Ali vs. Frazier: the passing of Joe Flom recalls a memorable matchup.

• Author: Kaback, Hoffer
• Position: QUIDDITIES

MANY NAMES are irrevocably "paired": Roland and Oliver; Abbott and Costel-lo; Laurel and Hardy; Taylor and Burton.

Consider the much narrower group of pairs where the mention of one member induces you to think of the other not so much in his own right or in respect of a partnership or collaboration between the two but, instead, chiefly in the context of the struggle between them. What is called to mind is the dynamic of the struggle itself. The struggle has its own identity.

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While the name Ulysses S. Grant, standing alone, calls to mind several things, "Robert E. Lee" makes you think of the bloody struggle between the two. The name of first century sage Sham-mai causes you to think not about either Shammai or his great rival Hillel but about the numerous important disputes between them and their adherents. And though "Muhammad Ali" stimulates a wide range of reactions, "Joe Frazier" makes you think not of Frazier himself but of the three Ali-Frazier fights.

There is Ali without Frazier but, to Frazier's constant annoyance, no Frazier without the Ali-Frazier struggle.

In the many-front wars in the world of contested takeovers and proxy fights (which, though existent before, burst forth with the heat of a thousand suns only after 1974), there was, for most of the last quarter of the 20th century, only one Ali and one Frazier--and a very, very long series of 15-round rematches between them.

These two were Joseph H. Flom of Skadden Arps and Martin Lipton of Wachtell Lipton.

Sure, there were other excellent lawyers and law firms that fought in this same arena. Yet, to their constant annoyance, they were undercards to the Flom-Lipton main event.

This was not their fault. It was their misfortune.

For--like Antony and Cleopatra--Joe Flom and Marty Lipton stood up peerless.

Nevermore. Joe Flom died on February 23; he was 87.

True, Flom for several years had served more as an eminence grise in his firm than as a hands-on combatant; and Lipton has become a major voice in corporate governance policy generally (not just in the context of takeovers). Moreover, in law school-related, philanthropic, and other endeavors, Flom and Lipton each established an identity wholly independent of the other.

Still, throughout the last quarter of the century, "Flom" instantly put you in mind of the struggle with Lipton, and "Lipton" the struggle with Flom.

That unique competition endures in the collective consciousness. For many of the...