Elliot Zulver always joked that, if he got divorced, he’d have to hire his wife to represent him. He’d be hard pressed to find a better family lawyer than Sally Gold.

She would guide clients through difficult court hearings and remind them that “it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” She insisted on taking the high road, even when the other side didn’t.

And she knew how to light up a courtroom like few others. While her colleagues came to court in black suits and navy blue dresses, she’d always show up in bright colors, head to toe, with a signature hat on her head. She often told people she had maybe 200 hats in her collection, but the real number was about double that, her husband said.

“Her reputation was as a fierce, zealous advocate for her clients, with a dressing style as fiery as her advocacy,” said her brother, Carl Gold, who is also a lawyer.

Sally Gold, who was also a skilled knitter and crafter, died May 4 of cancer. She was 75.

She was born Oct. 20, 1949, an older sister to Deborah and Carl. Her father served in the military and later worked as a salesman, while her mother worked part-time as an administrative assistant.

As a child, Carl both admired and feared his sister, who attended Pimlico Junior High and Western High School. She earned so many A’s that her parents offered her money to chill out and get a C instead. She declined, of course.

Her family has no idea where her knack for fashion came from. Her parents dressed conservatively, and her siblings weren’t drawn to vibrant colors in the way that she was. She was “no shrinking violet, no wallflower,” her brother said.

At age 14, she met Zulver at a mutual friend’s house. They were pretty much inseparable after that, even when Gold attended Sarah Lawrence College and then transferred to Goucher College.

The couple wed when Gold was 20. They spent more than 20,000 days married — Zulver did the math — and they were only separated, at most, for 75 days.

After graduating, she briefly worked as a research assistant, but she grew annoyed that her male counterparts made more money. She’d always felt passionately about helping women, and she hated seeing people get pushed around, so she decided to go to law school.

She graduated from the University of Maryland and was admitted to the bar in 1976. She had initially taken Zulver’s last name when she got married, but she wanted “Gold” on her law degree. So she went to change her name back on all of her legal documents and accounts, and she fought her bank when it initially refused to let her. She won.

After law school, she clerked for the chief judge of the Appellate Court of Maryland and worked in the state attorney general’s office.

She then transitioned to private practice and started her own firm in the mid-’80s, decorating her office with colorful rugs and intricate paintings. She started to keep a calendar of all of her clients’ birthdays, and she would send them cards each year.

“You couldn’t ask for a nicer person,” her husband said. “It’s not just standard.”

Mandy Miliman, another divorce lawyer, met Gold about a decade ago when they co-counseled on a complicated custody battle that involved allegations of child sexual abuse. Gold was a strong debater and was intentionally forthright with her clients, said Miliman, who had only been practicing law for a few years at the time.

Gold was a mentor to Miliman and other female lawyers and was heavily involved in the Women’s Law Center.

But above all else, she was empathetic and kind. She checked in with clients regularly, even years after their cases were resolved. She would bring Italian candies to hand out to clerks and sheriffs at the courthouse.

“There will just never be another Sally Gold,” Miliman said.

Gold and Zulver spent the first several years of marriage traveling across the world and renovating their home in Bolton Hill.

They enjoyed hosting parties. Gold’s favorite was her version of white elephant — everyone had to bring the worst gift they’d ever received and put it on a table. As it turns out, a gift one person hated was usually something another loved.

After 13 years, they decided to have a child with a last name all her own: Alissa Zulvergold.

Gold would often do crafts with her daughter and taught her to knit. When Zulvergold got married, she and her mother knitted a bouquet of pink roses for the ceremony.

In recent months, Gold was knitting a scarf, and she kept the project at her daughter’s home to work on while she visited. Zulvergold plans to complete it. It’ll be the last thing they’ll knit together, she said.

Gold was also thrilled to share her love of arts and crafts with her grandson, Oliver. Gold discovered Oliver’s pajama pants were exactly the length of her arms, so she made long-sleeved shirts out of them.

“I don’t think a lot of other people are taking their grandson’s old, outgrown pajamas, and turning them into these fashion statements,” Zulvergold said.

Zulvergold lives in New York City now, and her parents would travel up every weekend. They loved the city so much that they purchased their own apartment there. People would often stop Gold on the street to compliment her outfits, and once she was featured in “Humans of New York.”

“She was never not stopping to buy something, look at something, talk to somebody,” her daughter said. “The attention that she got … because she looked so spectacular and fabulous — to get attention on the streets of New York takes a special someone.”

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