William A. Schnader

Who was William A. Schnader?

William A. Schnader was Attorney General of Pennsylvania and founder of the law firm Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis.

Schnader graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in 1908, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. After earning a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Schnader went on to become Special Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania in 1923 and Attorney General in 1930. He served as the Attorney General of Pennsylvania under two successive governors, during which time he directed major new codifications of the laws of corporations and banking. In 1934, Schnader was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor. He lost to Democrat George Howard Earle.

In 1935, following his unsuccessful bid for Governor of Pennsylvania, Schnader and Bernard G. Segal, the former Deputy Attorney General, joined with Francis A. Lewis, who had been a partner in another law firm and the treasurer of Schnader's gubernatorial campaign, to form the law firm of Schnader & Lewis in Philadelphia. Shortly thereafter, they added Bernard Segal as a named partner. In the early years, the members of the firm gained prominent clients and soon national recognition handling a major case heard by the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1948, Earl G. Harrison, after resigning as Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, joined the firm as the fourth named partner.