Carole E. Handler

Carole Handler, aged 87, formerly of Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New York City, passed away peacefully on Sunday, October 22, at Northshore Heights Senior Living in Knoxville, TN. She is survived by her two daughters, Alisa Schoenbach (Benjamin Lee) and Ilana Schoenbach (Erik Silber); and grandchildren Sol Schoenbach-Lee, Julius Schoenbach-Lee, Clara Schoenbach-Lee, and Noah Silber.

Carole was born on December 23, 1935 to Marion Winter Kahn and Milton Handler. Her father was a professor at Columbia Law School for 45 years, and one of the architects of modern antitrust law. Her mother, who graduated from Barnard in 1931, and who was a talented artist and poet, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when Carole was a young child, and died when Carole was 17. Carole was raised in part by her adored grandmother, Sara Winter Kahn.

Carole graduated from Radcliffe College in 1957 with a degree in History and Literature. After college, she briefly studied architecture at MIT, then went on to receive a Masters in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania in 1963, and to work for Edmund Bacon on the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. In May of 1965 she married Peter Schoenbach, then a professor of Spanish and Portuguese. After a few years in Minnesota, where their first daughter, Alisa, was born, the couple settled in Philadelphia, where Carole received a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975, pausing briefly to give birth to her second daughter, Ilana, in November 1974, before taking her exams that December. She went on to clerk for the Honorable Edmund Spaeth of the Pennsylvania Superior Court.

Carole had a long and varied career in the law, practicing in Philadelphia and eventually in Los Angeles, where she lived for more than 30 years. She specialized in intellectual property litigation in the areas of trademark and copyright and antitrust law, particularly in relation to entertainment and the media industry. Her notable achievements include securing Marvel's right to retain the Spider-Man character, clearing the way for the production of the Spider-Man movies. Her ongoing commitment to pro bono work was exemplified by her representation of Irene Gut Opdyke, a Polish Holocaust Rescuer whose life story had been sold away.

She was also an adjunct professor at USC law school for more than 13 years, teaching classes in Intellectual Property, Antitrust Law, and Trademark Fundamentals. She served on the boards of Bet Tzedek, Public Counsel, and the LA Chamber Orchestra. She was active and honored by the Copyright Society and many Bar Associations and other professional organizations.

Carole's significant professional accomplishments were made despite working in male dominated professions. As a city planner in the 1960's and as a young attorney in the 1970's, she constantly battled the belittling, objectifying comments of her colleagues, and her brilliance was frequently undervalued. As an established attorney in Los Angeles she generously mentored and supported her younger colleagues, especially young women. She often decried the fact that her two most important identities-attorney and mother-were at odds with each other. In a 1993 letter published in the New York Times about the failed Supreme Court nomination of Zoe Baird, she wrote "When will we admit our blindness to the needs of children for their parents and a flexible work style that adapts to those needs; our callous assignment of the burdens of making arrangements to women, and our unwillingness to finance decent, alternatives to bootleg domestic arrangements?"

She held herself to the highest standards in everything she did, and did it all, as the saying goes, "backwards and in (very!) high heels." She worked harder than anyone and always conducted herself with grace and integrity, even in the knock-down, drag-out trials she won for entertainment clients such as Marvel and the NBA. But her loves and passions are what truly defined her. Her family will never think about Cezanne, Gene Kelly, Marcella Hazan, Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald, Brahms, Chanel, Proust, Perry Mason, Casablanca, hot and sour soup, the Lakers, ballet, Rachmaninoff, tea roses, champagne, black coffee, chocolate ice cream, mystery novels, Brazilian samba music, high heels, cold weather, silk scarves, or room service without thinking of her.

Carole was a fiercely proud and loving mother and grandmother as well as a force of nature. Donations in her memory may be made to Bet Tzedek, https://bettzedek.org/donate/ Public Counsel https://publiccounsel.org/donate/ and Teach Democracy, https://www.crf-usa.org/support A memorial celebration will be held in the spring of 2024.