Howard Gittis was an American attorney known for being a longtime adviser to Ronald Perelman and an adviser to Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo

Frank Rizzo

Francis Lazarro "Frank" Rizzo, Sr. was an American police officer and politician. He served two terms as mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from January 1972 to January 1980; he was Police Commissioner for four years prior to that.-Police Commissioner:Rizzo joined the Philadelphia Police...

.

Biography

Howard Gittis was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

, graduating from Philadelphia's Central High School

Central High School (Philadelphia)

Central High School is a public secondary school in the Logan section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Central, the second-oldest continuously public high school in the United States , was founded in 1836 and is a four-year university preparatory magnet school...

. He earned his economics and law degrees from the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

. He served in the U.S. Air Force at an Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 airbase. After his military duty, Gittis accepted a job offer from Tom McBride

Tom McBride

Tom McBride was an American photographer, model, and actor. He starred in the 1981 horror movie Friday the 13th Part 2 as Mark. He also starred in the 1985 movie Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. His only TV guest appearance was on the TV series Highway to Heaven...

 who had just been elected to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. McBride lost his subsequent election, leading McBride to found his namesake law firm and keep Gittis by his side. This led to a merger with Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen where Gittis eventually became managing partner. Gittis worked at Wolf Block for 25 years. He continued in a consulting capacity to Wolf Block for a few years after he relocated to New York with MacAndrews & Forbes, a holding company owned by Ronald Perelman

Ronald Perelman

Ronald Owen Perelman is an American business magnate. Through his company MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings Inc., he has invested in various companies in grocery, cigar, licorice, makeup, car, photography, television, camping, security, lottery, jewelry, banks, and comic book industries.-Early...

. Gittis and Perelman first met back in the 1970s. Gittis became Perelman's trusted adviser and friend.

Gittis also acted as an adviser for politician Frank Rizzo, whom he successfully defended from an attempted recall.

In 1985, Gittis was recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the top 100 attorneys in the country.

Family

Gittis, the son of Russian immigrants, was the first in his family to go to college. He married twice and had four daughters.

Death

Gittis died in his sleep at his Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 home on September 16, 2007, from heart failure.