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Obituaries

  • May 27, 2010 | People
    Frederick H. Cohen 1965-2010
    Frederick H. Cohen died of complications from cancer earlier this month at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Cohen, a principal at the firm of Goldberg Kohn, was an advocate for poor children's medical care who was a co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in a class-action suit filed on behalf of 600,000 children eligible for Medicaid. After a monthlong trial in 2004, U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow agreed with the plaintiff's argument that the state was not providing the poor with care equal to the general population. The judge went on to approve a settlement that required the state of Illinois to increase payments to doctors and dentists caring for children for low-income families. The trial took place in the midst of Mr. Cohen's own long-running medical drama. First diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2001, he suffered a recurrence just as proceedings were about to get under way. Click here to read the full obituary in the Chicago Tribune.
  • May 11, 2010 | People
    Robert T. Trimpe 1925-2010
    Robert T. Trimpe, 84, of Champaign passed away in late March at his residence. Mr. Trimpe, who practiced in Champaign County for over 50 years, was honored by the ISBA as a Senior Counsellor in 2006. He attended Quincy schools and graduated from Quincy Notre Dame High School in 1943. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II in the Pacific and was involved in the invasion of Okinawa. He graduated from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., in 1949 with a BS degree in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Georgetown University Law School in 1953 with a LLB degree and a Jurist Doctorate in 1967. Click here to read the full obituary in the Champaign News-Gazette
  • May 4, 2010 | People
    Clarence Graves 1914-2010
    Clarence Graves, 96, passed away on April 24, 2010. Mr. Graves was a former founding member and attorney for the Elmhurst Art Museum. Mr. Graves graduated from North Park College in 1938. He received his J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1943. He passed the bar in 1943 and enlisted in the Navy the next day. He served in WWII and started to practice probate and real estate law in 1946 at 77 W. Washington in Chicago. Mr. Graves moved his practice to Elmhurst in the 1980s. "Even in retirement he helped whoever he could with legal matters," said his daughter, Nancy Olson.
  • April 29, 2010 | People
    Louis Cainkar 1911-2010
    Longtime municipal attorney Louis Cainkar, 98, passed away on April 20 at his Evergreen Park home. Mr. Cainkar was considered the pre-eminent municipal attorney in the southwest suburbs for decades. His timing for going into municipal law was propitious, as the Chicago area was in the midst of its postwar boom and suburban cities and villages were blossoming throughout the region. Over the years, his firm's clients included suburbs from Alsip to Summit in addition to many municipal units such as park and library districts. He was a hands-on attorney who sat through many long, tedious sessions of city councils and village boards. Read Mr. Cainkar's full obituary in the Chicago Tribune.
  • April 28, 2010 | People
    Burton Joseph 1930-2010
    Noted civil liberties attorney Burton Joseph, 79, of Evanston, passed away late last month in San Francisco. Mr. Joseph was a partner in the Chicago law firm of Joseph, Lichtenstein & Levinson. He defended activists arrested at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, acted as executive director of the Playboy Foundation and was a founding member of  Lawyers for the Creative Arts. In his most celebrated case, in the late 1970s, he successfully persuaded the American Civil Liberties Union to back the National Socialist Party of America --a Nazi group -- in its efforts to be allowed to march through heavily Jewish Skokie. As the son of Jewish cemetery owners on Chicago's West Side, Mr. Joseph's stand cost him some friends, but "though he violently disagreed with what the Nazis said, he strongly believed in their right to say it," his daughter Jody said. The Nazis were eventually allowed to march but decided to do so in Chicago instead. The battle was later dramatized in the TV movie, "Skokie," and inspired scenes in "The Blues Brothers." Obituaries for Mr. Joseph: Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Times
  • April 27, 2010 | People
    Dean W. Jackson 1955-2010
    Dean W. Jackson, 55, passed away on April 11 at Memorial Medical Center in Springfield. Mr. Jackson graduated from Galena High School and went on to study at Western Illinois University, University of Iowa, Oxford University England Queen's College Law School and Southern Illinois University School of Law. He was an attorney and was employed as the ICC Chief Administrative Law Judge since 2004. Click here to read the full obituary in the Springfield State Journal-Register.
  • April 19, 2010 | People
    Hon. Michael A. Orenic passes away
    Hon. Michael A. Orenic, 85, passed away at his Joliet home last Friday. Orenic was an ISBA Laureate Award Winner in 2006. The Laureate Award, the supreme honor bestowed by the Academy of Illinois Lawyers, is awarded to those deemed to exemplify the highest ideals of the profession. A graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, he was an Army Air Corps officer during World War II. Elected to the bench in 1964, Orenic was presiding judge in Will County for 16 years while the circuit included Kankakee and Iroquois Counties. He served as chief judge from 1977 to 1982 and from 1986 to 1988, and he retired in 1990 to spend more time with his nine children and ailing wife, who died in 1996. Even before he retired in 1990, Orenic was "legendary" in the Will County courts, said Joliet attorney George Mahoney III, who had nominated Orenic for the laureate honors. "He was a fascinating guy -- a brilliant guy," Mahoney said. "He was a big guy with flowing white hair. He had this physical aura about him. He looked like a judge." The 2006 Laureate Award Winners Obituary: Will County loses a "brilliant" judge
  • April 14, 2010 | People
    Philip Feder 1929-2010
    Retired attorney Philip G. Feder, 80, passed away late last month at Memorial Care Center in Belleville. Mr. Feder received both his undergraduate degree and his law degree from St. Louis University. His education at St. Louis University Law School was interrupted in 1952, when he was called to active duty in the Army. Read the full obituary in the Belleville News-Democrat
  • April 13, 2010 | People
    Roger W. Barrett 1915-2010
    Roger W. Barrett, 94, a partner for many years with Mayer Brown, died earlier this year in Rancho Mirage, Calif., of complications from pneumonia. Mr. Barrett had already started his law carer in Chicago when he joined the Army in 1943. Eventually a captain, he was enlisted for the team led by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson that would prosecute top Nazis in Nuremberg. He was assigned the task of assembling the government's evidence, which included everything from letters and diaries to lampshades made of human skin. He went over some of the evidence with Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering, who he remembered as highly intelligent, arrogant and amoral. "He said that Goering was completely immoral, there was no sense of right or wrong," said his son, Oliver. Click here to read the full obituary in the Chicago Tribune.
  • April 9, 2010 | People
    Henry J. Marquard passes away
    Henry James Marquard, 88, of Glenview formerly of Northbrook, passed away on April 6. A graduate of DePaul University School of Law, he was one of the founders of Kralovec and Marquard. He was commissioned on the USS Heywood and served on the USS George Klymer during the Gaudalcanal Campaign in World War II. Visitation will be on Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, 3637 Golf Road, Evanston, where a funeral service will be held on Saturday at 11 a.m. Interment private at Memorial Park Cemetery. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to the church. Funeral info: 847-998-1020. Click here for the full obituary in the Chicago Tribune.