Officers
President
Lynne R. Ostfeld
Immediate Past President
Judge Alfred M. Swanson, Jr. (ret.)
Vice President Events
Mary T. Griffin
Vice President Diplomatic Relations
Jon K. Jurva
Recording Secretary
Judge Diane Larsen (ret.)
Corresponding Secretary
Becky Dahlgren
Treasurer
Scott Alsterda
Historian and Keeper of the Helmet
David B. Hirschey
Director
Arne Rode
Director
Judge Perry Gulbrandsen (ret.)
No Norwegians Please
So read the Logan Square rooming house sign during the early 20th century. While Scandinavian immigrants were then not vilified. as criminal offscourings, they somehow could inspire the fear of “the other”. Perhaps it was something as innocuous as dietary peculiarity — say, a taste for old cheese and gelatinous fish — or perhaps a throwback dread of rapacious Norsemen. But, over time, Scandinavians were able to allay this fear and integrate themselves into the Chicago community, establishing businesses and entering the professions.
Though not notoriously quick-witted, so many Scandinavians had entered the legal profession that by 1931 they founded their own legal society, the Nordic Law Club of Chicago. While the legal specialties and interests of Club members vary widely, all members enjoy getting together to share their common laments, usually quarterly more or less in synchrony with change of season and often with aspects of Scandinavian culture presented. In reciprocation of the tolerance eventually showed Scandinavians, membership is now open to lawyers of all ethnic persuasions.
Scandinavian lawyers and the Club have had a particular relationship with the Probate Division of. the Cook County Circuit Court, which at one time was heavily populated with judges of Scandinavian descent. The reasons for this relationship are unclear, possibly the aesthetic and economic parallels between files of well-crafted testamentary documents and well-ordered racks of drying codfish. Whatever its genesis, this special relationship lives on in the Club’s annual Probate Night dinner, honoring the sitting Probate Division Judges.