Robert C. Knuepfer Jr., 1974
B.A., Denison University
M.B.A., Northwestern University
J.D., Northwestern University
Managing Partner
Baker & McKenzie
Hinsdale, Ill.
Citation awarded May, 2014
Robert C. Knuepfer Jr. is a senior partner with the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie LLP. His practice is focused on corporate and commercial transactions. Mr. Knuepfer has authored many professional articles, including eight editions of Winning Legal Strategies for Mergers & Acquisitions, published by Thomson Reuters. He is a professor at Northwestern University where he teaches in the Law School and the Kellogg Business School.
Robb is the former managing partner of the Firm’s Central Europe and CIS Practice, and was resident in Budapest, Hungary from 1992 to 1997 when the Firm founded 8 offices in the region. He received the Order of Merit with Officer’s Cross from the Republic of Hungary, its highest honor. He is the Foreign Economic Counsel for the Republic of Hungary and currently its Honory Consul General designate.
He is a former federal prosecutor, and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals, and the Illinois Supreme Court.
He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Denison in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and English.
At Denison, Robb was president of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity and served as an intern at The White House on an ATO Scholarship. He later served as ATO National President and Chairman of the ATO National Foundation. Mr. Knuepfer was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa and Omicron Delta Epsilon honorary societies at Denison.
Since graduation, he has offered Denison students internships at Baker & McKenzie, served as a guest lecturer in the Organizational Studies Program, and participated in DART and other similar programs. A founder of LeaderShape, a national program for teaching leadership skills, he organized the first campus Institute at Denison in 1992. He also chaired a fundraising campaign to name the former ATO House in honor of Dr. Samuel D. Schaff. Robb and his wife Nancy continue to be major supporters of the University.
Active in civic affairs, Mr. Knuepfer is a trustee of the Adler Planetarium, chairman of Metropolitan Family Services of Chicago, board member of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and an officer of Rotary International.
