Opinion: ‘A blast furnace of curiosity and conviction’: Remembering Avern Cohn – Detroit Free Press

Andy Doctoroff| Detroit Free Press

Seniority entitled him to move his chambers to the seventh or eighth floor of the Theodore Levin United States Courthouse with its marbled hallways, mahogany paneled walls, and ceilings rich with relief. But U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn stayed put, decade after decade, opting to remain in Room 219, his tired, less grandiose chambers on the second floor.

That Judge Cohn had no need for judicial opulence was easily discerned from the hundreds of books lining his office and the quirky bric-a-brac testifying to his myriad passions, like passenger trains and Jewish history.

Obituaries often read like curriculum vitae; so, I expect that notices of Judge Cohns passing Friday evening, at the age of 97, will be chockablock with references to decisions rendered, offices held, and awards garnered. But these impressive litanies miss the essence of the man we just lost.

Judge Cohn enjoyed wealth and power, but they were not the forces that animated him.

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Charles Francis Adams rebuffed protestations by his father, John Quincy Adams, that he lacked worthy ambitions by say[ing] with the poet, My mind a kingdom is.

Judge Cohns mind was his kingdom, a vast realm he continued to explore until his final days, a blast furnace of erudition, conviction, and curiosity.

Out-of-state co-counsel with whom I tried a patent infringement case before Judge Cohn were nonplussed by the childlike wonder that compelled him to descend the bench, squint his eyes, and tinker with the subject matter of the lawsuit, a refrigerator shelf.

I last lunched with Judge Cohn at his Birmingham home in the fall. His legs had long since failed him. He received visitors less frequently, and his physical world had grown almost infinitely small, like a star collapsing into a black hole. But, as always, he continued to plow intellectual fields.

Just before our interview ended, Judge Cohn handedme a copy of the Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society, suggesting I read the article about Talmudic perspective on rent regulation in 16th CenturyRome.

Dont forget to return it, he admonished, handing me the volume.I want it back.

Perhaps Judge Cohn lived as long as he did, as richly as he did notwithstanding physical infirmities, because of the intellectual fires that burned within him, the same fires that drove him to become the rare jurist who, in Richard Hofstadters words, relishe[d] the play of the mind for its own sake, and f[ound] in it one of the major values in life.

The two years I spent as Judge Cohns elbow clerk (his term) ended in 1992.But he has beena singular presence in my life ever since, someone who has influenced me more positively than any person outside my nuclear family.I will soon enter my own seventh decade, but recent memories of his affectionately calling me kid cause my eyes to fill.

An easy mark for those soliciting charitable gifts, Judge Cohn was no saint.His enthusiasms could alienate colleagues, and resulted in lapses in decorum.He had no need for office intercoms; his vocal cords served perfectly well, thank you.He suffered neither fools nor unprepared attorneys appearing before him.

But his capacity for self-growth was unbounded and endeared him to his staff.Age and self-reflection tempered his excesses, a process facilitated by notes, written in his own hand and taped to his courtroom desk,enjoining him to be courteous: "Keep cool!!! Always remember the lawyers have as much rig[h]t to be in the courtroom as the judge!!!

I myself suffered Judge Cohns tetchiness (Youre the law clerk, Im the judge, goddamnit!).But such was the happy cost of a beautiful, fertile mind that has yielded rafts of scholarly, precedent-setting opinions and letters-to-the-editor,and uplifted our justice system in ways small and large but too numerous to count.

Coming so close on the heels of the death of his cousin, Sen. Carl Levin, the loss of Judge Cohns life presages the sad end of an era populated by ambitious but menschy public servants who were born and raised in Detroit during the 1920s and 1930s and obeyed a demanding code of ethics that now too often seems to have lapsed.

A world without Judge Cohn is more than personal misfortune for his family, friends, and members of the legal community.It raises a disconcerting question:Who among us willcarry on his timeless legacy?

Andy Doctoroff, a Huntington Woods attorney, served as law clerk to the Hon. Avern Cohn from 1990 to 1992.

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Opinion: 'A blast furnace of curiosity and conviction': Remembering Avern Cohn - Detroit Free Press