Well-known Milwaukee attorney Jack A. Berland died Nov. 27.
He was born in Milwaukee on Thanksgiving Day and died in his sleep on Thanksgiving Day, one day shy of his 95th birthday.
A Milwaukee attorney for 60 years, he successfully argued personal injury cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In his 80s, after retiring from his family-law practice, he took pro-bono work on behalf of disadvantaged youth. A mentor to many, he also helped young lawyers get their start in the 1950s by allowing them to use his office rent-free until they got established.
Affectionately known in his later years as “the silver fox” because of his distinctive white hair, he was one of the last surviving members of the 1934 graduating class of Marquette University Law School.
As a young man he helped his brother through medical school and supported his own law school education by working as a streetcar conductor. Coincidentally, he survived the Depression with the help of his first client, the streetcar union, and in 1934 was a signator to the first contract the union struck with the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company.
He always had a love for the law and said, “I thought it was all a search for the truth.”
In 1939, he fell in love with Helen Lipschutz, whom he met on a blind date. A fashion and industrial engineer, she eventually made her mark as a trompe l’oiel still-life painter. He enjoyed playing the violin so their home was filled with music and art. She died in 1986.
He was a member of Congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun, where he served as president of the Brotherhood. He also was president of Shorewood B’nai B’rith Lodge.
He is survived by daughters Dinah Berland of Los Angeles and Georgia Berland of Healsburg, Calif.; son Lincoln Berland of Birmingham, Ala.; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Rabbi Francis Barry Silberg officiated at the funeral on Nov. 30. Burial was in Mound Zion Cemetery.
Memorials to the Jewish Home and Care Center or Marquette University Law School would be appreciated by the family.
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