Morris J. Kramer, Pioneer in Deal Law, Dies at 71

Morris J. Kramer, who as a longtime partner at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom helped revolutionize the practice of advising on mergers and acquistions, died on Friday morning in Manhattan. He was 71.

The cause was complications from prostate cancer, said a son, Oliver Kramer.

In the 1970s, Mr. Kramer was part of a quartet of young merger-and-acquisitions lawyers that became known alternately within Skadden as the “Young Turks” and the “Fab Four.” They trained under Joseph H. Flom, the pioneering corporate lawyer, and helped build Skadden from a small, scrappy practice into one of the world’s leading law firms.

Mr. Kramer and his colleagues made their mark by taking on assignments that New York’s white-shoe establishment law firms had long eschewed and considered déclassé - representing corporations in hostile takeover bids and proxy battles for the control of public companies.

In 1973, Mr. Kramer was a lead architect of an unsolicited bid by International Nickel Company of Canada for ESB Inc., a deal that is widely considered to have set off the tidal wave of hostile takeovers over the next two decades. During the go-go 1980s, he served as a go-to lawyer for Bruce Wasserstein and Joseph Perella at their powerhouse deal shop First Boston.

Considered a brilliant tactician, Mr. Kramer loved what he referred to as the “brain surgery” of a deal, mastering the arcana of a transaction that could give his client an edge in negotiations, or in the courtroom.

“There’s an old saying, ‘if the facts are against you, you pound on the law; if the law is against you, you pound on the facts; and if both are against you, you pound on the table,’” said Franklin M. Gittes, a Skadden partner. “But instead of pounding on the table, we turned to Morris for advice.”

Morris Joseph Kramer was born on Nov. 18, 1941 in Brooklyn. He grew up in Bay Ridge and graduated from Fort Hamilton High School. He earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College in 1963 and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1966.

After a few years practicing at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, Mr. Kramer joined Skadden in 1972. According to “Skadden: Power, Money, and the Rise of a Legal Empire,” a 1994 book by Lincoln Caplan, Mr. Kramer was a quiet, cerebral lawyer but projected “a shimmer of eccentricity” with a flamboyant wardrobe in keeping with the era.

“He arrived dressing in conservative business suits, and soon adopted the mod style (bright-colored shirts, jackets with wide lapels, bell-bottom pants, and long hair),” Mr. Caplan wrote. Mr. Kramer continued to wear his hair in a pony tail well into the 1980s.

In addition to Oliver, he is survived by another son, Jeremy; a brother, Stephen, and three grandchildren. Mr. Kramer, who had homes in Manhattan and Aspen, Colo., was divorced three times.

Neither of Mr. Kramer’s sons followed him into the law; instead, both became film producers. Oliver Kramer is developing a television show about the merger mania of the 1970s and 1980s, focusing on an upstart law firm that closely resembles Skadden during its ascent.

“My father would say that he benefited from being in the right place at the right time,” said Oliver Kramer. “Joe Flom and his protégés did not owe anything to the establishment, so they were not concerned with taking it on.”