Between raising children, navigating interstate moves, and adapting to new roles in her professional life, Gillian C. Steinhauer, ’76, developed a knack for finding her footing wherever she landed.
Now retired, she balances her personal travel and duties as a grandmother with her involvement at Michigan Law. Steinhauer recently amended a gift she made to the Law School in 2016, more than doubling the original amount.
“Financial support enables people to do things they otherwise wouldn’t be able to do,” she says. “With the cost of tuition these days, I want to help.”
Mastering the art of adaptation
Steinhauer earned her undergraduate degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1959. She spent the majority of the 1960s out of the job market while raising three children with her husband, Bruce, who worked as a physician at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
When their youngest child was in kindergarten, Steinhauer decided to reenter the workforce, so she took the LSAT and applied to law schools. She began her legal training at Wayne State University Law School and transferred to Michigan Law after her 1L year.
“Going to law school after having been out of the occupational arena for a decade was very stimulating,” says Steinhauer. “The Law Library and the Quad were wonderful places to spend time, and the professors were superb. I really enjoyed my experience at Michigan Law.”
After graduating, she joined Miller Canfield PLC as an associate. Six years later, Steinhauer was elected the first woman partner in the firm’s history. She learned that she had been made partner while on maternity leave with her fourth child.
“I knew I was up for partnership, and I was optimistic that I’d get it, but part of me was concerned that people thought I wouldn’t return after having my baby,” she recalls. “I was delighted that we were having another child, but it was important to me that it not affect my career path.”
In 1992, Bruce Steinhauer became the CEO of the Lahey Clinic in Boston, which required relocating their family. Gillian Steinhauer found work as the first director of the Workers’ Compensation Litigation Unit for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
“I was hired to get the unit up and running,” she recalls. “Over the 10 years I was there, I learned so much about workers’ compensation and how to be in charge of a team of attorneys who were doing very important work.”
Her career pivoted once more when Bruce accepted a position as the CEO of the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee. She joined the US Postal Service’s Memphis Law Department as an attorney, handling employment cases in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida.
In 2020, after Gillian and Bruce both retired, they relocated to Houston to be close to their youngest daughter and grandchild.
Steinhauer’s initial gift of $40,000 to the Law School was established in 2016 through a charitable gift annuity (CGA). Her recent amendment to the CGA establishes the Gillian C. Steinhauer Endowed Scholarship Fund with a total gift of $100,000.
“Both my husband and I went to college on scholarships, so the idea of creating one myself had always been important,” she says. “I also give to the Law School Fund regularly, but I like the idea of a charitable gift annuity because it’s like a little extra pension plan.”
Charitable gift annuities are a form of legacy giving that can provide the donor with regular payments for life and allow the Law School to further its mission. To learn more, contact Jeff Jelinski, director of Law School giving, at [email protected].
Gillian Steinhauer, ’76Financial support enables people to do things they otherwise wouldn't be able to do. With the cost of tuition these days, I want to help.
