Chicago real estate lawyer Morrie Much co-founded the Much Shelist law firm and was active in Jewish causes, providing support to both the Holocaust Museum in Skokie and the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.
“He was greatly skilled at his craft, particularly in the areas of real estate, corporate law and secured lending,” said Michael Freed, a law partner of Much’s for 33 years. “He took time to understand the people with whom he was dealing and zeroed in on the important legal issues in the matters that they brought him.”
Much, 86, died of complications from prostate cancer April 30 at the Northbrook Inn memory care center in Northbrook, said his son, Larry. He was a resident of Highland Park.
Born in Chicago, Much was the son of immigrants from Belarus. He grew up on Oglesby Avenue in the South Shore neighborhood and attended Hyde Park High School, where he was captain of the football team and competed in track and field, setting an Illinois state record for the shot put, his family said.
Much received a bachelor’s degree in 1959 from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and considered becoming an architect. Ultimately, however, he decided to pursue the law, and he picked up a law degree in 1962 from the University of Chicago Law School.
Much took a job with the Chicago law firm Arvey, Hodes & Mantynband. He was drawn to real estate law because his father had invested in real estate and needed help with contracts, his family said.
Much later joined the Raynor Mitchell law firm, where he became a partner. When the other Raynor Mitchell partners were retiring, Much decided to start his own firm, so he teamed up with lawyer Michael Shelist to form Much Shelist.
Much Shelist grew to focus not just on real estate but also on antitrust law and estate law, among other practice areas.
“When I ventured into a new practice of representing clients in antitrust litigation, it was a departure from our firm’s then-existing practice specialties,” Freed said. “But Morrie saw the potential to the practice and led the firm’s decision to support me in what became a significant practice area for us.”
Much Shelist grew to be an approximately 90-lawyer firm whose partners were determined to remain independent as the legal industry consolidated.
“There’s still more prestige in going to the bigger law firms,” Much acknowledged to the Tribune in 1995. “No matter what a lot of interviewees tell us, if they get a job offer from a larger firm, 9 out of 10 times they’ll take it because of what they see as perceived advantages. If they come with us, however, they usually find we’re more collegial, more hands-on and offer challenging work.”
Mitchell S. Roth, Much Shelist’s co-chairman, called Much “your consummate founding partner who was well-respected and the way you would picture a leader of a law firm.”
“Morrie was not only a successful real estate lawyer, but he also was approachable and was a visionary,” Roth said. “He really left a legacy of firm culture, a strong family, doing it all and being successful without having to do it all at a large (law) firm.”
Much also was active in the Chicago Bar Association, chairing its continuing legal education subcommittee and its land development and construction subcommittee.
Much supported the Jewish United Fund of Chicago and helped to support the construction of the Holocaust Museum in Skokie and the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which is a group that has worked to combat antisemitism, perform Holocaust research and hunt down Nazi war criminals.
Much retired from his firm not long after turning 75, his family said.
“He was respectful, intelligent, generous caring nurturing father who took pride in honoring his word, being honorable and ethical,” Larry Much said. “And while he was a stickler about contracts, he liked to keep things simple when it came to documents. That is what was important to him.”
Much’s wife, Janet, died in January. In addition to his son, Much is survived by two daughters, Elizabeth Much and Katherine Lipschutz; and four grandchildren.
Services were held.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
