Levy Mayer

Levy Mayer (October 23, 1858 – August 14, 1922) was an American lawyer from Virginia. A child prodigy of law, Mayer graduated from Yale Law School before he could even legally practice the profession in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. After several years organizing the Chicago Law Library, Mayer practiced with Adolf Kraus. Mayer became one of the most infamous lawyers in Chicago by defending large corporations against anti-trust litigation. Furthermore, he successfully defended the Iroqouis Theater and its manager in the aftermath of the Iroquois Theatre fire. At the time of his death, he was considered one of the richest lawyers in the United States. He is the namesake of Levy Mayer Hall at Northwestern University and his law firm is today known as Mayer Brown.

Levy Mayer was born in Richmond, Virginia, on October 23, 1858. His parents had immigrated from Bavaria three years earlier and moved to Chicago, Illinois when Mayer was young. Mayer attended public schools, including Chicago High School, where he graduated in 1874. He studied at Yale College, then the Yale Law School. When he returned to Chicago, he was named assistant librarian of the Law Institute in the Rookery Building, as he could not legally practice law at such a young age. He oversaw improvements at the library and, by the time he left, the collection exceeded 17,000 books. He edited two collections of manuscripts from David Rorer, one on judicial & execution sales and the other on interstate or private international law. Mayer also organized the first printed catalog at the library.

The Supreme Court of Illinois admitted Mayer to the bar when he reached the appropriate age. He left the library in 1881 to practice with Kraus & Brackett. When Brackett retired soon afterward, Adolf Kraus admitted Mayer as junior partner of Kraus & Mayer. The firm was later known as Kraus Mayer & Stein and Moran Kraus Mayer & Stein. When Stein and Moran retired, the firm became Moran Mayer & Meyer. The firm focused on constitutional, corporation, and municipal law. He frequently defended corporations facing anti-trust suits, though he was often attacked in the press for it. He received legal fees from businesses he defended from $500,000 to $1 million. Mayer served as the legal adviser to the Chicago City Treasurer, occasionally also serving as adviser to the Cook County Treasurer. At the time of his death, he was the senior partner of Mayer, Meyer, Austrian & Platt and had offices in Chicago and New York City.

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