MADAN, Rosann Cacace

Of Boston, Massachusetts died peacefully on October 24, 2022. She was magnificent.

Born in 1941 in Bridgeport, Connecticut; she earned a Bachelor of Arts from Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart, a Masters of Arts in Classics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Juris Doctor from Boston University, where she was on Law Review. Prior to practicing law, Rosann taught Latin at Malden High School.

After graduating from law school, Rosann joined the Real Estate practice of the firm now known as Goodwin Procter. In her second year as an associate, the members of that department held their annual luncheon at a restaurant that did not admit women into the men’s dining room, and so they excluded her. Several days later, she was given an envelope with her bonus check. However, the partner in charge had mistakenly placed another associate’s check in her envelope and called her, asking her not to open the envelope; she opened it immediately. The male lawyer’s check was five times her bonus. She quit.

Showing the tenaciousness and courage that defined her trailblazing career, in 1975 she and her husband, Anil, formed the law firm Madan and Madan. One of her most triumphant moments came after an extended argument with Anil, when she announced, “I’m leaving, and you can call the firm ‘and Madan.’” An envelope addressed to “Madan and Madman” arrived days later, and she said to him with glee, “See, I told you I was first.”

At the office, one of the secretaries had a stock greeting for Anil each morning. “Good a.m., AM,” she would say. Rosann’s secretary, Annie Barretto, retorted with, “Say good morning to HM too.” The moniker stuck and she was known as “HM’’ throughout the office, and at home.

At Madan and Madan, Rosann’s trial practice focused primarily on product liability cases against major companies. Her clients included

The Coca-Cola Company, Textron Inc., Honeywell, The Stanley Works, Bostitch, Gulf & Western Co., E.W. Bliss Co., and many others. She conducted the discovery and depositions in almost all of the cases that she and Anil tried in court. She was a tenacious cross-examiner at depositions, and she used her prodigious charm to elicit compromising testimony from claimants.

In addition to her professional achievements, Rosann was a voracious reader and a lifelong learner. She attended lectures, courses and book groups with her many devoted friends. She was accomplished at needlepoint and gardening, and she was a consummate hostess who took great pride in setting a beautiful table. A patron of the arts, she enjoyed music, serving on the Board of Boston Baroque, an orchestra that features period instruments. Her taste was as eclectic as she, and she enjoyed B.B. King, Linda Ronstadt, Bruce Springsteen and the Dixie Chicks as much as Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos or Handel’s Messiah.

Rosann was preceded in death by her parents, Margaret R. (Cullen) and Vincent A. Cacace, M.D.; and by her brother Vincent A. Cacace, Jr. She is survived by her husband, Anil Madan; her daughter, Anjolie Elizabeth Madan; her sister, Ellen Cacace Maxwell; and their extended families.

When she retired from practicing law, Anil was at a golf tournament sponsored by an organization of plaintiff lawyers. An attorney who had fallen victim to Rosann’s meticulous case preparation asked how she was, and expressed relief that he would not again have to face her as an adversary, “She was the most dangerous lawyer I ever met.” He turned to the other lawyers in the foursome and added, “She’d smile at you while she pissed right down your leg.” Rosann was thrilled when the incident was recounted to her; she took it as a great compliment. Her accomplishments and fierceness belied her sense of humor, but those close to her knew how wickedly funny she could be, and that for all her intellectualism and industriousness, she could always be counted on to light up a room with her smile.

There will be a private memorial at a future date for family only. In lieu of flowers, they ask that you donate to Hope for Haiti Foundation in Rosann’s memory.