Jay Fischer, lawyer in terror case, dies

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Jay D. Fischer, a New Jersey lawyer who negotiated a monetary settlement for the family of a victim of high-seas terror, died Thursday. He was 79.

The cause was complications of respiratory failure, said the Englewood Cliffs law firm Fischer, Porter, Thomas & Reinfeld, where Fischer, of Clifton, N.J., was senior partner.

On Oct. 7, 1985, Palestinian terrorists hijacked the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean Sea. The following day, they killed a Jewish passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, 69, of New York City, and tossed his body and wheelchair overboard. The act became a shocking symbol of Middle East terrorism.

Fischer represented the Klinghoffer family in its suit against the Palestine Liberation Organization. Fischer's daughter, Tamar Stern, said her father became involved because one of his clients was a friend of Leon Klinghoffer's wife, Marilyn.

Marilyn Klinghoffer, who was on the anniversary cruise with her husband, died of cancer four months after the incident.

Fischer structured his case by asserting that the PLO was not a sovereign power entitled to diplomatic immunity but an unincorporated association doing business in New York by virtue of its real estate holdings. The PLO was represented by Ramsey Clark, a former U.S. attorney general. After 12 years, the PLO agreed to settle the lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.

Alan Thomas, a partner in Fischer, Porter, Thomas & Reinfeld, said Fischer was "steadfast" during the unusual legal odyssey. "He believed in the case from the beginning and believed in it at the end," Thomas said.

"This was prior to 9/11 and my father believed terrorists should be held accountable," Stern said.

Stern said her ailing father was unaware that U.S. Navy SEALs killed 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden two weeks ago, "but he would have been thrilled." Fischer, a Bronx native, was active in the 1960s Democratic reform movement in New York City. He moved to Clifton in 1969 and practiced there before helping found the Englewood Cliffs firm in 1993.