Joe Berenbaum, legendary attorney, dies

ONE long ago day, Joe Berenbaum tried to make a motion in front a judge who had a tendency to doze on the bench.

Frustrated, the indefatigable attorney did something worthy of a TV courtroom drama.

He walked over to a table, picked up a heavy book and dropped it on the floor.

The judge jumped out of his seat.

“Young man, do you know what you just did?” he demanded.

Whether Mr. Berenbaum admitted his ruse or played innocent is irrelevant.

The point is, the tactic worked — and the judge never ignored him again.

Berenbaum, who founded the firm of Berenbaum Weinshienk with his brother Mandel in 1945, died Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010.

He was 94.

Despite his reputation as a legal tiger, the images evoked by his loss paint a rounded portrait of a gracious man with twinkling eyes who laughed generously and valued kindness above all else.

Chuck Bewley, who joined the firm as a law clerk in 1978, told the Intermountain Jewish News that Berenbaum “was one of the finest human beings I have ever met, and a tough lawyer. It’s a very unusual combination.

“He grew up in the salt of the earth,” he said, referring to Berenbaum’s humble beginnings in a remote part of Saskatchewan, Canada. “I think he had some old world values from his parents, yet lived in an environment where he had to make himself.

“He taught us to be tough in the law, but gentle, kind and understanding outside of the law.” Read the IJN eulogy

Although Berenbaum retired in 2005, at the age of 89, no one occupies his corner office on the 48th floor of the Republic Building downtown.

“Joe hasn’t been working here for years but we never filled his office,” Bewley said. “It would be like retiring Lou Gehrig’s number. That tells you how we really feel about him.”

Jim Kurtz-Phelan, senior partner at Berenbaum Weinshienk, began working at the firm in 1983.

“Joe was a mentor who taught me the intangibles of the practice of law,” he said in an e-mail. “How to negotiate a real estate deal; when to hold position and when to fold; how to move your client so you could close the deal; how to maintain a good relationship with opposing counsel.

“Joe was a tough advocate and a consummate real estate lawyer. I will miss him dearly.”

BERENBAUM’S service was held Friday, Nov. 5, at Temple Emanuel. Rabbis Joe Black and Steven Foster and Cantor Regina Heit officiated in the crowded sanctuary.

Eulogies were offered by the rabbis, granddaughter Amy Berenbaum (who also spoke for her sister Katie), daughter Sandie, son Jim Berenbaum, US Cong. Ed Perlmutter, who worked at the firm for 25 years prior to entering politics, and Steve Hoth, managing partner at Berenbaum Weinshienk.

“We could tell people looked up to our grandfather as a role model and leader, not only because of his accomplishments as an attorney but also because he was simply a wonderful human being,” said granddaughter Amy.

“As serious as he was about his work, he was always more than happy to have my sister and I make paper clip chains to string to the tree in his office.”
Amy, who is about to enter law school, credited her grandfather for inspiring her career choice. “I hope to be able to carry on his legacy,” she said.

Son Jim Berenbaum mentioned that his father and mother Penny went to Cuba on their honeymoon “in a bananna boat, no less.

“A lifelong joke was why they had no honeymoon pictures,” Jim said.

Apparently his dad took the camera apart but failed to properly reattach the lens.

Jim shared anecdotes that revealed the personal side of Joe Berenbaum: how the sports enthusiast attended Bronco games “even in blizzards,” and whipped up salami and eggs, his sole culinary specialty, for the family every Sunday morning.

“He never argued, never raised his voice, not with Mom or with us,” Jim said. “He was a great negotiator. He was great to talk to. We could discuss our plans and dreams with him.

“He truly respected us, even when we were young.”

His father “had 94 great years,” Jim said. “He was a great father and friend. We’ll miss him so much.”

Interment followed at Emanuel Cemetery. Feldman Mortuary made the arrangements.

JOE Berenbaum was born April 21, 1916, in Rosthern, a remote destination in Saskatchewan, Ontario, Canada where his father, who escaped the Russian army at age 20, owned a trading post.

The trading post “was exactly where it was supposed to be — in the middle of nowhere,” Berenbaum told the IJN in 2003.

The family — including older brother Mandel — relocated to Denver when Berenbaum was two. Younger brother Zelie was born here.

He lived on the Westside near the old Hebrew Educational Alliance on Colfax and Meade. The Alliance’s new rabbi Manual Laderman often played bridge with Berenbaum’s mother and her friends.

After attending the Westside scholastic enclaves of Cheltenham, Lake and North High, Berenbaum went to DU, where he excelled in tennis and writing.

During his tenure as sports editor for the Clarion, DU’s student newspaper, his reportorial flair caught the interest of the Associated Press.

“My first love was newspaper work,” Berenbaum told the IJN. “But these were the days before there was a guild. The newspaper industry was a glamour industry. You did not get paid in dollars, you got paid in glamour.

“That’s when I decided to be a lawyer.”

He graduated from the DU College of Law.

Berenbaum was unable to serve in WW II due to a staph infection that affected his leg.

When Mandel returned from war, the brothers opened Berenbaum and Berenbaum in the old Equitable Building downtown.

While money factored into choosing the legal profession, Berenbaum said his main impetus was helping people.

“I’m not trying to flatter myself,” he told the IJN. “I’ve always tried to help people. I thought I could do that as a lawyer, and I have done it. I think people are entitled to good legal services.

“That’s what lawyers are supposed to do — help people with their problems.”

Berenbaum met his future wife Penny, a young woman from Mississippi, when she worked for KVOD. They married in 1948 and had three children.

Beginning in the late 1980s, the attorney’s corporate and real estate acumen enabled developers to expand small-town Denver into the metropolis it is today.

Some people cheered his efforts, while others jeered.

“A lot of people still don’t want to see anything grow here,” he said at age 87.

“They would like to see things stay just the way they are. But it’s a growing world. It can grow uncontrollably or it can grow controlled. My opinion is that it should grow controlled.”

Broomfield, Littleton and Englewood are just a few of the suburbs that resulted from his legal wizardry.

IN 2003, Berenbaum said that many people felt he was too outspoken, even in his waning years.

“Even at this age,” he said, “I don’t go along with things I don’t think are correct.”

From billable hours to too many words, he outlined his objections to the practice of modern law with journalistic agility.

When Berenbaum became a lawyer, clients paid only if they could afford to pay. If not, “you forgot about it. Now it’s a much more monetary-based profession. Of course,” he added, “the law has been good to me. I’ve earned a good living.”

“There’s too much verbosity,” he said of the current law school curriculum. “Lawyers go on and on. I can still dictate an agreement from beginning to end. The language is not that complicated. I can say something in 20 pages.”

Aware that the public still assumed Berenbaum Weinshienk was a Jewish firm, Berenbaum scoffed at the unenlightened stereotype.

The firm’s attorneys, he said, intentionally represent every religion and ethnicity.

As for the enduring belief that Jews somehow possess a superior facility for the law, Berenbaum quashed it with a laugh.

“There are as many good Gentile lawyers as good Jewish lawyers. And a lot of the Jewish lawyers are lousy, and a lot of the Gentile lawyers are lousy.”

Regretful that his intense professional absorption deprived him of family time throughout the years, he emphasized that their moments together were meaningful and loving.

Berenbaum was honored by numerous groups including the American Jewish Committee and volunteered in various capacities for JFS, National Jewish Health and many other organizations.

Nothing equaled the joy he derived from his family, or rivaled his hopes for their future.

“I really don’t want my family and everybody around me going to too much trouble when I do kick off,” he said in 2003. “I want my family to go on living healthy, happy lives — and to do things for people.”

Berenbaum is survived by his wife Penny Berenbaum; daughters Kay and Sandie (Michael Weber) and son Jim (Wendy) Berenbaum; and grandchildren Amy and Katie.

Contributions may be made to Temple Emanuel, National Jewish Health or the DU Law School.

Copyright © 2010 by the Intermountain Jewish News