Member Profile: Eric Fogel
Summer 2008
From a street-savvy kid born and raised in Queens, New York, to a student on a full scholarship to Pomona College in California, to a member of the “perfect” profession for him (the law), PBKACA treasurer Eric Fogel has come a long way.
Eric grew up as the middle child in a family that focused on business and emphasized academic achievement. Not surprisingly, he graduated from high school with excellent grades, but he also found time to play punch ball, stick ball and handball.
At Pomona, Eric says he studied way too hard, but it paid off as he earned degrees in English and philosophy, graduated summa cum laude, and obtained his PBK key from the Gamma Chapter. Eric says he loved Pomona’s “great books” style of education, which offered small classes and close relationships with the professors.
While in college, he developed a love for Shakespeare, whose displays of multiple sides of human conflict gave him good training for a future career in the law. But Eric did not go directly to law school. After winning a philosophy prize, he was encouraged to pursue an academic career and attended the University of Michigan to study philosophy. After he received his master’s degree, reality set in as he recognized the dearth of non-academic jobs for philosophy majors. After a short stint as a stockbroker, he enrolled in a J.D./M.B.A. program at the University of Michigan. The program allowed him to combine his interest in human conflict, his education in ethics and logic and his business background into a career in corporate and securities law.
Eric has practiced law for over twenty years, and he is now a shareholder at Schuyler Roche, P.C., where he is known for his expertise in various areas of corporate law. In 1995, Eric’s academic tendencies caught up to him, and he became an adjunct professor for the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, California, where he teaches a course on international business transactions.
Eric and his wife, Debi, spend their free time in the city of Chicago, enjoying theater, fine dining and classical music. After their son, Alexander, went off to college three years ago, Eric “found” PBKACA. His passion for education, his love of scholarship and his interest in debating made him a perfect fit for the Association, and he became a Board member within a year. Like many members he feels an immediate affinity with every PBK key holder and hopes that each of us “finds” one another to build a dynamic association in Chicago.