Chattanooga Bar Association Memorializes Late Miller & Martin Attorney Howard Levine

April 06, 2023

The Chattanooga Bar Association held a Memorial Service on March 31, 2023 featuring memorial resolutions honoring the professional lives of recently passed Chattanooga-area attorneys, including the late Miller & Martin attorney Howard Levine who practiced law for 59 years with the firm. Miller & Martin continues to mourn the loss of Howard Levine and is grateful for the many years our attorneys had the pleasure of working alongside him to serve clients.

Memorial to Howard I. Levine
As prepared by Jim Levine

Howard Ivan Levine, 84, who spent his entire 59 career practicing law in Chattanooga at Miller & Martin, passed away peacefully with his family by his side on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.

Howard was born in Chattanooga on March 27, 1938 and lived in Chattanooga his entire life.  He grew up on Missionary Ridge and graduated from The Bright School in 1950 and The McCallie School in 1956.  He went on to graduate in 1960 from Yale University, where he received a B.S. in Industrial Administration and was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and the Yale Lightweight Crew.  He graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1963 and served in the U.S. Army as an enlisted officer and for several years in the Army Reserves as a 1st Lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General Corp.

Howard was a 2nd generation Chattanooga attorney.  His father, Jake, emigrated to the United States in the early 20th century and was an esteemed lawyer in Chattanooga until the mid-1960s.  Howard was a summer law clerk in 1962 with the law firm of Miller, Martin, Hitching, Tipton & Lenihan and joined the firm as a full time attorney in 1963.  Howard continued to practice law his entire his life at Miller & Martin, which he loved and where he served for several years as Chairman/Managing Partner.  The firm meant the world to him, and for his entire career he kept in his bottom desk drawer his 1962 letter from the firm offering him a position as associate.

Professionally, Howard’s legal practice covered corporate, healthcare and trusts and estates law.  He served as Chairman of the Health Law Section of the Tennessee Bar Association.  He served hundreds of clients during his 59 year career, including service as general counsel to Memorial Hospital for many years.  Howard was particularly proud of his service to the hospital, which is where he spent the last few days of his life. 

Howard was a beacon of service to the Chattanooga community for decades, and the following are a few of the several organizations he served over the years:  McCallie School (Trustee); Bright School (Trustee); Children’s Home/Chambliss Shelter (Board Member); Greater Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce (Board Member/Chairman); Mizpah Congregation (Board Member/President); Rotary Club of Chattanooga (President); Team Evaluation Center (President); Association of Yale Alumni (Board Member); and The Salvation Army Advisory Board (Chairman). He was especially proud of The McCallie School, where he was named one of its Distinguished Alumni, and was delighted that both of his sons and two of his grandsons graduated from McCallie.

Howard was also proud of his son Jim, who followed his footsteps in the practice of law and just celebrated his 25th anniversary at Baker Donelson, and his son Matthew, who is an orthopedic surgeon in the Washington, D.C. area.  He cherished the hours he spent on the golf course with his two oldest grandsons, Jake and Sam, who played with skill that Howard always aspired to achieve.   He loved time in Hilton Head with his younger grandchildren, Eli and Sydney, and looked forward to hearing about their baseball games and swim meets.  A diehard Atlanta Braves fan, he loved watching every game, especially the World Series wins in 1995 and 2021.

Howard was preceded in death by his father and mother, Jake and Mary, his brother Jay, and his beloved daughter, Margaret L. Levine, who tragically died at age 26 in 1999 from complications due to a brain tumor.  He is survived by his wife of 53 years, M.J. Levine, his 2 sons, Jim Levine of Chattanooga (Jill) and Matthew Levine of McLean, Virginia (Heather Gazan), and by his 4 grandchildren, Jake Levine, Sam Levine, Eli Levine and Sydney Levine. 

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED in a special Memorial Session on this 3rd day of March, 2023, that the superb professional life of Howard I. Levine be memorialized through this resolution and be adopted by this association as words of respect, praise and memory.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be filed in the archives of the Chattanooga Bar Association; and be enrolled in the Memorial Resolution Book of the Circuit and Chancery Courts of Chattanooga, Tennessee; and that a copy be presented to his family as a token of the esteem and honor in which he has been held, as an expression of our very deep sympathy and our mutual loss.