The University of Chicago Magazine Profiles Soia Mentschikoff

Legal light

Soia Mentschikoff (1915–1984) reformed how the United States does business and led the way for later generations of women in law.

When Soia Mentschikoff entered a room, an atmospheric change swept in with her.

“You had to experience this to understand it,” former University of Miami president Edward T. Foote II wrote in tribute to Mentschikoff after her 1984 death from cancer at age 69. “Suddenly, there was an excitement. People looked at her, the pace of the conversation quickened, things in that room became strangely more interesting.” 

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