Retired U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen will be honored this evening with the Torch of Learning Award.
By Tom Kirvan
Legal News
As a longtime federal judge, Gerald Rosen has been in select circles before.
And yet, this evening, he will join the likes of such honorees as U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, President Ronald Reagan, best-selling novelist Scott Turow, and former Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig when the retired federal jurist is presented with The Torch of Lea
The honor will be presented by the American Friends of the Hebrew University (AFHU), a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Israel’s leading academic and research institution in Jerusalem.
The ceremony will take place at the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Chuck Stokes of WXYZ-TV in Detroit will serve as emcee.
The guest speaker will be Prof. Asher Cohen, president of Hebrew University.
“Dedicated to the well-being of Detroit, Judge Rosen served as the Chief Judicial Mediator in the Detroit bankruptcy, the largest and most complex municipal bankruptcy in American history,” said a spokesman for the AFHU. “He is credited with being the leader and architect of the mediation process that led to an almost fully consensual plan of adjustment in less than 16 months.”
For his role in devising the “Grand Bargain,” the plan that helped save the Detroit Institute of Arts and preserved pensions for retired city workers, Rosen was chosen by The Detroit News as “Michiganian of the Year” in 2015, just one of many coveted honors he has received over the course of his public service career.
Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan for than 7 years, Rosen was appointed to the federal bench in 1989 by then President George H.W. Bush.
A graduate of Kalamazoo College, Rosen earned his law degree from George Washington University and was a partner with Miller Canfield in Detroit before joining the judiciary.
As chief judge, Rosen took a global outlook on his judicial responsibilities, frequently lecturing at various international conferences around the globe, while also participating in the U.S. State Department’s Rule of Law program in Moscow and the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
In addition, he has lectured to high-ranking Chinese judges at the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing and Egyptian judges in Cairo, as well as at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
He also has consulted with the judiciaries of Thailand and the Ukraine.
The Torch of Learning Award was created by the AFHU to “recognize esteemed individuals distinguished by their achievements in the field of law and who have influenced the course of higher education in the United States and Israel,” the spokesman said. “This elite award reflects a meaningful and sustained commitment to humanitarian, civic, and Jewish communal causes.”
Upon retiring from the federal bench, Rosen joined the new Detroit office of Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services (JAMS), an international company specializing in alternative dispute resolution work.
Among the principals in the Detroit office are retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes, former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Mary Beth Kelly, and retired Miller Canfield attorney Clarence “Rocky” Pozza.
His new legal venture is in addition to volunteer service on a number of community and charitable boards, including Focus: HOPE, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Michigan Chapter of the Federalist Society.
In addition, Rosen has taught at the University of Michigan Law School, Wayne State Law School, Detroit Mercy Law and Cooley Law School.
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