Longtime public defender Roland Thau, who died Nov. 10 at 86, was remembered by colleagues this week as a giant of the Southern District of New York courthouse, a man who dedicated his life to social justice after escaping the Holocaust as a child in France.

“People throw around terms like ‘icon’ a lot, but he really was an icon,” said David Patton, executive director and attorney-in-chief of the Federal Defenders of New York.