to the courtroom.

He would also conquer the rough and tumble world of boxing.

- 1988, it was right after the Olympics, and Roy Jones Senior came in to see me.

I was a fan and he said, I want you to represent my son.

This was after Roy had, he should have won the gold medal and they stole it from him.

And I said, well, I don't know anything about boxing but I enjoy doing it.

He said, that's what I want.

I don't want the Bob Arums or the Don Kings, boxing is a crooked sport and I know you've been successful.

I had the Thorshov case and had a bunch of really good jury verdicts and a lot of publicity.

So he said, he'd teach me which he did.

And for the next, God, I guess almost 20 years, I was with Roy.

And it was probably some of the most exciting times you could ever imagine.

I mean, again, being in the right place, the right time here's a guy doesn't know the first thing about all of this and I'm National Boxing Manager of the year because I happened to be representing the greatest pound for pound boxer in history at the time.

- Right.

Levin's fascinating life would catch the attention of New York Times' bestselling author, Josh Young.

- And so as the years passed, and I had written a lot of other books with notable personalities.

I had always wanted to find a trial lawyer but I wanted someone who was really unique.

I had written a book with Wayne Rogers, the actor and multi-faceted businessman who has a place in Destin.

And I was having drinks with him one day.

And I told him of this desire of mine to write this book on a lawyer.

He said, you know, I may have just the perfect guy for you.

There's this wily old cat in Pensacola, who was one of the best trial lawyers of the century.

And controversy follows this guy around like a lap dog.

He said, you're not going to believe the stories about that.

I said, you have to get me a meeting with him, and he did.

So he comes to you Fred and says, I want to write a book about you, what are you thinking?

- At the time, I didn't know what to think.

And the more I talked to him and the more I realized who he was, I mean, he's a five times New York Times bestselling author.

And we discussed what it was going to be.

And I told him that I didn't want just a puff piece.

And he said, well, you don't have to worry about that.

And so we both agreed.

It would be totally open, totally honest, and that's what took place.

He did many, many interviews, not just with me, but with a number of other people and came up with a really, a very easily, an easy to read book, that I thought was the reason he is a five-time New York Times bestselling author, is he writes well.

So when Josh and I were talking about the book, I said, I really, at that time, my wife had passed away and I reflected on life.

And I said, you know, I really want this book to say more than boy.

Fred Levin is a great guy, a great superstar and all of this.

I wanted it to tell others that there's something more in life than being so wrapped up in yourself.

It reminded me of, there was a party we were having at my house one time.

And I don't remember who the politician was but the question was asked.

I remember he was a United States Senator and they asked him, and said, Senator, how is it that you and your wife have been so happy and stayed together for 30 some years?

And he said, the easy answer is we both been in love with the same man all that time.

(Jeff laughs) And that's basically what my life was like.

- You attribute, your children turned out really well and they're successful, all four of them were successful and accomplished in their own right, and you attribute that to your wife.

- Sure, well, it certainly couldn't attribute it to me.

I was never home out of the 15 different graduations, I attended one and that I was forced to do, because it was always I could, well, for example, I remember my daughter, Marcy, who's now a circuit judge graduating from law school while I had the chance to either go to her graduation at the University of Florida or go to the Kentucky Derby with Gary Hart and all the big shots, and I made the choice, well, you know, I'll never get a chance again, to see the Kentucky Derby with all these people, never realizing, well, I never will get the chance to see my daughter graduate from law school.

So that was pretty much how, I look back at life, and had you asked me at the moment, Fred, Marcy's getting ready to graduate law school, or you can go and be a superstar again.

I would have elected to be the superstar.

Now some 30 years later or whatever it might be.

I wish I'd have gone, you know, I wish I had gone to the graduation.

- But as hard as Fred is on himself, there's something great that came out of that.

Obviously he says, Marilyn raised the kids and instilled them with these values.

But one of the things he did by working so hard and making so much money, is he took that obstacle off the table for not only his four children who have become successful, as you said, and don't need that, but for their children and their grandchildren and the cousins and anyone, who's part of the Levin family.

I grew up in a middle class environment.

Most people I know, the biggest thing in their life, hanging over them is money.

I need to make a lot, I need to make enough money, not to be happy but to put my kids through college, some people to put food on the table, to go on vacations or whatever, by working so hard he eliminated that.

So as his family members entered relationships, they always knew that that was never going to be an issue.

So they could therefore focus on other things.

I would like the reader to see that there's a portrait of a truly great American life here.

A man who has made a difference in the lives of everyone across this country.

Even if they don't know it, he's a colorful character, but also he's a human being at heart.

- At the heart of the matter, Fred Levin's generosity, as much as his legal prowess will define his life.

- Through all of my father's accomplishments, he was actually most enamored with other people, not himself.

He wanted the best for everyone.

He believed everyone had the ability to be great, and he wanted everyone to be great.

He did his best to provide those and others with opportunity.

He continued to support them, and encourage them and admire them.

Even when sometimes he may not have showed up, his heart and empathy was often greater than his objective reasoning.

Dad would never intentionally do anything to harm another person, animal or other living creature.

He believed in absolute equality of all life with an unwavering commitment.

He absolutely despised hatred, prejudice, bigotry, greed and racism.

Dad had very difficult time even understanding how someone could be prejudice.

He did not see economic status, educational status, race, religion, creed or any other superficial differences among us and dad never ever hesitated in any capacity to speak up against the majority, against the authority, against the established and against the popular.

He believed we all had an obligation to speak out against wrongs, even when there would be repercussions to us speaking out, He did this without consideration or concern for the consequences to himself.

When he perceived any form of injustice, he made sure his voice was heard even while others wanted his voice silenced.

- Fred Levin's voice was not silenced.

Whether standing up for a fellow classmate, taking on big tobacco, or giving away millions of dollars so that others could have a better life.

Levin's voice was heard loud and clear.

You can see both of our interviews that we did with Fred Levin in their entirety, online at wsre.org/conversations.

I'm Jeff Weeks.

Thank you for watching.

(upbeat thoughtful music)