Spotlight on the Struves: Membership is a Family Affair
by Nina Amster
Some family traditions are so special and beneficial that they should be nurtured and encouraged. The traditions of legal practice par excellence and active membership in the Institute are embodied by the Struve family: father Guy Miller Struve, son Andrew H. Struve, and daughter Professor Catherine T. Struve.
Although Guy Struve maintains that he had no expectations that either of his children would follow in his footsteps, both children spent quite a bit of time during their childhood at his office at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. All have fond memories of these visits, which instilled in both of the younger Struves very positive feelings about the practice of law, including the camaraderie and the high level of intellectual discourse that were essential parts of their father’s practice.
An ALI member since 1974, Guy Struve has always been actively involved in the Institute, which provides him with a venue for unparalleled “intellectual give and take,” all with the common goal of improving the law. A watershed event for him was the advent of the Members Consultative Groups, which enabled him to become involved in areas outside his area of practice as a senior partner in his firm’s litigation department. With development of the MCGs, members who were not project Advisers could review and comment on the first working draft of a project at the same time as Advisers. Through his membership over the years in more than a dozen MCGs, Guy has been able to get in on the “ground floor” and work with the Reporters to provide early and influential feedback on their drafts, which has further increased his ability to contribute to the work of the Institute. Guy also served as an Adviser on the ALI’s project on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments.
After he knew that both of his children were going to become attorneys, Guy actively urged them to pursue membership in the Institute. He was inspired by seeing William T. Coleman, Jr., at an Institute meeting with his own son and daughter, William III and Lovida, who, like the Struves, are successful attorneys and ALI members. Guy wanted that for himself and his children as well. Because of the “no nepotism” policy at Davis Polk, Guy did not have the opportunity to work with either of his children professionally. Additionally, with one child in Philadelphia and one in Los Angeles, it was a challenge just to get together with either or both of these busy professionals. By demonstrating his own professional satisfaction at the opportunity for meaningful involvement presented by the MCGs, as well as the opportunity that Institute meetings might present for mini “family reunions,” Guy successfully encouraged both children to seek membership.
Andrew Struve didn’t need much convincing. The bigger issue for him was actually whether to become a lawyer at all. Andrew had gone into business before attending law school, and he was working as a nonlawyer when he discovered, quite by accident, that he loved trial work. With this realization, he switched careers and graduated from Western State University College of Law at the age of 32. He now loves his practice as a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, where he focuses on complex commercial and unfair-competition litigation. He sees his practice as an opportunity to learn something new every day and to share that knowledge with a team. Andrew’s passion for the give-and-take of teamwork makes him an ideal ALI member as well. His membership in the Institute provides an opportunity to connect with and spend time with people that he would not ordinarily get to see, including, of course, his sister and his dad. Andrew, who with his father is in the MCG for the Principles of the Law of Nonprofit Organizations, considers active involvement in the Institute to be an important part of his practice of the law.
In contrast to her brother, Catherine Struve decided during college that she wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps. She briefly considered a career with the circus, having been inspired by winters spent during her formative years at a farm with circus performers, but later rejected this alternative due to the lifestyle it required. Because of her love for animals, Catherine also considered a career as a veterinarian, but rejected this idea after meeting a veterinarian that she did not like. (Apparently she never met such a lawyer!) She completed Harvard Law School in 1995 and is now an extensively published professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she teaches classes on civil procedure and federal courts. Her interest in ALI derived not only from her father’s strong devotion to the Institute’s work, but from a law-review comment she wrote related to an issue of privileges in the Restatement Third, The Law Governing Lawyers. Catherine, who like her father is in the MCG for the Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation, views her ALI membership as creating synergies between work and other aspects of her life, not the least of which is the opportunity to spend time and energy working and socializing with her father and brother. She also participated in a small conference for young law scholars held in 2007 at the invitation of ALI Director Lance Liebman.
It is perhaps surprising that the Struves did not sit around the dinner table discussing legal work or membership in the Institute. Dinner at the Struve household involved a different tradition: Andrew and Catherine’s mother, Catherine T.A. Struve, used this time to read aloud to the family, the selections varying from such literary classics as Dickens’s Great Expectations to a history of England when a family trip to England was being planned. This practice instilled a love of books and reading in all of the Struves, though they have less time to read for pleasure than they would like.
We celebrate the Struves and their tradition of service to the Institute. Juggling active membership with the demands of a successful legal career is not easy, and we appreciate all our members who are doing so. Do you have a story to tell about your ALI membership that we should spotlight? Please contact us at publications@ali.org to tell us about it.