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