Louis Schnitzer Scholarship

“Louis Schnitzer owned a bathrobe that was entirely faded on one side,” said Monte Bricker. “Frances Bricker, my mother and Lou’s sister, told me that my uncle was a serious student, that he spent countless hours studying law at his desk in his bedroom, and that the sunlight streaming through his window bleached his robe. That robe became a symbol to me of Lou’s consummate research and meticulous preparation for every legal project he handled.”

“Lou was my hero as I was growing up, and I always wanted to be a lawyer-even before I knew what a lawyer did. Shortly after I passed the bar, one of the senior partners in my firm sent me to Federal Court with an order to be signed by Federal District Court Judge Gus J. Solomon. The judge took one look at the document and exclaimed: “Go back to your office and read the rules, young man.” Embarrassed, I raced back to my desk, discovered the error and corrected the order. By the time I returned to the courthouse Judge Solomon was in his chambers. He called me in and said, with a twinkle in his eye: “I know that you didn’t prepare that order, but I wanted to teach you a lesson. If you come to court as prepared as your Uncle Lou always has been, then you will do a good job in your profession.”

“Lou was a night student at Northwestern, as were most (if not all) of his classmates who passed the bar in 1930. When he died in 1992, my family and I wanted to perpetuate his memory in conjunction with this law school, thus the Louis Schnitzer Endowed Scholarship Fund for Evening Students.”

The Louis Schnitzer Scholarship was established in 1993 to provide support for students in the part-time program of the Law School.