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<\/p>\n\t\t\t\tSharing Our Memories: Harriet Newman Cohen<\/p>\n
2.17.2026<\/p>\n
By Rebecca Melnitsky<\/p>\n
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In honor of our 150th anniversary, we asked longtime, involved members for their recollections of the New York State Bar Association.<\/p>\n
Harriet Newman Cohen, who serves on the executive committee of the Family Law Section, recalled when her fellow bar members helped her husband during a medical emergency.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband fainted during a section meeting. There was another one of my colleagues \u2013 she was usually an adversary. Her husband was a doctor, too. They came running over, and they helped my husband. They came along with us in the ambulance, and we went to the local hospital. We bonded over that.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also spoke of the bonds stemming from her first Family Law Section meeting in Saratoga.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a brand-new lawyer. I went with them to the ballet. I went with them to Trotters, and I went with them to a concert, and I just fell in love with the meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was at the bottom of the totem pole at that point. These people were luminaries that I had the opportunity to socialize with, to meet, to develop relationships. We had a camaraderie, and I realized that there was nothing like being part of a bar association, particularly this bar association. They were all very, very good to me. They introduced me to the New York State Bar Association, and I have never missed a meeting since 1980. I have gone every single summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always bring my firm \u2013 including my youngest people whom I mentor \u2013 and we always sit in the first row at the CLE. So everybody in the Family Law Section knows that Harriet Cohen\u2019s firm is in the first row.\u201d<\/p>\n