Chicago attorney Charles Pressman was "an indefatigable champion of the little guy," colleagues said.
"He was a credit to the bar," said Abner Mikva, a former classmate of Pressman's at the University of Chicago's law school who later became a U.S. congressman, federal judge and chief counsel to President Bill Clinton.
"My earliest recollection of Charlie is of a bright, young law student who got excited every time our class discussion veered off towards civil rights, civil liberties or the (U.S.) Constitution," Mikva said. "He was an excellent debater, never wishy-washy, who held his ground and let his passions be known from the start."
Pressman, 92, died of heart failure Oct. 2 at Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital. A resident of Lake Forest Place retirement community for the past 3 1/2 years, Pressman had previously lived in Highland Park and Wilmette.
After graduating from law school in 1951, Pressman co-founded Pressman & Hartunian, a Chicago law firm that specialized in consumer fraud, employment discrimination and civil rights violations cases. During the 1950s and '60s, Pressman also was a director of the Chicago chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
