After graduation, he joined the law firm of Chadbourne, Stanchfield & Levy (currently
Chadbourne & Parke) in New York City. called the
Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, passed in the
United States Congress and became law on April 8, 1935. As a result, on May 6, 1935, FDR issued
Executive Order 7034, that essentially transformed the
Federal Emergency Relief Administration into the Works Progress Administration. "Pressman set to work analyzing the budget request that would transform FERA into the WPA." He remained in this position for the next decade. (According to his obituary in the New York Times, he was general counsel from 1936 to 1948. From May through August 1939, Pressman attacked support for the "
Walsh amendments" to the 1935
National Labor Relations Act (AKA the "Wagner Act"). In May 1939, when AFL president
William Green supported the amendments on
CBS Radio, the CIO's response, penned by Pressman, accused Green of colluding with the
National Association of Manufacturers against not just the CIO but also the AFL, i.e., workers. In August 1939, Pressman appeared before the
Senate Labor Committee to state that Green's support did not represent AFL
rank and file. Also in August 1939, Congress passed the
Hatch Act of 1939, which restricted political campaign activities by federal employees. A provision of the Hatch Act made it illegal for the federal government to employ anyone who advocated the overthrow of the federal government. The left-leaning
United Public Workers of America (UFWA) immediately hired Pressman to challenge the constitutionality of the Hatch Act. In October 1939, during a closed-door session during a CIO convention, president John L. Lewis declared his intent to rid the CIO of "Communist influence." This decision came in response particularly from
Philip Murray and
Sidney Hillman, the CIO's two vice presidents, that pre-dated the
Hitler-Stalin Pact (announced the previous month). Instead, Lewis would empower eight member of the CIO's 42 executive committee members. Further, Lewis increased the number of CIO vice presidents from two to six with:
R. J. Thomas, president of the
United Automobile Workers;
Emil Rieve, president of the
Textile Workers of America;
Sherman Dalrymple, president of the
United Rubber Workers; and
Reid Robinson, president of the
International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers. "Left forces" failed to have
Joseph Curran, president of the National Maritime Union, elected vice president. Further, Lewis demoted
Harry Bridges from West Coast CIO director to California state CIO director. In 1939,
New York Times reported on further internal conflict. In July 1943, the CIO formed a
political action committee, the "
CIO-PAC," chaired by Sidney Hillman, and supported by Pressman and
John Abt as co-counsels. Thus, in 1943, as American spy
Elizabeth Bentley resurrected the
Ware Group (of which Abt had been a member), could not risk involvement with her or the group. Instead, the group reformed under
Victor Perlo as the
Perlo Group. In September 1943 at a conference of the National Lawyers Guild, Pressman praised labor for reducing strikes and promoting the war effort. He praised the National War Labor Board's policy for recognizing labor unions as institutions within the basic framework of our democratic society. He criticized "selfish blocs" in Congress that had opposed FDR's program. In 1944, Pressman participated in resolution of a labor dispute of a national case in basic steel, involving some six hundreds unions on strike. The six-person board consisted of
David L. Cole and Nathan P. Feisinger for the government, Philip Murry of the CIO with Pressman as counsel for unions, John Stevens with Chester McLain of
U.S. Steel for industry. In April 1945, Pressman represented
Harry Bridges before the U.S. Supreme Court in
Bridges v. Wixon with the help of
Carol Weiss King and her recruit,
Nathan Greene who penned the brief. Later that month, Pressman joined Murray, Abt, and other CIO officials in Paris for a meeting with Soviet counterparts about the WFTU. On June 6, 1946, he contributed to a broadcast entitled "Should There Be Stricter Regulation of Labor Unions?" on ''
America's Town Meeting of the Air'' show on NBC Radio with Sen.
Allen J. Ellender,
Henry J. Taylor, and Rep.
Andrew J. Biemiller. , official portrait In 1947, Pressman became involved in passage of the
Taft-Hartley Act. In January 1947, he appeared on "New York Times radio" station
WQXR-FM with US Senator
Carl A. Hatch, former National War Labor Board chairman
William Hammatt Davis, and
General Precision Equipment Corporation general counsel Robert T. Rinear, to debate the topic "Do we need new labor laws?" While endorsing a Truman commission plan, he attacked any labor legislation passed hastily ahead of the commission's results, saying, "Judging from the bills now before Congress, their purpose is merely to penalize labor organizations." Senator Hatch agreed with him that severe wage cuts in terms of real wages and increased cost of living would not find resolutions in terms of legislation that addresses only jurisdictional disputes or secondary boycotts. "We need additional and new laws on all phases of the general problem of labor-management," Hatch said. Later on June 24, 1947, Pressman appeared again on CBS Radio with Raymond Smethurst, general counsel of
NAM to discuss the effect of the new labor law.
1948 (right) conferring with President
Truman in the Oval Office (1952) As of 1948,
James I. Loeb, co-founder of both the
Union for Democratic Action (UDA)
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), stated that Pressman was "probably was the most important Communist in the country ... he certainly was a Communist influence." In September 1948, Pressman and
Charles J. Margiotti tested the campaign-expenditures provision of the
Taft-Hartley Act. Pressman and Margiotti each received $37,500 for their services – a fee CIO President Philip Murray called "outrageous, even for
Standard Oil." In March 1948, Pressman joined a 700-member national organization in support of
Henry A. Wallace for U.S. president and
Glen H. Taylor for U.S. vice president. He ran against
Abraham J. Multer. Multer used Pressman's communist association against him early on by claiming that he had received his "certificate of election" from the
Daily Worker (
CPUSA newspaper), thanks to its condemnation of him. {{cite news {{cite news {{cite news In August 1948, during the Progressive Party convention in Philadelphia, Rexford Tugwell, chairman of its platform committee found his self-style "old-fashioned American progressive" platform scrapped by a pro-Communist line platform spearheaded by Pressman. TIME magazine noted, "It now seemed obvious to Tugwell that the Communists had taken over." {{cite magazine In the fall of 1948, Communist affiliation continued to hound Pressman's campaign. A month before the election, Pressman might have held out hope, as the
New York Times characterized him as a lawyer of "wide reputation" and a man with a "national reputation" and did not mention allegations in Washington. Days before the election, headlines in the Brooklyn and New York area were still appearing, like this from the
Brooklyn Daily Eagle: "Pressman: Candidate for Congress, Long Active in Pro-Red Groups." {{cite news
Private practice 1951-1969 Between 1948 and 1950, Pressman had represented "the estates of persons with heirs in Russia" of interest to the Soviets as well as affairs of
AMTORG. {{cite news By 1951, Pressman had only one major client left, the
Marine Engineers Beneficial Association (MEBA). Its president,
Herbert Daggett, retained Pressman at $10,000 (some $94,000 adjusted for 2017). {{cite web ==Espionage allegations==