Norman Grutman; Penthouse, Falwell Lawyer

Norman Roy Grutman, a trial lawyer who defended clients as disparate as the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione, has died of cancer. He was 63.

Grutman died Sunday at his home in New York City.

He tried more than 1,000 cases in his career and spent 18 years as principal outside counsel for Guccione and his enterprises, including Penthouse and Omni magazines.

In 1981, Grutman represented Penthouse when Falwell tried to prevent distribution of an issue containing an interview with him. A federal judge denied Falwell’s request.

Impressed with Grutman’s expertise, Falwell hired Grutman in 1983 to represent him in his $45-million lawsuit against Hustler magazine and its publisher, Larry Flynt.

Hustler had run a phony ad that pretended to quote Falwell discussing a sexual encounter with his mother and a habit of getting drunk before giving sermons.

Falwell, claiming emotional distress, was awarded $200,000, but the verdict was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988.

Grutman also represented Penthouse when it sued Hustler and Flynt for libel in 1983. Guccione won a $1.6-million award that was later overturned by an appeals court, which said Hustler’s depiction of him as an adulterer was “substantially true.”

Grutman graduated magna cum laude from Yale in 1953 and from Columbia Law School in 1955. He co-authored “Lawyers and Thieves,” a 1990 book that criticized lawyers and the legal profession.

Grutman is survived by his wife, Jewel Humphrey; a son, Sasha; a daughter, Nila; and a stepson, Bruce Bjork.