The ACLU of Illinois lost a friend and supporter with the death of Paul Lutter on May 4, 2014. An attorney with Bryan Cave LLC, Lutter was an associate and then partner at Ross and Hardies from 1971-2003 and focused primarily on estate and tax law. Born in 1946, Lutter took pride in his family’s Chicago history noting that the Lutter Brick Company helped to rebuild the city after the great fire of 1875. A Phi Beta Kappa 1968 graduate of Carleton College, Lutter received his law degree from Yale in 1971.
Throughout his life, Lutter applied his legal skills and knowledge to further promote civil liberties and the advancement of LGBT rights. He served as Chairman of the Howard Brown Health Center in Chicago helping to guide the city’s largest AIDS clinic through its transition to a general health care center. Colleen Connell, Executive Director of the ACLU of Illinois, first worked with Lutter when he served on the ACLU of Illinois’ board from 1996-2001. She called him a great civil libertarian and philanthropist, and noted that Lutter was "prescient in his realization that legal advocacy also included winning over people's hearts and minds."
