Frederick H. Cohen died of complications from cancer earlier this month at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Cohen, a principal at the firm of Goldberg Kohn, was an advocate for poor children's medical care who was a co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in a class-action suit filed on behalf of 600,000 children eligible for Medicaid.

After a monthlong trial in 2004, U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow agreed with the plaintiff's argument that the state was not providing the poor with care equal to the general population. The judge went on to approve a settlement that required the state of Illinois to increase payments to doctors and dentists caring for children for low-income families. The trial took place in the midst of Mr. Cohen's own long-running medical drama. First diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2001, he suffered a recurrence just as proceedings were about to get under way.

Click here to read the full obituary in the Chicago Tribune.