Historical Information about Cowan Liebowitz & Latman, P.C.

Our firm was founded in 1957 as a partnership of Marvin Cowan (NYU and Harvard Law School), Sidney Liebowitz (Yale and Columbia Law School), and Lazar Emanuel (NYU and Harvard Law School) under the name Cowan, Liebowitz & Emanuel.  Shortly after the firm was created, Lewis Cowan (Harvard and Harvard Law School), Marvin’s brother, and Alan Latman (NYU and Harvard Law School), a copyright authority and NYU faculty member, joined the partnership.  The firm then changed its name to Cowan, Liebowitz, Emanuel & Latman.  A few years later, Lazar Emanuel left the firm to manage radio stations and build a law publishing business with his son, Steven Emanuel.  Shortly thereafter, trademark authority Arthur Greenbaum (University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School) joined the firm.  The firm became a professional corporation named Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, P.C. in 1972.

In subsequent years, other notable trademark, copyright, and patent attorneys were recruited to the firm and helped establish the firm’s worldwide reputation as one of the top U.S. intellectual property firms, including, Baila Celedonia (Carnegie-Mellon and Brooklyn Law School), David Goldberg (Yale Law School) together with his colleagues William Borchard (Princeton University and Columbia Law School) and Lynn Fruchter (University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School).  Arlana Cohen, Al Robin, Lloyd McAulay, Raymond Lewis Gable, Morton David Goldberg were also active members of the firm.  Martin P. Levin, an esteemed publishing lawyer and former president of Times Mirror Book Group, established the firm’s publishing law practice.  Robert Halper acted as advisor and broker, or as legal counsel, for over 100 publishing company sales or acquisitions.  Jeremy Nussbaum, an experienced entertainment lawyer and the former co-owner of the BookHampton stores, also worked at the firm and represented many of the firm’s well-known clients.

Over the years, the firm has handled numerous landmark cases, including cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, federal and state appellate courts, and the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.  Our firm has also represented many well-known companies and brands.

Our firm’s alumni teach at leading law schools, work as in-house counsel at major corporations and start-up companies, have held major positions at the U.S. Copyright Office and U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, have founded innovative companies, and run leading intellectual property law practices in other countries.  Some of the our notable alumni include two well-known attorneys who received their associate training at our firm: Jane C. Ginsburg, the Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law at Columbia Law School and faculty director of its Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts, and Shira Perlmutter, the Register of Copyrights in the U.S. Copyright Office.