Morris Leo Cohen (November 2, 1927 – December 18, 2010) was an American attorney who left the practice of law to become a law librarian and professor of law at the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

and

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

. Described by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' as "one of the nation's most influential legal librarians", he wrote extensively about the history of law and helped organize and computerize the law libraries at Harvard and Yale. Cohen was born on November 2, 1927, in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

and attended the

New York City Public Schools The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's public school system. The City School District of the City of New York (or the New York City Public Schools) is t ...

."Morris L. Cohen: Professor Emeritus of Law and Professorial Lecturer in Law"
,

. Accessed December 27, 2010. He received his undergraduate degree at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1947 and was awarded a J.D. from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

in 1951. His efforts to specialize in

labor law Labour laws (also known as labor laws or employment laws) are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, ...

were thwarted when firms refused to hire him because of his involvement with left-wing organizations and Cohen instead went into a law practice with his uncle. As his wife described, Cohen "wasn't cut out for practicing law" and chose to attend the School of Library and Information Science at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

, where he earned a

Master of Library Science The Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS), also referred to as the Master of Library and Information Studies, is the master's degree that is required for most professional librarian positions in the United States. The MLIS is a relativ ...

degree while he was working at the library at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

. He focused the remainder of his career as a law librarian and professor, and would later describe how he "celebrated my departure from practice as a great emancipation". At Yale Law School he served as the school's law librarian starting in 1981 and was a lecturer at the law school starting in 1991.Lalwani, Nikita
"Morris Cohen, law librarian and Yale Law professor, dies"
, ''

Yale Daily News The ''Yale Daily News'' is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut since January 28, 1878. It is the oldest college daily newspaper in the United States. The ''Yale Daily News'' has consis ...

'', December 26, 2010. Accessed December 27, 2010. He donated his "Juvenile Jurisprudence Collection" to the Yale Law Library in 2009, a collection he had started decades earlier that included early publications related to juvenile law. While working as director of the law libraries of SUNY Buffalo, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Yale, Cohen authored ''A Bibliography of Early American Law'' in 1998, a six-volume tome that he had worked on for over three decades that provided a comprehensive catalog of all legal works published in the United States before 1860.Hevesi, Dennis
"Morris L. Cohen, Leader Among Legal Librarians, Dies at 83"
''

'', December 25, 2010. Accessed December 27, 2010. His 1968 book ''Legal Research in a Nutshell'' was released in nine editions, the most recent in 2007. Other works he wrote or co-authored include ''Law and Science, A Selective Bibliography'' (1980), ''How to Find the Law'' (1983), ''Finding the Law'' (1989), ''Law: The Art of Justice'' (1992), ''A Guide to the Early Reports of the Supreme Court'' (1995), ''Bench and Bar: Great Legal Caricatures from Vanity Fair'' (1997) and ''

Joseph Story Joseph Story (September 18, 1779 – September 10, 1845) was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from 1812 to 1845. He is most remembered for his opinions in ''Martin v. Hunter's Lessee'' and ''United States ...

and the Encyclopædia Britannica'' (2006). A resident of

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

, Cohen died at the age of 83 of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

on December 18, 2010, at his home there.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Morris L. 1927 births 2010 deaths Deaths from cancer in Connecticut Columbia Law School alumni Harvard Law School faculty Law librarians New York (state) lawyers People from the Bronx Lawyers from New Haven, Connecticut Pratt Institute alumni University of Chicago alumni Yale Law School faculty Deaths from leukemia in the United States University at Buffalo faculty 20th-century American lawyers