Leonard I. Weinglass died of pancreatic cancer at Montefiore Medical Center on Wednesday 23 March. He had been living in Manhattan and worked for over a half a century as a progressive defense lawyer, representing government oppositionists and notorious criminal defendants in a multitude of contentious cases such as:  the Chicago Seven, the Pentagon papers, and the Hearst Kidnapping. Tom Hayden, founder of the Students for a Democratic Society, spoke of the passing of his friend and added, “I would say he was the best courtroom lawyer I’ve known in my lifetime, and I’ve known a lot of them.”

Leonard Irving Weinglass was born in Belleville, New Jersey on 27 August 1933. He was a member of his high school football and debate teams. He graduated from George Washington University and Yale Law school and was a lawyer for the Air Force before beginning his practice in Newark. Leonard was married once, late in life, and divorced. He is survived by two sisters, Elaine Nicastro, of Lebanon, Jew Jersey, and Natalie Franzblau, of Nutley New Jersey, and brother, Steven Weinglass, of Los Angeles.

In addition to the notorious Chicago Seven, Hearst and Pentagon cases, over the past 40 years Weinglass represented many other prominent clients, including Angela Davis, activist and educator who was acquitted of murder, conspiracy and kidnapping charges in the 1970 killing of a California judge; and Amy Carter, the daughter of President Carter, who along with others, including Abbie Hoffman, was arrested during a 1986 protest against the activities of the CIA at University of Massachusetts. She was acquitted of trespassing and disorderly conduct charges.

More recently, Mr. Weinglass was involved in the death-row appeals of Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose conviction in the 1981 killing of a Philadelphia police officer has been shrouded in allegations of racism, police corruption and judicial bias; and the Cuban 5, who were convicted in 2001 of espionage against the United States but who say they were monitoring Miami-based terrorist groups that target Cuba.

Leornard I. Weinglass will be remembered as a bulwark of the 1960s zeitgeist and defender of civil rights.