The Cravath Firm And Its Predecessors, 1819-1948 (V1-3)

"Reprint of the sole edition, originally published: New York: Privately Printed at Ad Press, Ltd., 1946-1948. 3 Volumes: vol. I: xxi, 782; vol. II: xxvii, 798; vol. III: vii, 192 pp. Plus 69 illustrations, portrait plates. _Volume I: The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessors 1819-1906_; _Volume II: The Cravath Firm Since 1906_; _Volume III: The Cravath Associates_; (With Photographs of the Cravath Partners). Cravath, Swaine and Moore, as it is known today, one of the most prestigious law firms in the United States, was involved in some of the most important events in history. It was also a decisive influence on the direction of American legal practice. Under the leadership of Paul D. Cravath in the 1890s, it developed the organizational model based on a large staff of associates, partners and clerical helpers that continues to dominate the modern urban law firm. Swaine [1886-1949], then a principal partner, drew heavily on the Cravath archives in the preparation of this work. The most extensive history of the firm, it is enhanced by Swaine's personal perspective. (He joined Cravath in 1910). The final volume lists biographical data for every associate and partner from 1899 to 1948." https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3160&context=fss_papers "Mr. Swaine's account of his famous law firm has already become a classic of its type. _The Cravath Firm_ makes a substantial and original contribution to our understanding of American law, the American economy, and the life of the American community. Originally written for members and former members of the firm, it should be made generally available, perhaps in a one volume edition minimizing biographical detail,to all who are interested in understanding how the twentieth century developed from the nineteenth.The Cravath Firm is primarily a study in the evolution of a modern Big-City, Big-Business, Big-League law firm. But it is a good deal more. It presents the materials for a critical analysis of the changing role of the lawyer in relation to modern business and government.' With considerable frankness it sketches the personalities and the major professional work of the men who led the firm: the Blatchfords and the Sewards, in the days when the firm was rooted both in New York City and in up-state Auburn; Gris-wold, Da Costa, Guthrie, Morawetz, Cravath and the elder Henderson, to mention only the dead. Written with crisp precision, and not a little humor, _The Cravath Firm_ fills in the background and the unrecorded substance of many celebrated lawsuits, and of many more negotiations of great importance to the growth of contemporary business institutions and practices. It succeeds remarkably in conveying a sense of the manner of men these lawyers were, and of the way in which they worked, lived and took their (occasional) ease. ...Mr. Swaine's thesis is that the great modern law firm is the inevitable counterpart of business and banking on a national and an international scale. In a business system which has grown in complexity as well as in size, law firms competent to carry through major transactions or major lawsuits must have a considerable staff. The business law of the United States has become almost unbearably elaborate. An effective law firm must therefore be equipped with specialists and working parties - tax men, labor men,accountants, economists, anti-trust experts, trial lawyers, business-getters, scholars, negotiators; men with political and governmental know-how; and often also with men of outstanding personality whose reputation, either within the profession or with the public, constitutes a firm asset. _The Cravath Firm_ pictures the process by which the big firms developed, and by their strength and reputation became bigger."