Congratulations to Rick Schnake for being named as a top rated lawyer in intellectual property by American Lawyers Media and Martindale-Hubbell. The full story is here – Neale & Newman. Rick has also been named in the 2016 edition of Best Lawyers In America for Appellate Practice – Best Lawyers.
As much as That 70’s Show feels familiar, it’s still set in Wisconsin. Below, Rick shares some of his recollections of the 1970s at Southwest Missouri State University.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
My mom went back to school to finish her teaching degree when I started to MSU in 1975, so we commuted together. I called Dr. Alice Bartee before we went up to pick our classes (by hand, with index cards—no computers back then) and asked her advice on what courses I should take to prepare for law school. She advised me to take her PLS 101. So mom and I both enrolled in it. The first day, Dr. Bartee seated everyone in alphabetical order. Here I was, an 18-year-old freshman, hearing the teacher say “Mrs. Schnake,” then “Mr. Schnake,” and having people look at us like I was crazy for being married to a woman more than twice my age. But I survived, and I think I got an A in the class.
Pre-Law 1979, Dr. Meyer at Homecoming, Prices in 1979 (Go ahead and click. I dare you!)
In my journalism classes, I was a stringer for the Southwest Standard, mostly writing sports articles. I was secretary-treasurer of the Pre-Law Association (the predecessor to Phi Alpha Delta), and the student body president, Jeff Carter (who went to Northwestern University Law School) appointed me to the Faculty-Student Judicial Commission. My senior year, I knew someone who knew someone who picked me as one of the two student speakers at the Senior Banquet. I still recall sitting in President Duane Meyer’s outer office waiting to see him so that he could read and approve the draft of the speech. Somewhere over there they have a book containing those speeches, which they let me read while I waited.
In the 1978–1979 Ozarko, which was published my senior year, there is also a large photo of me with a sign that I painted. I was a sign painter at Mt. Vernon, which is my home town, and I also was the sports editor and general all-around staffer at The Lawrence County Record. My major was History (for which we forgive him) with a minor in Journalism. I paid my way through MSU (the part not covered by grants and scholarships) by painting signs and working for the newspaper, so fortunately I had no college debt to carry over into law school at Washington University, where I got plenty of it.
________