Paul Bass Photo
Polan outside Superior Court with client Jennifer Gondola.
Diane Polan was New Haven’s toughest “cookie” — and New Haven became a better place as a result.
Polan, a crusading criminal defense and civil rights lawyer, died Friday morning from an inoperable brain tumor at the age of 65.
Her nickname was “Cookie.” She was sweet, but she didn’t crumble easily. If at all.
Since coming to New Haven in 1969 as a member of Yale’s first class to admit women, Polan took on barriers with determination, good cheer, and intelligence. After graduation from Yale Law School, she set up shop in New Haven, representing women, workers, and others whose rights were violated. She took on high-profile criminal cases as well, including a not guilty verdict in a murder case based on a wrongfully obtained confession.
Early on, before more women entered the legal profession, Polan fought back against male lawyers who tried to intimidate women entering the bar. One day when she received an anonymously mailed lewd cartoon about female lawyers, she had the postmark traced to the office of a prominent local attorney (who later became a judge) and outed him.
In recent years she represented citizens who had cellphone cameras confiscated by New Haven police. Her work not only exonerated them in court, but forced the police department to change its approach to training cops in respecting the rights of citizen-photographers; and led to a change in state law. That led to her and one of her clients being named New Haven Independent “Women of the Year’ in 2012.
When the feds rounded up 105 reputed gang members in a massive sweep called “Operation Bloodline,” she convinced a federal judge that the arrestees’ rights to a speedy trial and effective counsel were being violated. In one difficult defense case involving a man who fled from and then drove at the cops, Polan won a mistrial by revealing misconduct by officers.
She devoted years to serving on the board of New Haven Legal Assistance Association, including a term as board president. She was known for encouraging other women to become lawyers, then mentoring them.
Polan also agitated for change in the public schools as a public-school parent, succeeding in getting more textbooks ordered.
“Cookie was a woman of extraordinary depth and strength and has been a civil rights advocate her entire career, always helping the disabled, the disenfranchised, and the disadvantaged,” said Tom Ullmann, New Haven’s chief public defender. Ullmann and Polan were lifelong friends ever since they studied together for the bar exam in the early 1970s. “We will miss her terribly,” he said.
Polan was in hospice when the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Association last week gave her a Champion of Liberty Award. It set up a new annual Cookie Polan Award in her honor.
She is survived by her spouse, Linda Barrett, and twin daughters Rosa and Maya.
Read more about Polan in this obituary from the Connecticut Law Tribune and this recent New Haven Register article by Randall Beach.