BARBARA MEHLSACK

MEHLSACK-- Barbara Suzanne. Died on March 18, 2021 at the age of 76 after suffering complications from two strokes. Loving mother, devoted cousin and friend, champion of progressive causes, tireless fighter for human rights, she was a fierce advocate for social justice and tikkun olum. She worked pro bono on behalf of immigrants and asylum seekers who came to the United States seeking a better life. Barbara successfully handled two asylum cases for victims of abuse and gang violence. One of those clients, a 15-year old boy, told her "Now I can have fun on the soccer field without having to look over my shoulder for armed gang members." Her belief in the sanctity of labor showed itself in her energetic and tireless work for her union clients. She put her energies to work for women's causes and there wasn't one she didn't support. Going to Ohio for Hillary Clinton in 2016, she returned with Hillary Clinton necklaces for all of us and wore hers with pride. All who met her were graced by her energy, intelligence and humanity. Barbara loved life with a great ferocity. She loved her daughter Molly with all her heart and energy and was a sister to her cousin Carol and her late husband Howard Hillman. She was an amazing mother to Molly and the two of them travelled together constantly, even going to Berlin in the dead of winter. Summers and winters in Vermont were her great joy and she was a fearless skier par excellence. Of course she always arrived at the Vermont house with a huge Zabars bag filled with nova, whitefish salad and other goodies she knew we loved. She never saw a ski slope she didn't rush down. She was a classy dresser who loved fashion. Her hair was always perfect and she was ageless. She loved the theater, music, opera and her daughter's songs - she took great pride in Molly's wonderful vocal and song writing talents. Barbara attended the Bronx High School of Science and then received her B.A., cum laude with Phi Beta Kappa, from the City College of New York. In 1975 she received her J.D., with honors, from Rutgers University School of Law. Early in her law career she was Chief Counsel and Staff Director for the US House of Representatives Pension and Welfare Benefits Task Force of the Labor Management Relations Subcommittee and lived in Washington, DC. But she was a consummate New Yorker and returned to the city of her birth and joined NYNEX Corporation as Senior Labor/Regulatory Counsel. She served as a Deputy Comptroller of NYC and joined her law firm, Gorlick, Kravitz & Listhaus, P.C. in 1998, becoming a Partner in 2004 and practicing union-side labor law till today. Barbara was well known at the NLRB and the Labor Bar and year after year was named as one of New York's Super Lawyers. She was admitted to the New York State Bar and Federal Courts, was a member of the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee, and co-authored a chapter on employee benefits for the BNA Employee Benefits Journal. She was formerly a member of the Anti-Defamation League National Legal Affairs Committee and the Executive Committee of the ADL Regional Board. And she was a proud member of NELA, the National Employment Lawyers Association. At the age of 30 she was bat mitzvah at Temple Rodeph Sholom, and has been a proud member of congregation B'nai Jeshurun for many years. Her late parents, Molly and Charlie Mehlsack, would have been so proud of their daughter and the passionate, exceptional woman she became. That pride and love is shared by her daughter Molly, Barbara's lifelong friend and partner in raising Molly Richard Bellach Molly's dad, her cousins Herb and Jeanette Spiegel and all the Spiegel and Mehlsack cousins, her partners and colleagues at Gorlick, Kravitz & Listhaus, and everyone who knew Barbara. We all will miss her terribly. We will celebrate Barbara's life this summer when her friends, family and colleagues can gather together in person to remember this remarkable woman who was a force of nature. In lieu of flowers please send donations in Barbara's memory to the Anti-Defamation League www.adl.org or Safe Passage Project www.safepassageproject.org