Download PDF White Shoe How a New Breed of Wall Street Lawyers Changed Big Business and the American Century John Oller 9781524743253 Books

Product details Hardcover 448 pages Publisher Dutton (March 19, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1524743259

White Shoe How a New Breed of Wall Street Lawyers Changed Big Business and the American Century John Oller 9781524743253 Books Reviews

• From the last several decades of the 19th century, through the first three decades of the 20th century, major transformations occurred in American industry. Small manufacturers were replaced by giant corporations, including U.S. Steel, American Tobacco, Westinghouse, and Standard Oil to mention just a few. As these corporations and some related "trusts" grew in economic power, the federal government had to enlarge itself to deal with them. This response included major antitrust and regulatory activity, such as represented by Teddy Roosevelt. As a result of these developments, the legal profession underwent its own transformation, most notably through the appearance of the Wall Street law firms, who came to exercise tremendous legal and political power in representing their clients. The nature of practice changed, in that these "business lawyers" worked to keep their clients out of court while they mixed law with business practices. This interesting book discusses the development and activities of these early major law firms.
  
  The author has chosen to tell the story by focusing on many of the key legal players and their firms. So the reader learns a great deal about William Nelson Cromwell, Paul Cravath, Charles Evans Hughes, Elihu Root, Francis Lynde Stetson, George Wickersham, Samuel Untermyer, and John Foster Dulles among others. Each lawyer is discussed within the context of one of his major cases or business projects. For example, Cromwell played the major role in successfully backing the Panama Canal route over that of Nicaragua, and persuading the U.S. government to put up the funds to complete the canal the French had begun. Sometimes, however, these lawyers led investigations of the corporations that they usually represented. Untermyer, for example, led the Pugo Committee investigations of the supposed "money trust" and got to cross-examine J.P. Morgan. Hughes (on his way to becoming Governor, Supreme Court Justice, and presidential candidate) led a NY state investigation of the insurance industry; Wickersham served as Taft's Attorney General and instituted more antitrust cases than even TR had.
  
  The author follows the lawyers as they get involved in World War I and its aftermath. Cravath extensively visited the French front on several occasions, and John Foster Dulles first became involved in international diplomacy when he participated in the extensive negotiations regarding the German war debt. Other lawyers became involved in the fight over Wilson's proposed League of Nations. In an Epilogue chapter, the author traces the later careers of many of these Wall Street titans.
  
  To be sure, this was an interesting group of folks who pioneered this new role for lawyers. The book runs some 312 pages of text, with an additional 90 pages of notes and a selected bibliography. I found the discussion of Paul Cravath particularly interesting, as he created the American law firm we have today (and in which I practiced). The practice of law has changed in many ways since the days of Cravath, but it was he who got the wheels rolling and the book gives the reader an insight into today's law firm practice which is very helpful.
• This book although informative had too much detail. Tough to get through.
• This is a must-read volume for anyone interested in a behind the scenes look at how the tumultuous "American Century" was launched. History buffs will be familiar with the titans of finance, industry and politics who were the major players of the time - Morgan, Westinghouse, Carnegie, Edison, Harriman and Roosevelt to name a few - all of whom have been fully biographied, but what this book brings to the spotlight is the crucial role of the lawyers who were there at the elbow of the titans every step of the way. The names of many of those lawyers will be familiar to today's lawyers because they are still part of iconic "white shoe" firms still thriving on the American legal scene - Paul Cravath, (Algernon) Sullivan & (William) Cromwell, Charles Evans Hughes, George Wickersham, John W. Davis and many others. The term "white shoe", according to the author, derives from the white bucks favored (in summer presumably) by this cadre of elite lawyers. However, despite the image this conjures of Gatsby-era frivolity, the book makes clear that these guys (all men in those early days) were mostly tough as nails and ruthless - they had no choice if they wanted to win the confidence of the likes of Morgan and his fellow barons who were often at each others throats. To thrive in these circles, the white shoe lawyers had to be hard-headed businessmen as well as creative lawyers. The giant corporations increasingly required close legal supervision to help them navigate the thicket of growing governmental regulation and to control their most rapacious urges - not an easy task. I found the book to be entertaining as well as informative. The author writes with an eye out for the humorous angle to many of the conflicts. For example, in the course of telling the fascinating story of the high stakes battle between Edison and Westinghouse over whose brand of electrical current (AC current vs DC current) would be adopted as the American standard, the author recounts that Edison (the DC proponent) suggested that AC current be used in the first execution by electric chair in New York State - ostensibly to institute a more humane form of capital punishment than hanging, but really to associate AC current with the dangers of electrocution in the public's mind. The execution went forward in August 1890 but was bungled. The subject, a convicted murderer named Kemmler, was declared dead after receiving seventeen seconds of AC charge, but as it turned out he was still alive, requiring another eight agonizing minutes of jolts of 2,000 volts that burned him to death. The author's research uncovered Westinghouse's sardonic observation following this gruesome fiasco - "they would have done better using an axe." Westinghouse's AC system subsequently won the day, as we all know.
  I recommend this book certainly to lawyers, as an interesting primer on how the modern law firm system emerged and evolved, but also to laymen, as a new look at the personalities and dynamics which transformed the Gilded Age and forged it into the momentous industrial behemoth of twentieth century America.
• The author clearly took his time researching and ensuring chronology. The writing is crisp, and straightforward, and the introduction of new changemakers and leaders is done seamlessly — giving just enough backstory for needed context at the appropriate times. Though not my professional industry, I wanted to read this because I knew it would lend information regarding the amassing of wealth and resources, political manipulation, and the marginalization of people of color (through the denial of opportunities).
  
  For me it was a page turner, and gave good context for what I know about Wall Street as it is today.
• White Shoe is an extraordinary depiction of how America's big law firms grew from one-man outfits to worldwide power houses through their association with the country's biggest corporate clients. The ingenuity and technology that helps this change occur is fascinating. The author's research is meticulous and the narrative he crafts is articulate, engaging, and entertaining. I learned a great deal from this book and highly recommend it to people of all ages interested in the societal change and growth over the course of the past century-plus, changes in American industry, and the development of the multi-national law firm way. A truly great read.