Eli Whitney Debevoise (December 14, 1899 – June 30, 1990) was a prominent New York lawyer who co-founded the law firm

Debevoise & Plimpton Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (often shortened to Debevoise) is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1931 by Harvard Law School alumnus Eli Whitney Debevoise and Oxford-trained William Stevenson, the firm was origi ...

and periodically served in a variety of high-profile government positions.New York Times Obituary of Eli Whitney Debevoise.

, ' 'The New York Times' ', 1990-7-1. Retrieved on November 11, 2009.

Early life

Debevoise was born on December 14, 1899 in Manhattan, the son of Anne Farnam Whitney and Thomas McElrath Debevoise. He was named after his great-great grandfather, Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin. He graduated from the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn., in 1917 and subsequently enlisted in the U.S. Army, eventually attaining the rank of second lieutenant.

Legal career

He graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

in 1921 and from the Harvard Law School in 1925. After graduation, Debevoise immediately joined his father’s Manhattan law practice, but later became an associate at

Davis Polk & Wardwell Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, better known as Davis Polk is a white-shoe, international law firm headquartered in New York City with 980 attorneys worldwide and offices in Washington, D.C., Northern California, London, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, Be ...

, a firm headed by

John W. Davis John William Davis (April 13, 1873 – March 24, 1955) was an American politician, diplomat and lawyer. He served under President Woodrow Wilson as the Solicitor General of the United States and the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom ...

, the Democratic candidate for president in 1924. In 1931, Debevoise and William Stevenson, a fellow associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell, formed a partnership under the name Debevoise & Stevenson, which later became

, with a total of $2,366 in their account. They were soon joined by Francis Plimpton and, in 1936, Robert G. Page. The firm enjoyed early success as counsel to the trustee in the 1932 bankruptcy proceedings of

Ivar Kreuger Ivar Kreuger (; 2 March 1880 – 12 March 1932) was a Swedish civil engineer, financier, entrepreneur and industrialist. In 1908, he co-founded the construction company Kreuger & Toll Byggnads AB, which specialized in new building techniques. B ...

’s International Match Company. During World War II, Debevoise was chairman of the Alien Enemy Hearing Board in New York. During the early 1950s, Debevoise had many high-profile cases and served in many prominent public positions. From 1951 to 1953, Debevoise served as Deputy High Commissioner for Germany and was general counsel to the Allied Commission that administered Germany’s affairs in the years after World War II. After returning to the United States, Debevoise rejoined Debevoise & Plimpton and engaged in a variety of public service and human rights activities. Notably, he was a founder of the International Commission of Jurists, one of the first global human rights organizations. Debevoise also served as chairman of Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s Committee to Review New York Laws and Procedures on Human Rights and helped craft the final report that was delivered in March 1968. Debevoise retired at the age of 87 and died at his home in Manhattan on June 30, 1990. The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds some of his papers.

References

External links

Eli Whitney Debevoise Papers, Amherst College Archives and Special Collections

Debevoise Family Papers
at Williams College Archives & Special Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Debevoise, Eli Whitney New York (state) lawyers 1990 deaths 1899 births Hotchkiss School alumni Yale University alumni Harvard Law School alumni People from Manhattan United States Army officers Davis Polk & Wardwell lawyers People associated with Debevoise & Plimpton 20th-century American lawyers