Proskauer Partner and ABA Leader Steven Krane Dies at 53
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Tim Llewellyn
Partner Steven Krane of New York’s Proskauer Rose died yesterday of an apparent heart attack. Krane, a member of the ABA’s Board of Governors and former president of the New York State Bar Association, was 53 years old.
A brilliant lawyer who was a walking encyclopedia of legal ethics and professional responsibility, he was also “one of the most humble and genuine people I ever met,” firm chairman Allen Fagin tells the ABA Journal. “People adored him. Virtually everyone he ever met—clients, colleagues, junior lawyers for whom he served as mentor—all came away with a love for Steve that was nothing short of remarkable.”
A 1981 graduate of New York University School of Law, Krane started at Proskauer as an associate after clerking for former New York State Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judith Kaye and has worked at the firm ever since.
“It just devastated so many people here,” Fagin said of his death. “Steve … was just a remarkably wonderful person.”
He was the firm’s general counsel and the co-head of its law firm practice group, where he represented firms and individuals in sensitive matters. At the same time, he devoted a great deal of time to the the development of legal ethics rules, including as a former chair of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility.
In one of the many noteworthy matters on which he worked, Krane argued a case in which the ABA won a surprise bench ruling last year that the Federal Trade Commission’s so-called Red Flags Rule doesn’t apply to the legal profession.
The law firm did not provide details of the circumstances of Krane’s death, which the New York Law Journal attributed to a heart attack.
A Proskauer obituary (PDF) details additional career accomplishments.
