Albert C. Cohn (December 20, 1885[1] – January 8, 1959) was a New York State Supreme Court Justice and the father of Roy Cohn. He was influential in Democratic Party politics.[2]
He was born on December 20, 1885, and married Dora Marcus (1892–1967) in 1924 when he was the First Assistant District Attorney for Bronx County.[3][4] His son Roy Cohn was born in 1927.[5][6] Cohn was inducted as a justice of the New York Supreme Court into Part III of Bronx Supreme Court in April 1929.[7] A 1931 decision by Cohn stripped control of amateur boxing in New York from the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) and placed it under control of the New York State Athletic Commission.[8] In April 1937, Governor Herbert H. Lehman promoted Cohn to a five-year term on the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, where his fellow Justices included Irwin Untermyer.[9]
He spearheaded a program for accreditation by the American Bar Association for his alma mater, New York Law School, starting in 1947, which was successful, in 1954.[10] He died on January 8, 1959, in New York City.
His father, Albert Cohn, was a judge in the Bronx and a big makher, a very big deal, in the Bronx Democratic organization, which in turn, under the famous Edward J. Flynn, had a pivotal position in the national Democratic Party.
Mrs. Dora Marcus Cohn, widow of Justice Albert C. Cohn of the State Supreme Court and mother of Roy M. Cohn, lawyer and industrialist, died last evening at her home, 1165 Park Avenue. She would have been 75 years old on Thursday.
... Dorothy Marcus ...
In 1947, New York Law School reopened and began to rebuild. A major impetus came from graduates who formed a committee spearheaded by New York State Supreme Court Justice Albert Cohn. The new program was small, but the Law School made significant strides, and gained accreditation from the American Bar Association in 1954.