Victor H. Kramer; Founded Center for Law, Social Policy

He was the author of numerous law review articles on antitrust and legal ethics issues and the editor of several book-length publications. He also wrote personal memoirs and the history of the Kramer family from its arrival in the United States in 1833 to 1938.

Disciplined and demanding, Mr. Kramer inspired awe, if not fear, among friends, colleagues and family members, even as they realized that he held himself to the same exacting standards as he held others.

"He was a small man in stature, but he filled a room," recalled his son-in-law Kawin Wilairat.

As the senior partner at Arnold & Porter responsible for recruitment, Mr. Kramer's method of interviewing prospective employees was short, if something less than sweet. "You have exactly five minutes to tell me why we should take you," he would say, pulling out his pocket watch.

He detested sloppy work from his students, and his cardinal rule was that personal pronouns had no place in legal briefs, ever.

Family dinner-table conversations "were more often akin to legal interrogations," Wilairat recalled. As the consummate trial lawyer, he rarely posed a question -- to children, in-laws, grandchildren -- if he didn't already know the answer.

"For the uninitiated, this could be unnerving," Wilairat said, also noting that his father-in-law believed in spending time with his family just as strongly as he believed in high standards of conduct.

Mr. Kramer was one of the early members of the Jewish Reform congregation Temple Sinai, founded in 1951. In retirement, he devoted a considerable amount of time to volunteer work and established the Victor H. Kramer Foundation to finance and support research and scholarship at the law schools of the University of Chicago, Harvard University and Yale University.

His first wife, Miriam Tickton Kramer, died in 1965.

Survivors include his wife of 40 years, Solveig Grett Kramer of the District; three children from his first marriage, Ruth Ziony of Los Angeles, Edith Wilairat of the District and Stephen Kramer of New York; two stepdaughters from the second marriage, Kristin Kelly of Los Angeles and Carolyn Wolfe of San Diego; a brother, S. Paul Kramer of the District; and six grandchildren.