Ernest Leff

Ernest Leff, formerly of Colchester and Westport, died Wednesday (May 2, 2007) at the age of 82 near his home in Los Angeles, CA. Since 1963 Leff has lived and practiced law in Los Angeles, specializing in financial institutions. Among his professional accomplishments, Leff argued and won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Fidelity Federal Savings & Loan Association v. DeLaCuesta. Leff graduated from Bacon Academy in Colchester in 1942 He was an infantryman during World War II, surviving the Battle of the Bulge and capture by the Germans. After the war, he graduated from the University of Connecticut and New York University School of Law. He worked as an attorney in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and then followed his mentor, Thurman Arnold, to the Washington, D.C. firm of Arnold, Fortas & Porter. Moving to Los Angeles, Leff became general counsel to Home Savings & Loan Association and American Savings & Loan Association and then became a name partner in several downtown Los Angeles law firms. He is survived by his devoted wife of 52 years, Ada G. Leff; his daughter, Laurel Leff, her husband, Jeremy Paul and their sons Jason and Russell Paul, of West Hartford; his son, Andrew Leff, his wife Shellie Leff, and their daughters Rebecca and Jennifer Leff of Calabasas, CA. He is also survived by his brother, Eugene Lefkowitz and his wife, Annette, of Gouldsboro, PA; and his brother, Sanford Leff, and his wife, Deborah, of Woodbury, NY; and many nieces and nephews. Funeral services will take place at Congregation Ahavath Achim, 84 Lebanon Ave., Colchester, on Sunday, May 6, at 12:30 p.m. The family will observe shiva at the Leff-Paul residence, 141 Steele Rd., West Hartford. Contributions in Leff’s memory can be made to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), 31 Center Dr., 8A07, Bethesda, MD 20892-2540. Arrangements entrusted to Weinstein Mortuary, Hartford.