MORDECAI ROCHLIN

1912 - 2020

ROCHIN--Mordecai. age 107. The law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP mourns the passing of our longtime partner, trusted colleague and dear friend Mordecai "Mordie" Rochlin, who passed away on October 23. Mordie, who was just six weeks shy of his 108th birthday, appears to have been the oldest living attorney in New York State. During his 83-year career at Paul, Weiss, Mordie represented many of the country's most prominent families and business and philanthropic leaders for their most important trusts and estate matters. Mordie was a cherished member of Paul, Weiss community, first as an associate (1938-1950), then as a partner (1951-1983), and finally, as a retired partner (1983-2020). Mordie was the embodiment of the history of Paul, Weiss. He was the last living lawyer to have worked directly with each of the firm's name partners: Randolph Paul, Louis Weiss, Simon Rifkind, John Wharton and Lloyd Garrison. Until his last days, Mordie could recall with uncanny detail his interactions with each of the five. In an interview in 2019, Mordie said that he felt like he had "won the lottery" when his name was printed in gold leaf in 1938 on the door of the firm, then located at 61 Broadway. "We were blessed to have Mordie at our firm for nearly 85 years," said Paul, Weiss Chairman Brad S. Karp. "He has been a treasure and dear friend and he will be sorely missed." Mordie's early years in private practice were spent in litigation, appeals and trials, as an associate to Walter H. Pollak, a civil rights lawyer who was of counsel at Cohen, Cole, Weiss & Wharton, which later became Paul, Weiss. Beginning in 1941, Mordie focused on trust and estate law. He was a member of the firm's first management committee formed in the 1950s, working with then- chairman Lloyd Garrison, and, in 1963, Mordie was elected to the firm's leadership group, serving for eight years in that position. Until quite recently, Mordie continued to work in his Paul, Weiss office on the 32nd floor a few days a week reading email, working with his assistant and attending partner lunches. Colleagues and staff recall Mordie's deep generosity, abiding kindness, scholarly demeanor and unerring professionalism, as well as his sense of humor and incomparable memory for names, dates and places of events. He was a thoughtful and diligent mentor to generations of younger lawyers, all of whom are in his debt. Mordie was a proud graduate of Columbia Law School, and attended the school's annual Winter Lunch until only a few years ago, where he was the most senior lawyer there every year. On the occasion of Mordie's 100th birthday, Paul, Weiss established a Columbia Law School Scholarship Fund in Mordie's honor. Colleagues also recalled Mordie's passion for doubles tennis with his partners, which he played until his early 80s, and his enduring love of baseball. Even in his 90s, he kept a box score of the game using pencil and paper - a style that goes back to the beginning of the game. In a speech that Mordie gave at a partners' lunch a few years ago recounting his career and his memories of the firm's name partners, he "paused to gently exhort us to remain mindful of and participate meaningfully in what he called 'public work,' an activity that he thought essential for a satisfying and responsible legal career." Mordie lived that credo; he was actively involved in community service, including for the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York beginning in the early 1950s, ultimately becoming chairman of its Lawyers Division in 1970. He also did a great deal of pro bono work over the years; as recently as 2005, he represented the widow of a 9/11 victim. Mordie was actively involved in the profession. He was a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the American Bar Association's Probate, Real Property and Trust Section for more than four decades, among other bar groups; he was also a fellow of the American College of Probate Counsel. In appreciation of his years of dedication to the profession, the New York State Bar Association presented Mordie with a special commendation in 2018. Born on December 5, 1912 in Manhattan to Frank and Bessie Rochlin, Mordie Rochlin grew up in Catskill, New York and New York City, where he graduated from New Utrecht High School. He earned a B.A. from City College of the City of New York in 1932, cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1935, he graduated from Columbia Law School, where he was a James Kent Scholar. During World War II, between 1943-1946, Mordie served in the Army, where he was a First Lieutenant. Mordie was married twice; his first wife, Ruth Lee Kane, passed away in 1973 after 37 years of marriage. His second wife, Sylvia T. Kraemer, whom he married in 1975, passed away in 2005. He had no children, but is survived by a stepson, John Kraemer, and a niece, Alfreda Finkelstein, of Scarsdale, NY. For the past 60-plus years, Mordie was a member of the Park Avenue Synagogue. Mordie gave generously to numerous charities and organizations, among them The New York Public Library, Columbia University, UJA Federation and the Jewish Theological Seminary, among many others. Mordie recalled in a recent interview with the New York Law Journal that he initially struggled to get a law firm job, because Jewish law graduates weren't even sent to interviews at the white-shoe firms at the time. After working for a short time at government jobs and completing a one-year clerkship, Mordie landed a job at Cohen, Cole, Weiss & Wharton, Paul, Weiss's predecessor firm. "I didn't realize when I walked in the door in 1938 that I would spend the rest of my life" at the firm, he told the New York Law Journal. "Paul, Weiss was my life. The way I looked on the firm, it was not only a community of scholars but a community of friends."