A Close-Up Look at People Who Matter : Fighting the Good Fight for Those in Need

In the shiny Downtown corporate headquarters of jeans giant Guess? Inc., photographs of pale, pouting models in their favorite blues adorn the walls. A sculpture of televisions broadcasts repetitive, abstract images into the lobby.

The receptionist’s mantra sounds like cheerful machine-gun fire. “Good afternoon Guess? please hold good afternoon Guess? please hold good afternoon. . . .”

But upstairs, surrounded by lawbooks, Stan Levy was talking about justice.

“There’s a passage in the Bible: Justice ye shall justly pursue,” said Levy. “That became in effect my charge.”

At 52, Levy is a man of many layers. He’s a corporate attorney--general counsel for Guess?--reared in Beverly Hills and educated at UCLA, he’s a proud father and husband, a legal advocate for the poor, and a rabbi.

He was once executive director, and a founder, of the poverty law organization now called Public Counsel. He has served the Western Center on Law and Poverty and directed training for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

And he’s spent 20 years dedicating his time to a nonprofit corporation he helped create that provides legal services to those who need help but can’t afford it.

The corporation, Bet Tzedek, the House of Justice, will honor Levy for those years at its annual fund-raising dinner in February.

In 1972, Levy and a handful of others started building the project that has since helped more than 80,000 low-income families and individuals find justice in a world they can’t afford.

Bet Tzedek was born as Levy brainstormed on how to provide legal services to those who couldn’t pay for them and weren’t being helped by other agencies.

“In 1974, we opened the service with a group of volunteers and a small storefront office on Fairfax (Avenue),” Levy said. “There were 18 of us. If we all paid $5 a month, we could cover our rent.”

Since then, the service has moved out of the $90-a-month storefront into two offices--one still on Fairfax and another in North Hollywood, serving the San Fernando Valley.

Bet Tzedek now employs 40 full-time staff members and works with hundreds of volunteers, including attorneys, social workers and accountants. The service handles 6,000 cases a year, including 1,200 in the Valley.

Cases range from landlord-tenant disputes and consumer issues to the rights of Holocaust survivors and the quality of nursing care. Attorneys travel to senior centers and other sites for people who can’t get to Bet Tzedek’s offices.

“It’s a wonderful program,” said SuzAnn Nelsen, director of supportive services for the Santa Clarita Senior Center in Newhall. “It’s been very helpful to the people in our community because in our area we have no place to refer people.”

“We want people to come and get help,” Levy said. “We want people not to feel intimidated. This is a place you can come and get some real care.”

Levy works in the background of the organization, making sure the wheels keep turning.

“I figured in the time I could volunteer, I would be able to convince 10 others to volunteer,” said Levy, who serves on the board of directors.

He also networks to help raise the funds that keep Bet Tzedek going. The nonprofit corporation’s budget for 1992 hit $2.73 million. Scores of law firms, individuals, corporations and foundations have donated.

“I think people want to serve. I think people want to provide to the community,” Levy said. “I feel only humans can do God’s work in this world.”

Rabbi Richard Levy, the co-founder who initially discussed the legal-service concept with Stan Levy, said his friend jumped at the idea.

“He was very excited about it,” he said. “He brought a lot of enthusiasm. (He brought) his commitment and his desire in his own life to blend his Jewish and his legal commitments.”

Personal Best is a weekly profile of an ordinary person who does extraordinary things. Please address prospective candidates to Personal Best, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, 91311. Or fax them to (818-772-3338).