in labor union issues. He served as the New York City Public Schools trial examiner in a case involving several teachers disciplined outside the collective bargaining agreement with the United Federation of Teachers. His involvement was part of the circumstances which led to the Ocean Hill-Brownsville strike. Cammer was chief defense counsel for Fur and Leather Workers' Union President Ben Gold after Gold was accused of lying when he submitted his Taft-Hartley Act-required anti-communist oath. Cammer was held in contempt of court in June 1954 for sending a questionnaire to potential grand jurors in the case. Although Cammer lost his appeal, a unanimous Supreme Court of the United States overturned his conviction in Cammer v. United States, 350 U.S. 399 (1956). In 1955, when Witt left the firm to become full-time counsel to the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, Ralph Shapiro (November 10, 1916 – January 9, 2014), a graduate of City College of New York and University of Michigan Law, as well as member of the American Labor Party and National Lawyers Guild, was elevated to partner, so Cammer's firm changed its name to Cammer & Shapiro. In 1978-1979, Cammer & Shapiro were working for the Joint Board, Fur, Leather & Machine Workers Union (see International Fur & Leather Workers Union, Ben Gold, Henry Foner). Cammer retired from an active legal practice in the mid-1980s. Associations In 1937, Cammer was one of the co-founders of the National Lawyers Guild,<ref name="Heard159"> {{cite book | first = Alex | last = Heard | title = The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South| place = New York | publisher = Harper | year = 2010 | page = 159}}</ref> the nation's first racially integrated bar association and an organization dedicated to achieving economic, racial, and social justice through the legal system. The National Lawyers Guild was branded a communist front by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Department of Justice, and (later) the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Pro Bono Cammer was interested in more than labor law issues. He worked as a pro bono'' attorney in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. He also defended nearly 700 students arrested during the Columbia University protests of 1968. Cammer and his son, Robert Cammer (also an attorney) were members of the Lawyers Committee on American