William H. Schweitzer, a leading and universally admired figure in American law, government, and the public life of Washington, D.C. for many decades—and a much beloved friend and Trustee of Hudson Institute—passed away suddenly yesterday morning, March 3, of natural causes. All of us at Hudson are stunned and saddened by this news. We mourn his loss, and we extend our deepest sympathies to Bill’s wife, Leslie, and their children.
Bill Schweitzer began his distinguished career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia. After joining Baker Hostetler’s Washington office in 1973, he was instrumental in that firm’s pioneering creation of a full-time, multi-attorney Government Policy Practice for national clients. Bill also helped create, build, and lead one of America’s elite practices in federal election, campaign finance, securities, antitrust, white-collar criminal, and—perhaps most famously—sports law, serving for many years as lead Washington counsel to both the American League and Major League Baseball as a whole.
Here at Hudson, it is Bill Schweitzer the man we will always best remember—and most deeply miss—for his unfailing loyalty, generosity, gentle wit, extraordinary sweetness of temperament, and unpretentious but undeniable brilliance and talent. “Hudson could not have had truer and more valuable colleague and adviser than Bill Schweitzer,” said Kenneth R. Weinstein, Hudson’s President & CEO. “All of us were proud to know and work with him, and each of us feels his passing as a painful and personal blow.” Hudson Board Chair Sarah May Stern agreed, calling Schweitzer’s death a “terrible shock,” and lauding him for the “common sense, wisdom, spirited enthusiasm, warmth, and matchless collection of wonderful anecdotes he brought with him to every room.”