Among the representatives, few ALJs if any were more popular than Judge Greenberg, especially among the generation of advocates who have been handling cases for years. He was one of the last of the ALJs who were hired when having been a practicing trial lawyer was an asset.

It seems nowadays the hiring of ALJs by Social Security is mostly done to award the judgeships as prizes to Social Security staff employees or other lawyers used to working in a bureaucratic maze who have never handled a “real” client. Judge Greenberg “carried a briefcase” as he would say, for over 20 years before becoming a judge. He would always tell anyone who asked that he had “the greatest job.” His job was to do the right thing, to treat people well, to be fair—“how hard is that?” he would say.

And because he had been a “practicing lawyer” not a government employee, he understood that in the real world of representing someone, doctors or hospitals didn’t always cooperate, clients didn’t always tell you everything, people get nervous when testifying and appearances can be deceiving. If you were having trouble with a client, he would understand quickly what the problem was and would try to help you, not try to use that against the client.

Judge Greenberg especially valued a work history. In fact he persuaded me that the most important piece of evidence is often a claimant’s work history. If a person had worked 20 years for the same employer and was testifying that he just couldn’t do it anymore, the Judge would look at me as if to say “Who am I to doubt a hard working guy like this? ” and the hearing would be over quickly. On people who lacked a good work history, he was much more difficult to persuade for the same reasons. Hard working people with real jobs who showed up every day—that was the key to his believing someone’s complaints of pain or fatigue or just being worn out. I now find myself deciding to take cases or reject them increasingly based on the claimant’s work history—who am I to doubt them when they’ve worked all their lives?

And because he had been a real attorney before becoming an ALJ, he also never took anything personally. If you appealed a decision of a very young person without a work history and were able to persuade a court to overturn him, he would congratulate you. He wouldn’t look to deny the person the second time but simply would analyze the case more closely. He was happy if you proved him wrong and correct it the second time, but in the end if you still couldn’t persuade him, he’d tell you straight out why.

And being the chief judge in one of the busier hearing offices, he demanded that his colleagues work hard, treat the claimants with respect and get the decisions out promptly. He never wanted anyone to lose a home or insurance while waiting for the decision to be written. A terrific judge, a wonderful person, a great loss.

Not surprisingly the funeral home was packed with friends from all over, not only from SSA, not only from the private bar, but from people he had met over his lifetime. He was a great judge, a fine human being—I wish there were lots more like him.