Steve Eckhaus once represented Leona Helmsley. Now he gets Wall Streeters their $100 million pay deals.  President Obama wanted to curb "fat cat" banker bonuses. Congress wanted blood. Steve Eckhaus just wanted to get some deals done.  A tall, thin, bald man from the Bronx, Mr. Eckhaus, 59 years old, has had a unique vantage point in the Wall Street pay wars. He has negotiated hundreds of high-profile pay packages, some of which were met with scorn and scrutiny in Washington and beyond.  "I hate to say it, but I have friends who blame me for the financial crisis," says Mr. Eckhaus, who estimates he has negotiated well over in $5 billion in banker pay over the years, including several $100 million pay deals.  In 2010, publicly traded Wall Street banks and securities firms paid out a record $135 billion, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal. Those numbers are good news for the clients of Mr. Eckhaus—who have included the head of the New York Stock Exchange, Morgan Stanley wealth-and-asset management chief Gregory Fleming, and former Lehman Brothers chief financial officer Erin Callan.  Among the pay packages with Mr. Eckhaus's fingerprints is Tom Montag's May 2008 deal to join Merrill Lynch, now part of Bank of America Corp. The package, which according to an SEC filing included a $39.4 million guarantee, was among those that caught the eye of regulators in the fury over pay after the financial crisis.  "It was understandable why there was anger," says Mr. Eckhaus, but "the crisis was not caused by Wall Street fat cats. It was caused by a confluence of economic, political and historical factors."  In general, he said his clients are "pure as the driven snow" and doing work that supports the economy and justifies their pay. Mr. Eckhaus wouldn't discuss his clients' or their pay, but some agreed to be interviewed. His representation also was noted in news clippings and public filings.  "You have to know what the profits are" to know what someone should make, said Mr. Eckhaus, noting Wall Street's top performers usually gobble up 80% of the bonus pool. "Those who are responsible for profits should share in the profits in a way that rewards them."  "People lost sight of the benefits the financial system has provided to the economy for the last 20 to 30 years. To get angry at the entirety of the financial world because of the failings of a few … was misplaced."  His clients surely agree. They have included NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer; Putnam Investments CEO Robert Reynolds; Bank of America wealth head Sallie Krawcheck; former Janus Capital Group CEO Gary Black; and Robert McCann, UBS AG's wealth head in the Americas.  Mr. Eckhaus, who wears a gray fedora and has a voice-mail greeting that instructs callers, "you know the drill," shies from the tough-guy approach. He will often dine with opposing counsel after a deal is done.  "You feel like you didn't get your arms ripped off, the client is happy, and the firm isn't bent over a barrel," said Rob Shafir, Credit Suisse's asset-management head and one of Mr. Eckhaus's clients.  "There's no question that I know what people are getting, so I know what people can negotiate for," Mr. Eckhaus says, noting he worked on 250 contracts last year.  In 2009, one of Mr. Eckhaus's clients was fingered by regulators for lavish pay, landing him in the newspapers—a "horrifying" experience for the client. Mr. Eckhaus maintains the pay was fair, arguing his clients saved the banks billions of dollars.  When Mr. Eckhaus can't protect his clients from the spotlight or headlines, he tries to get them "out of the line of fire," sometimes advising they take a vacation until things blow over.  Often, Mr. Eckhaus's clients call him on what feels like the scariest days of their lives—when they are being pushed out of a job.  "For the departing employee these can very emotional moments," says Rosemary Berkery, a former Merrill Lynch general counsel who negotiated opposite Mr. Eckhaus when executives departed Merrill. "He took the emotion out of it, which is pretty unique. These kind of situations are life-cycle."  Ms. Berkery hired Mr. Eckhaus to represent her in negotiations with UBS in 2010.  "These deals are very rich, so if you are focused on every last dollar, people will see you as a mercenary," Mr. Eckhaus says. "If you think the only thing that matters is money, you are missing the point."  Mr. Eckhaus, educated at Cornell University, began his career as a criminal lawyer in the 1970s and in the late 1980s switched his focus to employment law, which included representing some Wall Streeters in their contracts.  Mr. Eckhaus has run his own practice for much of his career, but in 2008, he joined Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP and has a corner office in the firm's Manhattan office. His messy office greets clients with a neon sign that flashes, "LAWMAN."  With his Wall Street practice growing, Mr. Eckhaus in 2002 met Leona Helmsley, the billionaire hotel operator, nicknamed the "queen of mean," who hired him and later made him one of her top advisers, a role he kept until 2004. His work included representing Ms. Helmsley on the supervisory boards of New York properties, including the Empire State Building, putting him in regular contact with key people in finance. Ms. Helmsley died in 2007.  As a teenager, Mr. Eckhaus worked at the Bronx dry-cleaning store owned by his Holocaust-survivor parents, Abe and Faye Eckhaus. But he got a sense of Wall Street's largess early on. In the 1980s, he represented a 26-year-old derivatives trader who made $800,000. Mr. Eckhaus remembers thinking Americans would revolt if they knew what people on Wall Street were being paid.  "When the revolution did start to come [in 2008], I thought to a large extent it was misplaced," said Mr. Eckhaus, who rents an apartment on New York's Upper West Side overlooking Central Park and drives a blue Mercedes convertible.  So when President Obama mentioned Wall Street's "fat cats," Mr. Eckhaus regarded that as a sign "we've gone over the edge."  "There's nothing helpful or healing in the midst of a financial crisis to talk about Wall Street 'fat cats.' The fact that was done by a president I actually support, I find it stunning."  "To blame Wall Street for the financial meltdown is absurd."  Write to Steve Eder at steve.eder@wsj.com
Steve Eckhaus is the lawyer to the overpaid, well-hyped, and politically radioactive stars of Wall Street. He represented Leona Helmsley; now he has emerged as Wall Street's top compensation lawyer. Some friends blame him for the financial crisis.