Lowell Stortz Selected to Receive 2022 Minnesota Icon Award

10.28.2022

Stinson LLP is pleased to announce that Lowell Stortz has been selected to receive the 2022 Minnesota ICON Award by Finance & Commerce and Minnesota Lawyer. The ICON Award recognizes individuals with proven success throughout a lengthy and accomplished career within Minnesota's business and legal communities.

Stortz began his legal career at the firm in 1983 when it was known as "Leonard, Street and Deinard." He held several management and leadership positions before being elected president of the firm in 2009. As President of Leonard, Street and Deinard, and in collaboration with former Stinson LLP Managing Partner Mark Hinderks, Stortz spearheaded the merging of Leonard, Street and Deinard with Kansas City-based firm Stinson Morrison Hecker to form Stinson Leonard Street. This generational merger still serves as the foundation for the firm in the present day, having strengthened the firm's practice capabilities, fueling firm growth and increasing market reach. Stortz then served as co-managing partner of Stinson Leonard Street in 2014 and 2015, serving as chair of the firm through early 2017.

"Lowell Stortz is a leader in the best sense of that term. True positive mergers require trust and openness to change, particularly difficult when two very successful firms are involved, each with their own century-old culture and ways of doing things," Hinderks said. "Lowell tirelessly fostered and supported that trust at every turn, with patience, without ego and with good humor. He did so without regard to his own status or position. It could not have been achieved, or have resulted in such immediate success had he not been involved."

Stortz resumed his estate planning practice in 2017. Having started his estate planning practice nearly 40 years ago, Stortz is one of the most trusted advisors to individuals, nonprofit organizations and other businesses in need of achieving estate planning, charitable and business goals in a tax-efficient manner.

"I truly enjoyed my firmwide leadership roles, but I always looked forward to returning to practice, working closely with clients to achieve their estate planning goals," Stortz said.

Over the course of the last four decades, Stortz's natural ability to lead and counsel clients has afforded him the opportunity to provide legal advice and business counsel to several charities throughout the Twin Cities community. Beyond his practice, Stortz is heavily involved in the community, having served on various Board of Trustees and, most notably, served on the Fairview Foundation Board of Directors for nearly decade supporting the advancement of 12 Fairview Health Services medical centers and hospitals. Currently, Stortz is member of the Bentson Foundation Board of Trustees, a private family foundation that empowers the Twin Cities community through scholarship programs, public health initiatives, and arts and humanities programs, and the Iowa Law School foundation Board of Directors.

Stortz and his fellow ICON award recipients will be honored at a celebration and networking event Dec. 8 at the Lumber Exchange in downtown Minneapolis.

Read more to see a list of the 2022 Minnesota ICON award honorees.