When he turned 106, Mordie Rochlin, dressed impeccably in a suit, held court for more than two hours at his favorite neighbourhood restaurant, the Toledo, as Paul Weiss chairman Brad Karp and a handful of guests listened in rapt attention.

A tax and estates lawyer who retired 35 years ago but still works at the office, Rochlin is the only man alive who knew all five Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison name partners. And whether he’s recalling hearing tenor Enrico Caruso singing Over There at a war bonds rally, watching a horse-drawn fire carriage race down Columbus Avenue, leaving first-grade early to celebrate Armistice Day or learning of the death of legal legend Louis Stixx Weiss, he recreates the moment in such vivid detail that it’s mesmerising.