Retired judge to receive lofty honor from Jewish Bar in May
By Tom Kirvan
Legal News
During his 19 years on the Oakland County Circuit Court bench, Judge James Alexander won a host of awards, coveted honors from various legal organizations that recognized his distinguished work as a public servant and as a volunteer in the field of community service.
On May 21, Alexander will add even more luster to his collection as this year’s winner of the Avern Cohn Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Jewish Bar Association of Michigan.
The honor, which will be presented during a special dinner ceremony at the Somerset Inn in Troy, is particularly meaningful to Alexander because of the award’s namesake, the longtime federal judge who died in 2022 at the age of 97 some two years after he retired from the bench.
“Judge Cohn was an institution in the Detroit legal community, and my grandfather was a contemporary of his father (Irwin Cohn), who, of course, was one of Detroit’s most prominent attorneys himself,” Alexander related. “So, to receive an award that is named after a legendary figure like Judge Cohn is deeply humbling and significant. He did so much to advance the law, and was understandably proud of his Jewish identity, contributing to many worthwhile causes in the community. His intellect was amazing, as was his commitment to the system of justice.”
In effect, he served as a model for a judge named James Alexander, who over the course of his legal career as a sole practitioner, political adviser, jurist, and mediator has been ever mindful of his Jewish values – “the values of compassion and the need to seek justice.” They have impacted how he views the world and the law, according to Judge Wendy Potts, his longtime colleague on Oakland County Circuit Court before she retired in 2018.
“Judge Alexander became a role model for me and many of my colleagues,” Potts said when he retired from the bench. “His work ethic and commitment to justice has been with him for all his years on the bench. He has been involved in every important statewide judicial committee. His premier accomplishment has been making the Oakland County Business Court one of the finest in the state. His creativity and intelligence have set the bar for how business litigation is conducted.”
A 1970 graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Alexander earned his juris doctor from the University of Detroit School of Law in 1973. He then worked for several small firms in the Detroit area, handling commercial litigation work before starting his own practice in 1981.
He would spend the next decade as a sole practitioner, chiefly involved in commercial collection work for such clients as Henry Ford Hospital, Michigan Bell, and Anthony Franco Public Relations. In 1991, he joined Foster Swift, where he was involved in governmental relations, commercial litigation, and arbitration. He was appointed to the Oakland County Circuit Court by then Governor John Engler in 2001 and was elected to a full six-year-term in 2002, winning re-election twice.
Before donning a judicial robe, Alexander was heavily involved in the political arena during the Engler administration where he rose to the title of director of the governor’s Southeast Michigan office in 1999.
He began forging a bond with the eventual three-term Michigan governor in the late 1980s when John Engler was making a name for himself while serving in the State Senate. The connection became stronger when Alexander took the reins as chairman of the Oakland County Republican Party in 1988, helping gubernatorial candidate Engler win the key region in the 1990 upset victory over Democratic incumbent James Blanchard.
Alexander’s judicial career, ironically, was within the frame of two tragedies, one deeply American and the other global in scope.
“I started on 9/11 and I ended my career in the midst of the pandemic in 2020,” Alexander noted. “Those were very unique bookends to a career.”
Since retiring from the bench, Alexander has written a fitting postscript to his distinguished career, working as a neutral in the Detroit office of JAMS (Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services) while also handling some visiting judge responsibilities for the Oakland Circuit Court. Pulling double-duty, he said with his customary quick wit, is his way of “flunking retirement” on his own terms.
His wife, Lynn Alexander, appears to have taken a page out of his book since retiring in 2024 as the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Presbyterian Villages of Michigan, which operates dozens of senior living communities across the state.
“Lynn is busy as an author of children’s books and on care-giving, and also serves as a management and leadership consultant,” Alexander said of his wife. “I’m incredibly proud of all that she has done and continues to do in her career.”
The Alexanders have one son, Scott, a Western Michigan University alum who is the Sales Channel Development Manager at Team Connection in Carmel, Ind. Scott also is an assistant football coach for Carmel High School, the largest public high school in Indiana. He and his wife, Beckie, have two children, Ella and Austin.
“We love spending time with all of them, doing our best to see them every other month,” Alexander said of the family visits. “Staying in close touch is a priority for us.”
Legal News
During his 19 years on the Oakland County Circuit Court bench, Judge James Alexander won a host of awards, coveted honors from various legal organizations that recognized his distinguished work as a public servant and as a volunteer in the field of community service.
On May 21, Alexander will add even more luster to his collection as this year’s winner of the Avern Cohn Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Jewish Bar Association of Michigan.
The honor, which will be presented during a special dinner ceremony at the Somerset Inn in Troy, is particularly meaningful to Alexander because of the award’s namesake, the longtime federal judge who died in 2022 at the age of 97 some two years after he retired from the bench.
“Judge Cohn was an institution in the Detroit legal community, and my grandfather was a contemporary of his father (Irwin Cohn), who, of course, was one of Detroit’s most prominent attorneys himself,” Alexander related. “So, to receive an award that is named after a legendary figure like Judge Cohn is deeply humbling and significant. He did so much to advance the law, and was understandably proud of his Jewish identity, contributing to many worthwhile causes in the community. His intellect was amazing, as was his commitment to the system of justice.”
In effect, he served as a model for a judge named James Alexander, who over the course of his legal career as a sole practitioner, political adviser, jurist, and mediator has been ever mindful of his Jewish values – “the values of compassion and the need to seek justice.” They have impacted how he views the world and the law, according to Judge Wendy Potts, his longtime colleague on Oakland County Circuit Court before she retired in 2018.
“Judge Alexander became a role model for me and many of my colleagues,” Potts said when he retired from the bench. “His work ethic and commitment to justice has been with him for all his years on the bench. He has been involved in every important statewide judicial committee. His premier accomplishment has been making the Oakland County Business Court one of the finest in the state. His creativity and intelligence have set the bar for how business litigation is conducted.”
A 1970 graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Alexander earned his juris doctor from the University of Detroit School of Law in 1973. He then worked for several small firms in the Detroit area, handling commercial litigation work before starting his own practice in 1981.
He would spend the next decade as a sole practitioner, chiefly involved in commercial collection work for such clients as Henry Ford Hospital, Michigan Bell, and Anthony Franco Public Relations. In 1991, he joined Foster Swift, where he was involved in governmental relations, commercial litigation, and arbitration. He was appointed to the Oakland County Circuit Court by then Governor John Engler in 2001 and was elected to a full six-year-term in 2002, winning re-election twice.
Before donning a judicial robe, Alexander was heavily involved in the political arena during the Engler administration where he rose to the title of director of the governor’s Southeast Michigan office in 1999.
He began forging a bond with the eventual three-term Michigan governor in the late 1980s when John Engler was making a name for himself while serving in the State Senate. The connection became stronger when Alexander took the reins as chairman of the Oakland County Republican Party in 1988, helping gubernatorial candidate Engler win the key region in the 1990 upset victory over Democratic incumbent James Blanchard.
Alexander’s judicial career, ironically, was within the frame of two tragedies, one deeply American and the other global in scope.
“I started on 9/11 and I ended my career in the midst of the pandemic in 2020,” Alexander noted. “Those were very unique bookends to a career.”
Since retiring from the bench, Alexander has written a fitting postscript to his distinguished career, working as a neutral in the Detroit office of JAMS (Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services) while also handling some visiting judge responsibilities for the Oakland Circuit Court. Pulling double-duty, he said with his customary quick wit, is his way of “flunking retirement” on his own terms.
His wife, Lynn Alexander, appears to have taken a page out of his book since retiring in 2024 as the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Presbyterian Villages of Michigan, which operates dozens of senior living communities across the state.
“Lynn is busy as an author of children’s books and on care-giving, and also serves as a management and leadership consultant,” Alexander said of his wife. “I’m incredibly proud of all that she has done and continues to do in her career.”
The Alexanders have one son, Scott, a Western Michigan University alum who is the Sales Channel Development Manager at Team Connection in Carmel, Ind. Scott also is an assistant football coach for Carmel High School, the largest public high school in Indiana. He and his wife, Beckie, have two children, Ella and Austin.
“We love spending time with all of them, doing our best to see them every other month,” Alexander said of the family visits. “Staying in close touch is a priority for us.”
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