Howard Krane helped expand the offerings and guide the Chicago-based law firm of Kirkland & Ellis as it grew into a global powerhouse, and also served for seven years as chair of the University of Chicago board.

Krane was “strong, creative, demanding but generous, resilient and indefatigably optimistic,” said Emily Nicklin, a Kirkland & Ellis partner and litigator who also served on the U. of C.’s board and chaired the university medical center’s board of trustees. “He evidenced these characteristics as a leader of both Kirkland and the University of Chicago board, (and) in both roles, he led folks who shared a mission to drive their respective organizations to greater successes and heightened eminence.”

Krane, 90, died of natural causes on Nov. 23 at his home in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood, said his daughter Hilary.

Born in Chicago, Krane grew up in the South Shore neighborhood and graduated from Hyde Park High School. He graduated from Grinnell College and then got his law degree from the U. of C. in 1957.

Krane’s first attempt to get a job at Kirkland & Ellis failed. An associate at the firm overheard a partner saying that Krane was not hired because he was Jewish. The associate shared this eavesdropped information with a young antitrust law specialist at the firm, Robert Bork, who went to the firm’s leaders and urged them to give Krane a second look.

The firm did so — hiring Krane later in 1957 — and Krane and Bork became close friends. Thirty years later, when President Ronald Reagan made his ill-fated nomination of Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court, Krane testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, on behalf of his friend, even while acknowledging their political differences.

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