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Stanton Rosenbaum, 1929-2020

The passing of Stanton Rosenbaum is not only the loss of a distinguished person and attorney — a person of dignity, integrity and a directness leavened with humor and empathy. The loss of Stanton Rosenbaum is also the loss of a professional style and the mores of an era worth recalling.

When Stanton Rosenbaum spent the last day in his once formidable, reputable and indeed esteemed law firm, as it closed after a 50-year run in 2011, he sat for an interview with the Intermountain Jewish News. One of the things he said: “Law today is much less personal. People don’t go out for lunch and say, can we work this out, anymore.”

An indispensable reason why Rosenbaum’s father, the late Judge Charles Rosenbaum, and Lou Isaacson opened their firm was, as the judge’s son Stanton put it in that interview, “At that time, no young Jewish attorney could get a job with the major law firms in Denver. There was no sense in applying.”

Perhaps that was the impetus for Stanton Rosenbaum’s long and dedicated service to the ADL and many other Jewish organizations. But whatever the impetus, the service was clear. Rosenbaum lent his legal advice, and not only that. He was committed to the mission of the Allied Jewish Federation in a way that magnetized him to its goals and operations for decades. He later took a strong interest in Jewish Family Service and programs for children with disabilities. His very interest in a communal endeavor lent it credibility. That was the weight of his reputation.

Humor? “Old attorneys never retire,” he said. “They just lose their appeal.”

Empathy? Rosenbaum learned early on that his feelings for people would never allow him to be a good criminal lawyer. Rosenbaum began his legal career in the military as an Air Force Judge Advocate. There was a lot of variety in that position — one week a prosecutor, the next week a defense attorney. As Rosenbaum recalled, when he defended and lost, “they’re hauling this guy away in handcuffs with two MPs and his wife and kids are sitting there in tears. I was sick to my stomach.” But the next week when Rosenbuam prosecuted and won, “they’re hauling the man away in handcuffs and his wife is sitting there in tears. I’m sick to my stomach. I said, ‘I can’t do criminal law.’”

Criminal law’s loss was Denver’s gain, not just its legal fraternity’s, and not just its Jewish community’s. Stanton Rosenbaum, through his legal speciality in real estate law, became integrated into a network of local builders that included such standout names as Perlmutter, Primack, Klutznick, Miller, David and Cohen. A community whose major law firms would not take on Jewish talent emerged as a community in which Jews played a major part in many arenas. Stanton Rosenbaum spurred and embodied that development in a time when contentiousness between lawyers was typically limited to their arguments in the courtroom and settlements were often reached amicably and sealed with a handshake.

We shall miss Stanton Rosenbaum for his middot, his personal qualities, his contributions in and out of the legal community, and for the era that he naturally projected.

Copyright © 2020 by the Intermountain Jewish News




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