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Long Island has no shortage of vintage lawyers, longtime jurists who keep at it well into their 80s and 90s, long after other professionals have retired to the back nine.
Consider Great Neck attorney Murray Seeman, first licensed to practice law in 1937 and well into his 90s when he hung up his briefcase last year. Or law professor Leon Lazer, a retired appellate court justice who survived the Battle of the Bulge, joined the New York bar in 1948 and still teaches torts at the Touro Law Center. At age 91.
These careers easily predate some of the most notable moments in American law, including Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Roe v. Wade (1973) and "Matlock" (1986). And on Long Island, they're hardly unique.
"It's a very interesting occupation," said Robert Blakeman, 87, a 1949 NYU Law School graduate now in his 64th year of private practice in Valley Stream. "I like to help people, and I've done all right."
Blakeman, who's also licensed in California, is a solo act now, but at various times has shared practices with his sons and his brother, Royal, once a preeminent entertainment lawyer representing Merv Griffin and Dick Van Dyke. Blakeman has represented Valley Stream in the State Assembly and served as its village attorney - also for Hewlett Harbor - and was general counsel for the Green Acres shopping center when it opened...