In 1935, after losing his bid for
Governor of Pennsylvania, William A. Schnader decided to start his own law firm. He was joined by
Bernard G. Segal, who had served as a Deputy Attorney General under Schnader, and Francis A. Lewis, who had been Schnader's campaign treasurer.
Earl G. Harrison, the former Dean of the
University of Pennsylvania Law School and former Commissioner of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service, joined the firm in 1948, becoming the fourth name partner. The Schnader firm expanded over the years, opening offices in
Washington, D.C.,
Wilmington, Delaware,
New York City,
Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and
Pittsburgh. The firm operated a branch office in
Atlanta from 1992-2008 and opened its first
West Coast office in
San Francisco, in 1999. In 2000, the firm merged with Mesirov Gelman Jaffe Cramer & Jamieson LLP in
Philadelphia. In 2013, the firm entered into a non-exclusive association with the
Jakarta-based law firm Yang & Co to provide representation to Indonesian companies and individuals requiring legal counsel in the U.S., and to U.S. companies and individuals requiring legal counsel in
Indonesia. At close, Schnader had six offices that served local, national, and international clients ranging from large corporations to start-ups and entrepreneurs to individual clients in more than 40 areas of the law. In addition to the firm’s traditional strengths in complex litigation, commercial transactions, and wealth management, the firm had significant experience and depth in intellectual property, international commerce, labor and employment, financial services, construction law, real estate development, corporate governance, appellate services, technology-based companies, media and communications, government relations and regulatory affairs, energy and environmental issues, nonprofit, education, aviation issues, business reorganization, and securities and shareholder litigation On August 3, 2023, the firm announced a dissolution of the firm, following a decline in attorney headcount. Schnader had over 300 attorneys in the early 2000s which declined to around 200 following the unwinding of a previous merger. By June 2022 Schnader had 122 attorneys, falling to 90 attorneys when the firm announced its closure. ==Notable lawyers and alumni==