{"id":2898,"date":"2024-10-04T22:19:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T22:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/former-mayer-brown-chair-bob-helman-who-steered-the-firm-through-turbulent-time-dies-at-90\/"},"modified":"2024-10-04T22:19:47","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T22:19:47","slug":"former-mayer-brown-chair-bob-helman-who-steered-the-firm-through-turbulent-time-dies-at-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/former-mayer-brown-chair-bob-helman-who-steered-the-firm-through-turbulent-time-dies-at-90\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Mayer Brown Chair Bob Helman, Who Steered the Firm Through Turbulent Time, Dies at 90"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div data-v-1b187944=\"\">\n<div data-v-1b187944=\"\">\n<p>Bob Helman, a former Mayer Brown leader who spent more than a half-century at the firm before retiring earlier this year, died this week at age 90.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>  <!----> <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-1b187944=\"\">\n<p>The firm said on Friday that Helman, who served as chair for\u00a015 years beginning in 1984, when it was still known as\u00a0Mayer, Brown &amp; Platt, died after an extended illness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-1b187944=\"\">\n<p>Mayer Brown said in a statement on his death that Helman, who was named an American Lawyer Lifetime Achiever in 2015, was &#8220;one of the most highly regarded corporate lawyers in the United States.&#8221; His practice included corporate governance and &#8220;transformational&#8221; M&amp;A deals for some of the largest publicly held corporations, the firm stated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-1b187944=\"\">\n<p>&#8220;His successes on behalf of clients are legion, including his representation of Santa Fe Pacific in a merger that created the largest North American rail network,&#8221; the statement Friday noted. &#8220;Bob also was dedicated to serving pro bono clients and the community at large, including helping establish Legal Aid Chicago to provide free legal services to indigent people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!---->  <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-1b187944=\"\">\n<p>In Helman&#8217;s honor, according to the statement, the firm established the Mayer Brown\/Robert A. Helman Professorship at Northwestern University School of Law, where Helman earned his J.D. and was named to the Order of the Coif.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-1b187944=\"\">\n<p>As noted in his 2015 Lifetime Achiever profile, Helman took the reins as co-chair of the firm at a difficult time, after the firm&#8217;s largest client, Continental Bank, filed for bankruptcy. The bank accounted for about 30% of the firm&#8217;s business at the time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-1b187944=\"\">\n<p>A group of nearly 20 lawyers at the firm also decamped to begin the Chicago office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher &amp; Flom. But along with then co-chair Leo Herzel, Helman helped expand the client base, attracted new lateral partners, and altered the firm&#8217;s management structure to be more merit-based.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!---->  <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-1b187944=\"\">\n<p>&#8220;By the end of Bob&#8217;s tenure, Mayer Brown was a stronger, larger and more diversified law firm,&#8221; the firm added in its statement today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-1b187944=\"\">\n<p>Helman is survived by his wife,\u00a0Janet Williams Helman, a sister, children and grandchildren. The firm said information regarding services and memorials will be shared as it becomes available.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----><\/p>\n<div data-v-1b187944=\"\">\n<p>Another former chair of the firm, Ty Fahner,\u00a0died in September.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <!----> <!----> <!----> <!----><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bob Helman, a former Mayer Brown leader who spent more than a half-century at the firm before retiring earlier this year, died this week at age 90. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2698,1683,928,2913,184,3724,3723,3725,1059,3726],"class_list":["post-2898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-bob","tag-brown","tag-chair","tag-dies","tag-firm","tag-helman","tag-mayer","tag-steered","tag-time","tag-turbulent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}