Arthur Groman; Lawyer for Rich, Famous

Arthur Groman, a trial lawyer for more than half a century who represented such clients as Howard Hughes, Judy Garland, Roman Polanski, Armand Hammer and Fred Goldman, has died. He was 84.

Groman, who had been with the law firm Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp since 1944, died Tuesday in Los Angeles.

His most recent well-known client was the Fred Goldman family in its civil lawsuit against O.J. Simpson over the slaying of Goldman’s son Ron along with Nicole Brown Simpson.

One of Groman’s longest associations was with the late Hammer and his Occidental Petroleum Co. The lawyer represented Hammer as well as Occidental, served on the company’s board of directors and was secretary of the Armand Hammer Museum.

When Hammer faced federal prosecution in the mid-1970s on charges of campaign financing violations, Groman joined famed Washington lawyer Louis Nizer to defend him, eventually arranging for him to plead guilty to misdemeanors.

The famous learned to trust Groman in times of trouble. Though Groman was not Polanski’s lawyer, he interceded for him in the mid-1980s, urging the district attorney’s office to void Polanski’s prison sentence. Polanski fled to Europe in 1978, where he remains, rather than face sentencing on his guilty plea to a single charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

Among Groman’s clients were RKO, Columbia, Paramount and MGM studios, Norton Simon, Edward G. Robinson, Warren Beatty, Paul Newman, Mick Jagger, Jack Kent Cooke and Gene Scott’s Westcott Christian Center.

A popular philanthropist and community leader, Groman served as board member and lifetime trustee of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, chairman of the Los Angeles Jewish Foundation, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Jewish Committee and president of the California Institute for Cancer Research.

He was a dedicated booster of his alma mater, USC, where he had been a champion debater and had graduated with honors. The alumni association later awarded him its Medal of Merit. In honor of his 80th birthday, his wife, Miriam, established the Arthur Groman Scholarship Fund at USC Law School.

Although he started law school at USC, Groman transferred to Yale, where he earned his degree, ranked first in his class and edited the Yale Law Journal. He worked as an attorney for the Treasury Department during World War II.

Groman is survived by his wife of 29 years; two sons, Richard and Steven; a sister, Shirley Kaplan; three stepchildren, Alan Shanedling, David Shanedling and Deborah Anne Stern, and several grandchildren.

Memorial services are scheduled today at 12:30 p.m. at the Stephen S. Wise Temple, 15500 Stephen Wise Drive, Los Angeles.

The family has requested that any memorial contributions be made to Groman’s scholarship fund at USC Law School.