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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