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ACC Western PennsylvaniaRon Schuler’s history of the legal profession in Pittsburgh, THE STEEL BAR, was released in September 2019. In his chapter on Pittsburgh’s Renaissance, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, he focuses on how the general counsels of three major Pittsburgh corporations -- PPG, Mellon Bank and Alcoa -- played major roles in stimulating and executing the development of Point State Park, the Gateway Center Towers, the Civic Arena and WQED-TV, among other post-war projects. They did so based on a belief that major corporations owed a fiduciary duty to the communities in which they were located, and in part because they believed that as citizens of a community, lawyers have a special obligation to share their expertise and provide leadership. This was at the tail-end of an era in which lawyers were accorded high levels of respect within corporate America: 75% of the chief executive officers of major corporations in the U.S. were lawyers in the late 1930s, while only 5% of them were lawyers as of the beginning of the 21st century.
Why the decline in numbers? Are lawyers still capable of providing the kind of leadership in their communities that was the hallmark of Pittsburgh’s lawyers immediately after WWII? And what happens if today’s lawyers do not step up and lead?
Speakers
Ron Schuler, the author of THE STEEL BAR: PITTSBURGH LAWYERS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA, has been the managing partner of the Pittsburgh office of Spilman for almost a decade, and has been practicing corporate, M&A, start-up, technology, and securities law for over 30 years. A native Southern Californian and grandson of Mexican immigrants, Schuler is a graduate of Pomona College and Cornell Law School. In 2015, he was named Best Lawyers' M&A Lawyer of the Year in Pittsburgh. He was a lead member of the City of Pittsburgh's legal team for the planning and construction of PNC Park, home to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and was the author of the Forbes Field II Task Force Final Report (1996), the urban planning justification for PNC Park's location. He has also served as a senior operating officer of a $100 million oil and gas company, and is the founding chairman of Pittsburgh’s community-supported jazz radio station, WZUM-FM. He recently published a novel, ANGELEÑOS, which is set in Los Angeles, c. 1920-50.
Stephen Yslas is the former corporate vice president and general counsel of Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC). Yslas led Northrop Grumman’s legal team on regulatory matters, including those involving the acquisitions of Litton, Newport News and TRW. His responsibilities at the global aerospace company included international transactions, mergers and acquisitions, export control, antitrust, government contracts and other federal regulatory matters. Yslas is currently a member of the board of directors of the UCLA Technology Development Corporation, and he served for 10 years as a Police Commissioner on the City of Los Angeles Police Commission. He is also a member of the Hispanic National Bar Association and a member of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. He earned both his bachelor's degree and law degree at UCLA. He currently serves as a senior advisor to Spilman Thomas & Battle.
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