Allen T. Klots was born in
Brooklyn, New York, on September 14, 1889, to Charles A. Klots. He attended
Yale University, where he was elected to
Phi Beta Kappa and was a member of
Skull and Bones, and
Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the
Harvard Law Review. Klots graduated from
Harvard University in 1913, and joined
Henry Stimson's firm of
Winthrop & Stimson that same year as a clerk. However, he left two years later to serve with the
National Guard on the
Mexican border during the
Pancho Villa Expedition. In 1916, he was deployed to
France for service with the 77th division of the
American Expeditionary Force in
World War I. After being slightly wounded, Klots was reappointed to the 305th Field Artillery Regiment as an
adjutant to Stimson. After the war, Klots remained in France for another year on the staff if the
American Relief Administration in
Paris.
Career Klots returned to the United States in 1921, and was made a partner at Winthrop & Stimson. In 1929, he followed Stimson to the
State Department when Stimson was appointed
Secretary of State by President
Herbert Hoover, and there he served as Stimson's assistant. Among his assignments was the gathering of information on the
Soviet Union and investigating
Japanese incursions into
China. He married and had a son, Allen Trafford Klots, Jr. (1921–1987). He returned to Winthrop & Stimson in 1932, and remained at the firm as a partner for the rest of his career. He worked extensively with the
New York City Bar Association. In 1948, he headed a committee on Congressional investigations that published a report urging reforms to investigating procedures in response to the excesses of the
House Un-American Activities Committee. He served as president of the City Bar from 1954 to 1955. Klots also advocated for reform of the New York Court System, arguing that judges on New York's
Supreme Court and
Court of Appeals should be appointed by the
Governor rather than elected. In 1956, he was appointed by
Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. as chairman of the Mayor's Committee on the Courts in 1956, where he served for three years and contributed significantly to the eventual restructuring of the New York City court system in 1972. As a member of the New York City Bar Association's Steering Committee, Klots advocated for similar court reforms on the state level. These reforms were ultimately passed into law in 1977, when voters ratified three proposed court restructuring amendments to the
New York State Constitution. In addition to his legal career, Klots served as mayor of
Laurel Hollow, Long Island, and as a director of the chemical manufacturing company Scheiflin & Co. Allen Klots died of a
heart attack on January 1, 1965, at his home in
Laurel Hollow, Long Island. He was 75 years old. ==References==