Remembering Ron Rosenbaum: Radio host had friends from all walks of life

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When the veteran criminal defense attorney Joe Friedberg had his first professional dealings with Ron Rosenbaum about a quarter-century ago, the two lawyers were on opposite sides of a personal injury claim that, as Friedberg tells the story, involved a spilled bowl of hot soup.

Rosenbaum’s client was the plaintiff, a restaurant patron who said she’d been scalded, while Friedberg represented the restaurant owner.

“I said, ‘Look, my guy doesn’t have any insurance; all he’s got is this restaurant,” Friedberg recalled. “Ron said, ‘All right, we’ll take the restaurant.’ And I said, ‘Actually, Ron, I was going to offer your client another bowl of soup.’ He looked at me and said, ‘We’re close.’”

In the end, the case settled for “a trivial sum,” according to Friedberg. But that deadpan repartee kicked off a lifelong personal friendship and professional association that endured until Rosenbaum’s death from multiple myeloma, at the age of 68, on May 29.

When Rosenbaum launched a parallel career in talk radio, he brought Friedberg along for the ride, naming him as a co-host (along with St. Paul attorney Mark Gehan) of the first iteration of the show “Holding Court,” a law-themed program that aired for eight years and ultimately morphed into a podcast of the same name.

“We inserted a lot of humor and a lot of put-ons and I think that convinced him that a lawyer show on talk radio could be interesting to regular people,” Friedberg said.

Incisive and witty

Over the years, Rosenbaum hosted or was a regular guest on WCCO, KSTP and KFAN, opining on all manner of public policy and legal issues. He earned a reputation for incisive, often witty and generally apolitical analysis — a marked contrast from the ideological fire-breathing that is more the norm in the medium.

As Rosenbaum developed his media career, he also maintained a lively and varied legal practice. Sometimes, the two roles overlapped.

A couple of years ago, Rosenbaum appeared on Dan Barreiro’s show on KFAN to discuss a controversy over a suburban school district’s decision to suspend a high school student over a two-word tweet in which the student jokingly suggested he had made out with a female gym teacher.

“I was following the story in the paper and was absolutely shocked that the police chief was talking about this as if it was a felony, let alone a crime. I was very critical about the way it was being reported,” Rosenbaum explained in an interview with Minnesota Lawyer at the time.

After the broadcast, Rosenbaum was contacted by the student’s father, who was looking for legal help. Rosenbaum, who was offended by the heavy-handed response of the school and the police, decided to take the case and recruited Joe Friedberg and Minneapolis attorney Bob Bennett to help out.

In the end, the student’s federal civil rights suit netted a $425,000 settlement.

“He was a sharp legal mind and he had an acute sense for when justice was under attack,” said Bennett, the managing partner of Gaskins Bennett Birrell Schupp LLP. “He was also a hell of a fun guy to be around.”

Rosenbaum wasn’t shy about expressing his sharp takes on the shortcomings of the legal profession — particularly in relation to the criminal justice. That was on display last winter when he moderated a panel discussion at a Minneapolis brew pub between Friedberg and Dean Strang, the Wisconsin defense attorney from “Making a Murderer,” the Netflix documentary about an apparent case of justice gone wrong.

The forum focused largely on prosecutorial abuses, which Rosenbaum decried with gusto.

“I think both of us hate the hypocrisy of the criminal justice system and, more than that, the combination of politics and law that brings it out,” said Friedberg.

As was the case with his media career, Rosenbaum’s legal practice was varied, a hodgepodge of criminal defense, personal injury, employment and entertainment work. In recent years, he represented many local television and radio professionals in contract negotiations.

In terms of money, the biggest win of Rosenbaum’s legal career came in the 1990s when he and his former partner, St. Paul attorney Bill Tilton, received a confidential settlement for more than $20 million in a medical malpractice case, according to Friedberg.

“They did a great detective job and caught the hospital covering it up, which is why it settled,” added Friedberg. He said the settlement was the largest of its kind in Minnesota at the time.

Rosenbaum also represented Kari Dziedzic in her 1993 sexual harassment lawsuit against Norm Green, the former owner of the Minnesota North Stars who hired Dzeidzic (now a state senator) as his executive assistant. That case, which settled for a reported $1.75 million, was seen by some as a factor in Green’s decision to relocate the franchise.

“Ron knew it wouldn’t make him the most popular guy in the world but he still pushed it and, ultimately, I believe that’s why Norm Green left Minnesota,” said Freidberg.

Rather be at the track

Rosenbaum’s death was announced in a Facebook post by Lucy Quinlivan, his long-time partner, co-host on the “Holding Court” podcast, and a former editor at the Pioneer Press.

“Ron collected and made fast, lifelong friends with the most interesting people from every phase of his life,” Quinlivan wrote. “Many of the people closest to him, including me, met and became friends through him, a fact that delighted him and made him proud.”

Rosenbaum’s prognosis was already grim when he and Quinlaven were married on April 23 at their St. Paul home, with Rosenbaum’s older brother, retired U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum, officiating.

A few hours later, the newlyweds — and Rosenbaum’s adult son from a prior marriage, Nicholas — hosted an open house.

“It was one of the most unusual affairs I’ve attended in my life. A couple hundred people came, people from all over America” recalled Friedberg, who described the gathering as a hybrid between a wedding reception and funeral wake.

Randy Segal, who grew up with Rosenbaum in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood, said he spoke with his “best friend” almost every day for the past 20 years.

Although Rosenbaum was fluent on a wide array of political and legal topics, Segal said Rosenbaum would “rather talk about Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.”

“He was very smart but he wasn’t a suspender, bow-tie type of lawyer. He was one of those guys who would rather be in Vegas shooting craps or at the race track smoking cigars,” Segal added. “I think he got more satisfaction of getting a good laugh than getting a good case.”

Segal said he last saw Rosenbaum several days before his death. After enduring numerous rounds of radiation and some “real strong doses of chemo,” Segal said, Rosenbaum opted for hospice over further treatment.

“His dad died at 71 of pancreatic cancer, which is another horrible cancer, and he didn’t want to go through that,” Segal added.