Bernard Botein was born to a German Jewish family on New York's Lower East Side on May 6, 1900.
His father died when he was six, and he worked various jobs throughout his youth to support his family and pay for his education, including flower deliveryman, newspaper carrier, and clerk in an insurance office.
In 1938, Governor Herbert H. Lehman appointed Botein general counsel for the State Insurance Fund, where he headed an investigation that led to the conviction of 18 auditors for bribery and the dismissal of 40 others for violation of the New York Civil Service Code.
[2] As Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division First Department, he instituted a 24-hour arraignment system to shorten the time defendants spent in police lock-up.
[8] Bernard Botein died from heart failure at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan on February 3, 1974.