Bob Kohorst, ’78, and Shelley Allen
For a while after Law School graduation, Bob Kohorst, ’78, followed a typical graduate’s path: federal clerkship, firm practice, a stint with a corporate client as its investment banker.
Then Kohorst caught the entrepreneurial bug. So he tried a couple of startups before deciding to do what he knew he did best: real estate financing.
Today he is president of Everest Properties in Pasadena, California, a real estate holdings company that owns apartment complexes and self-storage companies nationwide. He enjoys the intellectual complexity of the work and says his undergraduate accounting training and his Michigan Law tax and securities classes have provided a firm foundation.
Modest about his success, he credits luck, the choice to surround himself with smart people and—with his wife, Shelley Allen—the readiness to risk all on an enterprise that wasn’t a sure thing.
“The way we looked at it was that nothing bad could happen to us, because we always had each other and our kids,” says Kohorst, of Pasadena.
Bob and Shelley recently made a $300,000 gift to the building project, bringing their total building commitment to $400,000. The couple also made a $50,000 Law School Fund gift in honor of Bob’s 30th reunion.
“We are glad that we can share our success,” says Kohorst, who has lifelong friends and many fond memories from his three years in the Lawyers Club. “You’re really living the law in those buildings.”