NOVEMBER 18 • 2021 | 21

OUR COMMUNITY

J

udge Avern Cohn was
celebrated by family,
friends and colleagues
on Friday, Nov. 5, at Franklin
Hills Country Club for the
launch of his book, Thinking
About the Other Fella: Avern
Cohn’s Life and the Law, writ-
ten by Jack Lessenberry and
Elizabeth Zerwekh.
Judge Cohn served on the
U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of Michigan
from 1979-2019. When he was
appointed by President Jimmy
Carter, he was the only Jewish
judge on that court.
Cohn’s many volunteer
roles in the Jewish community
include serving as president
of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, 1981-
1983. He has also been a
supporter of Jewish educa-
tion, including Orthodox
day schools. Like his father,
Avern Cohn was awarded
Federation’s Fred M. Butzel
Award for distinguished
community service.
Lessenberry had followed
the judge and had been inter-
ested in his career for some
years and, when he retired,
he suggested to Cohn that
they do a biography.
His response was an imme-
diate and unequivocal “NO!”
Cohn said there were too
many judges with biographies
and autobiographies out there,
and that he didn’t think he was
anything special. “I just want
to be remembered as a good
judge,
” he said.
Lessenberry appealed, feel-
ing passionate about many of
Cohn’s court rulings.

“Eventually, we ham-
mered out a compromise,
and I think that, in fact,
what we produced is
better than what a biog-
raphy would have been,
”
Lessenberry said.
Thinking About the Other
Fella is part biography and
part anthology. “Sort of an
Avern Cohn compendium,
”
Lessenberry said.
The book includes biograph-
ical sketches and articles
written about the judge, as
well as a rigorous examination
of a dozen or so of his most
important cases, done by
Lessenberry.

There is
also a wide selection of Cohn’s
own writing on legal and espe-
cially historical subjects, which
Lessenberry believes readers
will find fascinating.
“The title comes from some-
thing Supreme Court Justice
Louis Brandeis once said was
his legal philosophy — “You
have to think about the other
fella,
” meaning that a good
judge has to be able to put

himself or herself in the place
of those standing before you,
to have empathy for them
— not necessarily sympathy,
but empathy,
” Lessenberry
explained. “That, I think, is
the hallmark of Avern Cohn’s
career.
”
In Cohn’s speech, he
thanked everyone who
helped him along the way,
including his wife, Lois,
Lessenberry and Zerwekh,
and all his staff over the
years. “Behind every federal
judge, there is a good staff,
”
Cohn said.
A copy of the book was
made available for each of
the attendees, with Cohn
signing the inside of each
one.
“The book is a colla-
tion of all that reflects my
career,
” Cohn said. “I must
also tell you how flattered I
am having my own book. I
have lived with books all my
life. Paraphrasing Winston
Churchill, he once said, ‘What
shall I do with all of my
books if they cannot be my
friends, let them at least be my
acquaintances, if they cannot
enter the circle of my life, I
will not deny them at least a
nod of recognition.
’ I hope to
each of you the book will be a
friend.
”

Judge Avern Cohn launches
new book about his life, career.

A Life in the Law

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

Thinking About
‘the Other Fella’

Avern Cohn’s

Life and


the Law

Jack Lessenberr
y and Elizabeth Zer
wekh

Thinking About ‘the Other Fella
’

Jack Lessenberr
y Elizabeth Zer
wekh

Jack Lessenberry has been
a writer and editor and
political analyst for numerous
publications, has hosted
radio and television shows
and taught journalism for
many years at Wayne State University and the
University of Michigan. He is the author of
T
e People’s Lawyer: T
e Life and Times of Frank
J. Kelley, the Nation’s Longest-Serving Attorney
General (Wayne State University Press, 2015)
and Reason vs. Racism: A Newspaper Family,
Race, and Justice (BCI Press, 2020).

Elizabeth Zerwekh is a pro-
fessional librarian and archi-
vist, specializing in rare books
and private collections. She
has worked with Judge Cohn
for years, and in addition to
this book, played a major role in researching
Reason vs. Racism.

T
ey live in Huntington Woods and Charlevoix
with their dogs Ashley and Chet, in homes
overf
owing with books.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said the core
of his judicial philosophy was “you have to think about the other
fellow.” By that, he meant you have to be devoted to justice, but also
have empathy for the human beings whose cases come before you.

T
ose words exactly describe Avern Cohn’s career throughout
seventy years as a lawyer and federal judge during a life devoted to
the law, justice and his community.

- Jack Lessenberry

Auld Classic Books
13165 Ludlow Ave.
Huntington Woods, MI 48070
Jacket design by Anne Zimanski

Jacket photographs courtesy of Avern Cohn

Printed in the U.S.A.

AVERN COHN’S REMARKABLE LIFE
AND CAREER spanned most of a century,
and included thirty years as one of Detroit’s
most respected lawyers and forty years as a
prominent federal judge. Born in Detroit when
Calvin Coolidge was President and segregation
was taken for granted, he served in the U.S.
Army during World War II, went on to college
and law school at the University of Michigan.
In 1949, he began both practicing law and
working in a wide range of communities in
Detroit and Michigan, at various times serving
on everything from the Michigan Civil Rights
Commission to Detroit’s Board of Police Com-
missioners, both of which he chaired. He also
served as President of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, and was a major force in
the Jewish community and in the Democratic
Party for decades.
But the best-known part of his career really
began in 1979, when President Jimmy Carter
appointed him a federal judge. For more than
forty years he presided over cases that included
the trial of a spy for the CIA whose employers
turned on her, landmark and controversial free
speech cases in the early years of the internet,
dif
cult police and racial issues, a product lia-
bility case that potentially af
ects every woman
who has ever used birth control pills, and a
world-famous patent case that inspired a book
and a movie, Flash of Genius.
T
is book looks at the importance of those
decisions, the sweep of his career, and how
others saw the judge and his legacy—as well
as how he sees it himself. It also contains some
remarkable articles that show that the judge is
a versatile historian.

Biography $29.95

Judge
Avern Cohn