Remembering Mitch Cobert, former Morris Bar Association president, congressional candidate, crusader for fraud victims

Mitchell Cobert ran for Congress in 2018 with the motto “common ground, common sense.”

But friends and colleagues are remembering the Morristown lawyer, who died last month from leukemia at age 73, as uncommon — uncommonly decent and compassionate.

When he was starting out, his cramped New York apartment was where college buddies would crash when life got rocky at home.

As a successful attorney, Cobert won settlements for seniors who had been ripped off. And then, for years, he called them over the holidays to see how they were doing.

Cobert mentored young lawyers as president of the Morris County Bar Association, and helped establish the Morristown Partnership to revitalize the downtown.  A devoted family man, he coached his kids’ sports teams.

In his Historic District neighborhood, Cobert volunteered at the Kellogg Club, where he organized weekly discussions about religion and exercised his considerable skills at the poker table.

Now and then, he liked to don a red vest and help customers at his favorite hardware store.

“Wow…an attorney who can spackle,” marveled former neighbor Andrew Hines, after entering Cobert’s stately home for the first time and mistaking him for a laborer. Cobert loved restoring the old house, and inviting others to enjoy it.

Reenie Harris fondly remembered a zip line Cobert installed in the backyard, “for kids of all ages, including myself.”

After Superstorm Sandy, Morristown attorney Frank Alai returned from a hospitalization to a home without electricity. Cobert and his wife Kathi invited the Alais to stay with them.

“For four days we were treated like kings,” said Alai, who later managed Cobert’s congressional race. “I miss him already. I will continue to miss him for the rest of my life.”

Cobert kept a photo that inspired his Democratic primary bid. It depicted a concentration camp. His father helped liberate it, as commander of a tank battalion for Gen. George Patton in World War II.

“That’s why I’m running,” Cobert told Morristown Green. “Because we have to do something to prevent prejudice, to prevent bigotry from happening again. We have to protect our rights as citizens.”

Cobert’s grandparents had fled religious persecution in the Baltic states.  President Trump’s immigration policies and rhetoric alarmed him.

“If we are silent in the face of prejudice and bigotry and attacks on immigrants, then we are all complicit. We have to speak out and do whatever we can to protect all people who come to this country to seek a better life,” said Cobert, a member of Temple B’nai Or.

He was optimistic his mediation skills could broker nonpartisan solutions to tough problems.

“In ’18, I loved his message of ‘common ground and common sense.’ My heart goes out to Mitch’s wife, family, and friends,” said Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11th Dist.), who won the five-way 11th District primary en route to Capitol Hill.

Video: Mitch Cobert on Primary Day 2018, during his congressional run.

Cobert had Republican admirers. During the campaign, former Mayor Jay DeLaney Jr. described his fellow attorney as compassionate and “rock solid, as honest as they come.”

Neighbor Rich Lindner invited Cobert fishing. Although their politics differed, Lindner recounted in 2018, he found Cobert to be a good listener and enjoyed their conversations about issues, “which is rare these days.”

Cobert’s career could have taken a different path. At the City University of New York, the Brooklyn native explored acting and playwriting.

But his next stop was St. John’s University, for a law degree.

“I felt that I needed to understand how laws affect people, and allow them to better control their destiny. Laws affect every single thing we do. I wanted some impact helping others, and helping myself understand how I could protect my rights.”

He learned to follow complex paper trails while prosecuting securities violations as an assistant attorney general in New York’s Bureau of Real Estate Financing. In private practice, he fought for victims of securities cons.

“I represent the little old man or woman with Alzheimer’s who lost their life savings to fraud. I fight the largest brokers and dealers and Wall Street firms,” Cobert told Morristown Green in 2018.

In an online memorial, attorney Lon Dolber recalled Cobert as “the most practical lawyer I ever had the privilege to know and work with. He just made you feel better after every meeting regardless of outcomes. Most importantly he was a really warm and decent man.”

Natalka Farrell, a disabled widow from Springfield, said she got holiday greetings from Cobert years after he recovered money for her.

“If he was in Congress, we wouldn’t have all this bickering,” Farrell said during Cobert’s campaign. “Anybody whose life crosses his path is very lucky.”

Many in Morristown have warm memories of Cobert’s mentorship; he was generous with friendly advice.

Local school board President Nancy Bangiola worked with him at Schenck Price when she was a young lawyer. “He was an excellent lawyer and a great friend,” Bangiola said.

Morristown Parking Authority Executive Director Michael Fabrizio sought Cobert’s counsel when he was a 20-something hired to run the Morristown Partnership.

“Mitch was a genuinely good person…he was a great source of advice and guidance for me. He cared very much about his hometown. He is sorely missed,” said Fabrizio.

Mayor Tim Dougherty was a friend, neighbor and card-playing pal of Cobert for three decades. Morristown has lost a great man, he told the council last week.

The last time Dougherty visited him in the hospital, Cobert did not bemoan his five-month battle with cancer. He had fought the fight. The treatments didn’t work.

“I guess you’ll see us in the big rodeo in the sky,” Cobert told the mayor.

Mitchell H. Cobert is survived is survived by his wife Kathryn; his children, Jessica and spouse Craig Smith, Lauren Cobert, and Max and his spouse Emily Cobert; grandchildren Zachary Smith, Samantha Smith and Jackson Cobert; his siblings Tamara and Edward Faggen and Jonathan and Wendy Cobert; and dozens of close cousins, nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you consider a donation in Cobert’s memory to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, or the American Cancer Society.