30 | JUNE 30 • 2022
LEGAL GUIDE
T
wo beloved Jewish
judges — who iron-
ically both died on
the same day in February —
were fondly remembered at
the Jewish Bar Association
of Michigan’s (JBAM) annu-
al Awards Night on May
23 at the Westin Hotel in
Southfield.
U.S. District Judge Avern
Judge
Avern Cohn
Cohn and
retired Oak Park
District Court
Judge Benjamin
J. Friedman
both passed
away on Feb. 4.
Judge Cohn
was last year’s
winner of JBAM’s Lifetime
Achievement Award.
Beginning this year, the
award is named in Judge
Cohn’s memory. A message
from his grandson, attorney
Harrison Magy, was read at
the event.
This year’s Avern Cohn
Lifetime Achievement
honoree was U.S. District
Senior Judge Bernard A.
Friedman. His courtroom
in Downtown Detroit’s
Theodore J. Levin U.S.
Courthouse was next to
Cohn’s, and Cohn and
Friedman became close
friends. Friedman, in his
acceptance remarks, praised
Judge Cohn as an inspira-
tion.
Judge Friedman is noted
for his overturning of
Michigan’s law prohibiting
same-sex marriage, which
became a basis for the U.S.
Supreme Court’s ruling
guaranteeing the right to
marry.
An attorney advocating
for same-sex marriage in
that case was Dana Nessel,
now the Michigan attorney
general. Nessel was last
year’s recipient of JBAM’s
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Champion of Justice Award.
This year’s Ruth Bader
Judge
Benjamin J.
Friedman
Ginsberg
Champion of
Justice Award
recipient was
Judge Michelle
Friedman Appel
of the 45B
District Court
in Oak Park. In
accepting her award, Judge
The Jewish legal community’s Awards Night
honors two judges, a lawyer and a law student.
Jewish Bar Association
of Michigan Celebrates
Law’s Shining Stars
DAVID SACHS ASSOCIATE EDITOR YEVGENIYA GAZMAN PHOTOGRAPHER
continued on page 32
Judicial honorees Judge Michelle Friedman Appel and Judge Bernard Friedman,
center, are flanked by JBAM board members Eric Berlin, Jordan Zuppke, Rachel Loebl
Serman, Ellie Mosko, David Sachs, Nargiz Nesimova and Andrew Cohen.
Judge Michelle Friedman Appel of the
45B District Court in Oak Park, talks
about being inspired by her father,
Judge Benjamin J. Friedman, whom she
succeeded on the bench.
U.S. District Court Senior Judge Bernard
A. Friedman, winner of the Avern Cohn
Lifetime Achievement Award, reminisc-
es about his late colleague and friend,
Judge Cohn.
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