The Mercury News | Sal Pizarro | March 11, 2017
Prominent San Jose attorney Stan Berliner had his retirement party Thursday night, but Berliner might not have had a 50-year career in San Jose were it not for Phil Hammer.
Hammer, who went to law school at UC-Berkeley with Berliner, said the two of them were both in Washington, D.C. at the same time when Berliner was working with the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General’s office in the early 1960s. When Berliner came to the Bay Area, he went where many people go — San Francisco.
“Stan was miserable in San Francisco, so I got him his first job in San Jose with Bob Morgan‘s law office,” said Hammer, who attended the party with his wife, former San Jose Mayor Susan Hammer. The rest, as they say, is history. Berliner, now 80, opened his first law office in San Jose in 1966 in the old Bank of America building — just a few short blocks away from the massive office building at 10 S. Almaden Blvd. where his send-off was held. Three years later, he teamed up with another colleague from his law school days, Sam Cohen, to form Berliner Cohen.
The firm built a roster of notable clients in the South Bay, including the Sobrato Organization, Southern Pacific Railroad, Kimball Small Properties, FMC, Federal Realty and the San Jose Sharks. About 250 people — including longtime friends and clients came to the party, where guests were encouraged to toast Berliner with a bright blue champagne cocktail dubbed “The Stantastic.”
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