Sidney M. Perlstadt

Sidney M. Perlstadt died in 2004 at age 96 after a long career as a widely-respected pension practitioner and leader within the Chicago pension bar. He was a Fellow of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel (the “College”), having been inducted as a Charter Emeritus member in 2000.

Sidney was born in Warsaw, Poland (then part of Russia) in 1907. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1916 and became a citizen in 1940.

In 1928, he received a Bachelor of Philosophy in Business as his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago. During the early 1930s, he worked as an accountant in Chicago. In 1935, he moved to California and worked for a number of years as a revenue agent for the Bureau of Internal Revenue (the predecessor of the IRS) for its Oakland, CA office. He received his Certified Public Accountant certification in 1938. In the late 1930s or early 1940s, he moved back to Chicago and received his J.D. from De Paul University College of Law in 1942.

In 1944, he went to work for the Chicago law firm Sonnenschein, Berkson, Lautmann, Levinson & Morse (in 1990, known as Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal) (the Sonnenschein firm became SNR Denton and then Dentons after 2010 and 2013 mergers). Sidney became a partner and practiced tax law at the Sonnenschein firm until he was 89 years old. He specialized in pension, corporate, and individual taxation. His clients included author Irving Stone (“The Agony and the Ecstasy” (1961)) and social activist and community organizer Saul Alinsky (“Reveille for Radicals” (1946)).

Sidney stepped up as a leader and contributor in both the legal and the greater community. He was active in the Chicago Bar Association for many years and was chair of its pension committee from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s. He was a member of the Illinois Public Employees Pension Laws Commission from 1973 to 1984.

For many years, Sidney was a trustee and secretary of the Industrial Areas Foundation, co-founded by Saul Alinsky. It became a national network of local faith and community organizations in primarily low-income communities focusing on training community organizers in politics, organization and communication skills in order to put pressure on local, state, and federal officials.

Sidney was one of the first tax lawyers in private practice to focus on the taxation rules for qualified pension plans. He was a knowledgeable and generous resource for fellow Sonnenschein partners Roger Siske and Pamela Baker, both Charter Fellows. Sidney mentored a number of other Chicago pension lawyers as well, including Peter Kelly, also a Charter Fellow. Peter commented that “Sid was a great mentor in that he involved us young lawyers in discussions and showed respect for our input. He often engaged in back-and forth tag team discussions with [future College In Memoriam Fellow] John Lindquist regarding the practical issues involved in incorporating the then recently-passed Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) into established retirement plan designs. Listening to their exchanges about the impact of ERISA was like a master class in pension law.”

Excellence and leadership in the practice of employee benefits law became a Perlstadt family tradition: Sidney’s daughter, Susan P. Serota, was also a Charter Fellow and served as President of the College. She said of her father: “My dad was known as “Mr. Pension” among the Chicago pension bar” for his depth of knowledge. Starting in 2005, Susan established and funded The Sidney M. Perlstadt Memorial Award, presented in the College’s annual Employee Benefits Writing Competition.

Photo Source: The Decade Book, American College of Employee Benefits Counsel 2000-2010, 3/11/1988