Lee Pressman

Lee Pressman
Lee Pressman during testimony to a U.S. Senate subcommittee on March 24, 1938
Born	July 1, 1906 New York City
Died	November 20, 1969(1969-11-20) (aged 63) Mt. Vernon, New York
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Cornell University (B.A., 1926) Harvard Law School (J.D., 1929)
Employer	Chadbourne, Stanchfield & Levy, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Works Progress Administration, Resettlement Administration, Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), Progressive Party
Known for	membership in Ware Group
Political party	Communist Party of the United States of America
Spouse(s)	Sophia Platnich
Children	Anne Pressman, Susan Pressman, Marcia Pressman
Parent(s)	Harry Pressman, Clara Pressman
Relatives	Irving Pressman (brother)

Lee Pressman (July 1, 1906 – November 20, 1969) was a labor attorney and a US government functionary publicly exposed in 1948 for having been a spy for the Soviet foreign intelligence network during the middle 1930s as a member of the Ware Group. Pressman lost his job as counsel for the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1948 as a result of a purge of Communist Party members and fellow travelers from that organization.

Lee Pressman was born July 1, 1906, on the Lower East Side of in New York City to Russian immigrants Harry and Clara Pressman.

Pressman received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a law degree from Harvard Law School. At Harvard, he was in the same class as Alger Hiss, and they both served on the Harvard Law Review:

Mr. Hiss: [...]Lee Pressman was in my class at the Harvard Law School, and we were both on the Harvard Law Review at the same time."

After graduation, he joined the law firm of Chadbourne, Stanchfield & Levy (currently Chadbourne & Parke) in New York City.

On June 28, 1931, Pressman married the former Sophia Platnich. The couple had three daughters.

Pressman was a member of the National Lawyers Guild and the New York Bar Association.

Pressman was appointed assistant general counsel of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) in 1933 by Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace. Early in 1934, while he was an official of the Federal government, Pressman joined the Communist Party USA at the invitation of Harold Ware, a Communist agricultural journalist in Washington, DC: "I was asked to join [the Communist Party] by a man named Harold Ware"