Alan E. Schwartz, a co-founder of Honigman, honored by the American Jewish Committee

Alan E. Schwartz, a founding partner in the law firm that bears his name, Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, was recently honored with the Judge Learned Hand Award by the metropolitan Detroit chapter of the American Jewish Committee.

More than 280 guests attended the award dinner, held on June 4, 2008 at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham, Mich., which paid tribute to Schwartz for his leadership in the legal profession.

Schwartz, who turns 83 this year, joined then-called Honigman and Miller in 1952 and, with his colleagues Jason Honigman and Milton “Jack” Miller, founded Honigman, Miller and Schwartz after a brief position as special assistant counsel for the New York State Crime Commission. A merger with the law office of Irwin A Cohn later that decade would give the firm its current name. A veteran of World War II serving in Guam, his career as a corporate attorney has spanned nearly 60 years and his list of clients includes some of Detroit’s most prominent cultural and corporate institutions.

Schwartz is a graduate of Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude in 1950 and editor of the Harvard Law Review; and the University of Michigan, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1947. In 1983, he was presented with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Wayne State University, and two years later was given the same honor from the University of Detroit.

A philanthropist, Schwartz’s imprint can be found on several venerable local and national institutions, including: the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; the United Way; Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit; New Detroit; Detroit Renaissance; the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute; Detroit Economic Growth Corporation; Cranbrook School; Wayne State University; the Kresge Foundation; Detroit Medical Center; and the Detroit Institute of Arts, where he and his wife, Marianne, have been long-time patrons and after whom the Schwartz Galleries of Prints and Drawings are named.

His honoring by the AJC, an international think-tank organization dedicated to furthering the principles of pluralism and democracy, comes on the 60th anniversary year of his firm’s founding.

Schwartz, who still comes to his office every week, lives with his wife Marianne in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. They have three children and five grandchildren.