In Memoriam: Jules Coven: A Remembrance
Jules Coven, a prominent immigration lawyer and past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), passed away in his home in Lake Worth, Florida on December 29, 2016, surrounded by his family. He was 82 years old.
He received a Bachelor of Arts from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 1955. He received a Bachelor of Laws from Brooklyn Law School in 1958.
Jules started his legal career at Lebenkoff & Coven. In 1999, he formed a partnership with Eileen Bretz and me. The three of us combined two separate law firms, which practiced different aspects of immigration law, into one full-service, multi-language immigration law firm called Bretz & Coven, LLP.
Jules had an extraordinary law career. He was AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell, its highest peer review rating for knowledge and ethics. He was a law professor at Brooklyn Law School. He appeared on Nightline and Good Morning America. He argued Cheng Fan Kwok v. INS, 392 U.S. 206 (1968), before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was on the cutting edge of U.S. asylum policies for forced family planning against Chinese nationals. Jules was well respected in the Chinatown community and often represented multiple generations of Chinese immigrants from the same family. Jules, Matthew L. Guadagno, and I directed a very successful and aggressive federal litigation practice that resulted in many published cases in numerous federal courts that changed, often for the better, the way immigration law is practiced.
He was always pleasant and had something positive to say about everybody. You could count on Jules to always be reasonable and even-keeled. He loved being a lawyer and loved talking about immigration law even more. At AILA conferences, he enjoyed walking up to strangers and introducing himself.
Jules is survived by his wife, Dorothy, his daughter Michelle, a lawyer in New York and Israel, his son, Howard, and his daughter, Marjorie.
The Funeral took place on Friday, December 30 at Eternal Light Cemetery in Boynton Beach. Shiva through Thursday morning 9:00 a.m. at The Fountains, 6876 Fountains Circle, Lake Worth. Donations can be made to AutismSpeaks.org or mail to: Autism Speaks, Attn: Web Gift, 1060 State Road, 2nd Floor, Princeton, NJ 08540.
"Jules E. Coven was an exemplary immigration attorney and friend," said Kerry Bretz, Partner, Bretz & Coven, LLP. "His legacy at Bretz & Coven will continue and he will be dearly missed."