Reis Shares Memories of His Mentor Irv Rosen

You can count Aronoff Rosen & Hunt partner Mark W. Reis, Esq., among the many lawyers influenced by the late Irving H. Rosen, Esq. who died December 2016.

Rosen was “the lawyer’s lawyer,” Reis said, with a professional, easygoing manner that made people feel good about themselves. Rosen was a founding partner at AR&H, and Reis says Rosen taught all the second-generation lawyers in the firm how to practice law, to be polite, and to stay calm and cool even when things got heated.

Reis shared some of his memories of Rosen as a mentor, a man of faith and an overall inspiration:

On Rosen’s Work Ethic
When Irv first became a lawyer and was looking for a job, he came downtown to the Tri-State Building. He began knocking on the doors of every lawyer in the building, starting on the first floor and working his way up. Finally, he found a Russian immigrant named Irwin Aronoff who had an established practice. They struck up a good deal, and Irv began working for Mr. Aronoff, eventually becoming his partner.

On Rosen’s Mentorship
When I first joined the firm, Irv would bring me in on a client meeting and let me take notes. Afterward, I thought I might help Irv in some small way. But most of the time he’d throw you in and say, “Go write the contract.” He’d give me and our other young lawyers the guidance and the independence to learn on our own. He taught us by letting us do it, and he did a great job of teaching us.

He was an excellent grammarian. Once or twice he’d give me back a paper, and he’d say, “You split an infinitive,” but he wouldn’t say where. I had to search the 20-page paper to find it. But by doing that, it was a good learning experience and made me more aware. (AR&H footnote: Mark is now the grammarian expert for our firm so Irv’s legacy continues to live on through him!)

On Rosen’s Faith
He was Jewish and very devoted to his religion. A former partner told me that once Irv had him sit in and take notes on a conference with a client. The client made a comment to the effect of “Jesus Christ was the world’s greatest living being.” Then the client realized that Irv was a devout Jewish man, and he said, “You might disagree with that.” Irv just kindly said without even looking up, “Well, I understand Jesus was supposed to be Jewish.” That shows Irv’s devotion to his religion but on a subtle, kind level so as not to insult anybody.

On Rosen’s Affinity for Cars
He was a collector of great automobiles. One of his cars was the type you only took out when it was sunny and beautiful and there was no rain within a 500-mile radius. It would win awards at car shows.

When I first joined the firm, he had a little red sports car that they called the Red Rocket. It was the kind of car that good-looking young girls would wonder who was the hot guy driving this car. Then they’d see Irv who was 60, and they’d be disappointed!

Learn more about Rosen and read other tributes to him on AR&H’s special web page dedicated to him.