Grandfather’s Main Street practice fueled interest

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Andrea Kupfer Schneider’s love for the law goes back to Main Street in Farmingdale, Long Island.

Her grandfather, Joseph Stern, was the village attorney there. He also ran a private practice. And he had lunch at a little diner on Main Street, where everyone knew his name.

“I always thought I’d work for a company or be an engineer,” Schneider said. “Then I saw his life.”

Schneider, 42, of Milwaukee, has come a long way from New York.

A Harvard Law School graduate, Schneider has been a professor for 12 years at Marquette Law School, where she helps run the university’s alternative dispute resolution program.

A mother of three boys — ages 7, 10 and 12 — and married for 15 years to husband, Tom, Schneider has spent her career balancing work and family, channeling her grandfather’s conscientious counsel with her grandmother Mildred’s sense of self. Her life has emulated the times in which they lived.

“You were civic-minded. You were involved in the public good. I saw Perry Mason on TV and grew up with ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and the Civil Rights movement. And you saw lawyer as hero, lawyer as friend. Not lawyer as a way to make a million dollars. I think that’s why people still come to law school.”

Schneider became a lawyer in 1992. After teaching for a year, she went into private practice. But, after two years, she again heeded the call of the classroom.

She has since taught international law, ethics and art law, which covers everything from theft and cultural reparations after war to pornography and governmental funding.

Schneider gravitated toward teaching ADR because, for her, the study brings lawyering back to the way it should be.

“I think people come to law school to help others,” she said.

Beyond teaching, writing has become a way for Schneider share what she has learned.

Schneider wrote “The Negotiator’s Fieldbook,” which won an honorable mention for best book in 2006 from the International Institute of Conflict Prevention & Resolution. She also has been involved with more than 40 articles or book chapters, and has been a panelist or presenter at more than 40 legal events.

Life is busy. But the team atmosphere at Marquette — that team includes everyone from the dean to her font-conscious administrative “goddess” assistant Carrie Kratochvil — has allowed Schneider not only to keep up but also flourish and find a balance between work and family.

She wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“I could probably write more if I was single with no kids. And I could probably make every field trip if I didn’t teach. But I wouldn’t be happier. I like the balance,” she said.

– Jessica Stephen