Richard W. Laner
Employment lawyers said it’s hard to overstate the impact Richard W. Laner had on their firm and on labor law in Illinois.
Laner died Saturday in California at age 83 after he suffered a heart attack while playing handball, his favorite sport.
The name partner of Laner Muchin Ltd. played a major role in negotiating the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act in 1983 while serving as special labor counsel to then-Chicago Mayor Harold Washington. He then oversaw its implementation the following year while in the same position.
“He was a giant,” said Martin H. Malin, a professor and director of the Institute for Law and the Workplace at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law.
“He had a larger-than-life presence while he was alive, and now that will continue that he’s gone,” said Joseph M. Gagliardo, the managing partner of Laner Muchin. “As we talk about what he meant to the firm and the lawyers here, it will become clear that a lot of his philosophies and objectives are ingrained in what we do here every day.”
After graduating from Northwestern University School of Law, Laner joined Dorfman, DeKoven and Cohen in 1956.
The firm would go through several name changes over the years. The first time Laner’s name graced the front door was in 1986, when it became known as Laner, Muchin, Dombrow and Becker. The firm became Laner Muchin Ltd. in 2012.
The law Laner helped devise in Springfield in the early 1980s set out the rules in which public-sector employees could unionize.
“Dick Laner was a significant part of that,” Gagliardo said. “He had input into the drafting of the law and being an adviser to the city on how to comply and implement the law.”
When certain portions of the law became effective in 1984, Laner represented the city in its negotiations with public-sector employee unions.
Joel A. D’Alba, a senior managing shareholder of Asher, Gittler & D’Alba Ltd., represented the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 7, during its talks with the city and recalled Laner as a “very worthy adversary.”
“He was a tough negotiator who was willing to make a deal and resolve matters to maintain labor peace,” D’Alba said. “He did not take outrageous positions seeking to destroy the union or to impair its ability to represent the members.”
The collective bargaining agreements Laner hammered out with attorneys such as D’Alba still resonate today.
For instance, D’Alba recounted his negotiations with Laner on how police officers wanted to be able to assert their seniority in order to prevent the department from transferring them to other districts as a retaliatory act.
Laner, however, wanted to make sure the officers’ seniority rights would not be exercised in a way that would adversely affect the department.
D’Alba said Laner was always willing to work out a deal, even if it took a long time to negotiate it. The talks they had on seniority rights and the transfer systems would often extend well past midnight.
“He really taught me how to treat opposing parties with dignity and kindness, in putting deals together that involve parties who were at odds with each [other],” D’Alba said. “He did not hold personal grudges in the negotiations, and he was always moving toward the goal of getting a collective bargaining agreement. And that’s what made him a standout in this area.”
It was around the same time that Gagliardo first met Laner; Gagliardo was an attorney working for the city’s Law Department.
Gagliardo said Laner tried to recruit him to the firm in 1985, but he declined because he felt it wasn’t the right time. But when he came calling again in 1988, Gagliardo — then the first deputy corporation counsel — joined as the head of the firm’s new litigation practice, a role he still holds today.
Gagliardo said Laner gave him free rein in developing the litigation practice that now comprises roughly one-third of Laner Muchin’s business.
“That was one of his strengths. Although he was a very strong leader, he was always willing to let others take on a leadership role,” Gagliardo said. “He did not attempt to micromanage.”
Laner was a driving force at the firm. He was an early riser; Gagliardo said Laner would always arrive at the office at 6 a.m. He also believed attorneys should be responsive to their clients.
That led to the creation of the firm’s “two-hour rule” — the window in which Laner Muchin attorneys are expected to respond to clients’ needs and concerns.
“With newer lawyers, he would make it clear that if there are issues with what the clients are doing, we have to be strong and let them know there are potential issues,” Gagliardo said. “Our role should be to understand their objectives and then navigate around those issues.”
Laner’s colleagues described him as a very credible lawyer — both Gagliardo and Tom Balanoff, the president of Service Employees International Union Local 1 and the SEIU Illinois State Council, separately described Laner’s word as being good enough to take to the bank.
He was also active in the broader legal community. Laner’s firm was one of the founders of Chicago-Kent’s Institute for Law and the Workplace, and he sat on almost every advisory board related to labor law at the law school, Malin said.
Laner’s penchant for being responsive also carried over to his involvement at Chicago-Kent. Any time Malin sent out something for comment, Laner was always the first to reply and at length.
“His thinking was very broad and creative,” Malin said.
Gagliardo agreed, saying Laner also pressed his colleagues to examine multiple aspects of legal issues.
Laner also partnered with Balanoff to hold fundraisers for the Anti-Defamation League. Balanoff praised Laner’s character, saying it was natural for him to be involved with the civil rights organization.
Gagliardo described Laner as good-natured and approachable, both in his personal and professional lives.
Laner was married with two children and four grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held on Friday at 11 a.m. at Beth Hillel Congregation Bnai Emunah, 3220 Big Tree Lane, Wilmette.