Michael Tischman

Michael B. Tischman, 81, of Scotch Plains died Nov. 7, 2018. He was born and raised in Elizabeth and lived in Scotch Plains since 1973.

Mr. Tischman was a Newark attorney for more than 40 years and the youngest of five founding partners of one of New Jersey’s largest law firms.

He received his undergraduate degree from University of Pennsylvania, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with honors in English. He graduated from Harvard Law School and held a master’s degree in federal taxation from New York University.

He was a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army stationed at Ft. Lee, Va., and a first lieutenant in the Army Reserve from 1960 to 1967.

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After graduating law school in 1963, he served a judicial clerkship with Judge Walter J. Freund of the New Jersey Appellate Division, following which he joined a small Newark law firm that in 1971 became Sills Beck Cummis Radin & Tischman, a firm of five lawyers which grew to more than 150 lawyers as Sills Cummis Radin Tischman Epstein & Gross.

He served as co-chair of the firm’s corporate and health-care departments for many years, specializing in mergers and acquisitions. In that capacity, he represented either the buyer or the seller in the purchase/sale of many of New Jersey’s leading companies and institutions, including Maidenform, New Jersey Law Journal, Eyelab, Wayne General Hospital, United Hospitals, and Columbus Hospital. In 2004, he undertook a reduced work schedule and became senior counsel to Sills Cummis & Gross. He retired Dec. 31, 2011.

He was panel chair for a New Jersey District Fee Arbitration Committee; a member of the Seton Hall Law School Health Law & Policy Program Advisory Board; a member of the State Bar Committee on Revisions to the New Jersey Uniform Limited Partnership Act; author of the entry for his law firm in Encyclopedia of New Jersey (Rutgers University Press), and a trustee of the Morris Museum; he also had been listed in Who’s Who in America since 1992.

He was a member of Temple Emanu-El in Westfield.

Predeceased by his wife of 45 years, Elinor Cohen Tischman, in 2004, he is survived by his son, David (Maggie Malina); his daughter, Susan (Gregory Long); a brother, Stephen Tischman; a sister, Judith Landin; two grandchildren; and his companion since 2007, Dana Forfa.