Lifetime Achievement Award

ADRIAN P. SCHOONE,
BUS AD '57, LAW '59

Racine, Wis.

As a high school student, Adrian P. Schoone listened to his elders’ counsel. His parish priest told him he should go to Marquette. His father, chairperson of the family's town for 40 years, declared that he should study law. “Without his mandatory influence, I would never have become a lawyer,” he says. “I’d never thought about such a vocation for an instant before his dictate.”

But he has never regretted the advice. Specializing in trial work, Adrian has tried more than 250 civil and criminal cases to verdict and handled more than 35 cases before the Court of Appeals and the Wisconsin Supreme Court. He is president of Schoone, Leuck, Kelley, Pitts & Knurr, SC in Racine, Wis.

“I am now the ‘old man of the outfit,’ ” Adrian says. “I use the experience of nearly 53 years of law practice to counsel my younger partners on issues not found in the law books.”

His leadership is also evident outside his firm. He has served as president of the State Bar of Wisconsin and the Marquette Law School Alumni Association, as well as a member and chair of the Wisconsin Judicial Commission and what is now the Office of Lawyer Regulation. He also has served on the Racine Commission on Human Rights and the Wisconsin Equal Rights Council. 

“Whatever success I have enjoyed along life’s way has come from an inherited work ethic,” Adrian says. “I have never claimed to be the smartest lawyer in my geographical area of practice, but I knew from the outset I was not going to be outworked.”