Sylvan H. Gotshal (March 21, 1897 – August 11, 1968) was an American

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

, known for his advocacy of

industrial design right An industrial design right is an intellectual property right that protects the visual design of objects that are purely utilitarian. An industrial design consists of the creation of a shape, configuration or composition of pattern or color, or co ...

s. He was a founding partner of

Weil, Gotshal & Manges Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is an American international law firm with approximately 1,100 attorneys, headquartered in New York City. With a gross annual revenue in excess of $1.8 billion, it is among the world's largest law firms according to ' ...

in 1931. Born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, to Leopold and Julia (née Hirschman) Gotshal (initially Gottschall), he attended

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1917. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he volunteered to serve in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

but saw no combat action. He then earned a LL.B. from Columbia Law School in 1920, and started practicing at Rose & Paskus in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Together with Frank Weil and Horace Manges he founded

in 1931, which is one of the largest law firms in the world. He also became very active in civic affairs and was, at one time, chairman of the

American Arbitration Association The American Arbitration Association (AAA) is a not-for-profit organization in the field of alternative dispute resolution, providing services to individuals and organizations who wish to resolve conflicts out of court, and one of several arbitr ...

and the

United Jewish Appeal The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was a Jewish philanthropic umbrella organization that existed from its creation in 1939 until it was folded into the United Jewish Communities, which was formed from the 1999 merger of United Jewish Appeal (UJA), Cou ...

. He married Violet Kleeman of

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

in 1918. They had one daughter, Sue Ann Gotshal, who married

John L. Weinberg John Livingston Weinberg (January 25, 1925 – August 7, 2006) was an American banker and businessperson, running Goldman Sachs from 1976 to 1990. Early life Weinberg was the son of Sidney Weinberg, a banker at Goldman Sachs, and was born an ...

in 1952.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gotshal, Sylvan 1897 births 1968 deaths People from Memphis, Tennessee 20th-century American lawyers Jewish American military personnel Vanderbilt University alumni Columbia Law School alumni Proskauer Rose people