Moving Metal

RELIANCE’S LEGAL EAGLE A ttorney Bernard Hiemenz had drawn up Reliance’s original articles of incorporation and for many years, Reliance relied

Every time he had a problem, Bill would call me and say, “This is it, what do I do?” We’d work it out and he appreciated the advice and paid the bill and everybody was happy. He always thought that these very complicated agreements that we lawyers put together were totally unnecessary, that people should be able to make a deal on the basis of a handshake. Gimbel selected Henigson to take up the vacancy created when Hiemenz retired from Reliance’s Board of Directors in 1964. Henigson, in turn, had so much faith in Reliance that he took out a large personal loan to buy

upon him for routine legal services. However, in 1957, Neilan turned to the small firm of Lawler, Felix & Hall for help negotiating the proposed sale of Reliance. At Lawler, attorney William Coffin took over for a time, and then turned the assignment over to his protégé, Robert Henigson. Henigson was born in Hollywood on December 27, 1925, and went to school in Los Angeles. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the California Institute of Technology

in Pasadena, and then went to work. But Henigson had higher aspirations so he enrolled in Harvard Law School. After graduating in 1955, he returned to California and passed the state bar exam. As a newly minted lawyer, Henigson had trouble finding employment in the Los Angeles area. He later remembered that he “wore out a lot of shoe leather talking to lawyers in practice and hoping that one of them would offer me a job.” Finally, Lawler, Felix & Hall hired him and placed him under Bill Coffin’s tutelage. Coffin was justly confident in the ability of his protégé. Henigson won a summary dismissal in the first lawsuit against Reliance related to the cancelled sale, and then a favorable bench ruling in the second. With the lawsuits concluded, Henigson became the company’s principal counsel and served in that capacity until he retired from Lawler, Felix & Hall in 1987. Henigson’s aggressive professionalism earned him Bill Gimbel’s respect and lifelong friendship. Henigson later described their friendship:

50,000 shares of Reliance stock when it became available. He was not wealthy so the loan was quite a burden, but the purchase proved to be a great investment. Henigson eventually became a partner at Lawler, Felix & Hall. Kay Rustand worked for him there as a young associate, handling all of Reliance’s acquisitions from 1994 onward and becoming the company’s first General Counsel in 2001. She recalled that most of her colleagues were afraid of Henigson because he demanded excellence. “There was no substitute for that,” she said. “He expected you to put in the time and know what you were doing, and I always enjoyed working with him because of that.” Henigson remained a Reliance director until 2005 and quietly passed away on February 28, 2014, surrounded by his family.

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