Legal News

When Lawyer Lew Met Lawyer (and Brother) Jack

By Ashby Jones

You’ve read these types of stories before. Person finds out he or she is adopted, hires a private investigator and, weeks later, is experiencing a tearful/joyful/awkward first encounter with a long lost brother or sister.

Imagine our excitement, however, in stumbling over one of these stories in which both the searcher and the searchee are lawyers. And not just any old lawyers, but lawyers with significant achievements who, oh yeah, happen to live six blocks from each other.

Such a tale was recently brought to life in a lengthy Chicago Tribune story. Late in life and after a long career as a prominent lawyer, real estate developer and co-founder of the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Lewis Manilow (pictured, left) set out to find out if he had any siblings. Turns out, he did; a brother named Jacob “Jack” Shore (pictured, right), a patent lawyer who wrote the patent application for the TMX Elmo doll, which won the 2006 Toy of the Year award. Both men were in their 80s when the discovery was made.

“The surprise of my life,” said Lew, “at my age, to find I have a brother, and he lives six blocks away.”

The article, while a riveting read, is a bit light on the intricacies of each man’s legal career. Seems that Lew did a lot more than just practice law, though. He produced the movie “The Next Big Thing” in 2000 and has been active in Democratic politics. Jack, according to this bio, has spent most of his career teaching and practicing IP law. He graduated from GW Law School in 1951.

Both seem to have high regard for the profession, however. In talking about his and Jack’s mother, Lew professed not to know all that much. “All I know is we were blessed with good genes,” he said. “A lot of lawyers came from this woman who was illiterate and difficult. We won the gene pool. We were lucky.”

Photo: Chicago Tribune

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 02, 2008 (boomark / email).