Harrison Tweed
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Harrison Tweed (October 18, 1885 – June 16, 1969) was an American lawyer and civic leader.


Life and career

Tweed was born in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
on October 18, 1885. He was the son of Charles Harrison Tweed, the
general counsel A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department. In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...
for the Central Pacific Railroad, Chesapeake and Ohio and other affiliated
railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
corporations, and his wife, (Helen) Minerva Evarts. His maternal grandfather was
William M. Evarts William Maxwell Evarts (February 6, 1818February 28, 1901) was an American lawyer and statesman from New York who served as U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator from New York. He was renowned for his skills as a li ...
, who served successively from 1868 to 1891 as
United States Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...
,
United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...
, and
United States Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...
from New York, and was one of the leaders of the
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
. His maternal great, great, great grandfather was
Paul Dudley Sargent Paul Dudley Sargent (Baptized June 23, 1745, Salem, Massachusetts – September 28, 1828 Sullivan, Maine) was a privateer and soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Early life Sargent was born in 1745 and baptized ...
Revolutionary war hero, one of the founding overseers of Bowdoin College. Tweed graduated from St. Mark's School in
Southborough, Massachusetts Southborough is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It incorporates the villages of Cordaville, Fayville, and Southville. Its name is often informally shortened to Southboro, a usage seen on many area signs and maps, though ...
, and received a B.A. from
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
in 1907. At Harvard Law School, he served on the
law review A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also pr ...
and was awarded an LL.B. in 1910. His career at the bar began with a clerkship in the office of Byrne and Cutcheon in New York City. After service as a captain in
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, he joined one of the predecessor firms to
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy Milbank LLP (commonly known as Milbank) is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. It also has offices in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, London, Frankfurt, Munich, Tokyo, Hong Kong, São Paulo, Seoul, Singapore, and Beijing. H ...
, where he remained as a partner the remainder of his life. Milbank, Tweed was the outside legal arm of
Chase Manhattan Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fi ...
and the
Rockefeller family The Rockefeller family () is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by brot ...
. Tweed specialized in drafting
wills Wills may refer to: * Will (law) A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the pr ...
and trust agreements, for the administering of major estates. He wrote briefs in litigation arising out of them and argued, and won, several notable appeals in the New York courts and the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
. Because he was born partially deaf, he never tried a case. In conferences with other lawyers he usually spoke last, and his views generally became the group's consensus. Imitating Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, he had no desk in his office, instead writing at a lectern. Tweed's appointment as chairman of the legal aid committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York in 1932, led to a continuing involvement in bar organizations. He became an enthusiastic convert to the necessity of providing competent legal services to all people. Legal aid, he wrote, was ''"operation equal justice," "an obligation of the bar,"'' and essential to secure the success of the adversary system. He served as president of the
Legal Aid Society The Legal Aid Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit legal aid provider based in New York City. Founded in 1876, it is the oldest and largest provider of legal aid in the United States. Its attorneys provide representation on criminal and civil mat ...
of New York from 1936 to 1945, later publishing a history of its first seventy-five years, and of the
National Legal Aid & Defender Association The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) is the oldest and largest national, nonprofit membership organization devoted to advocating equal justice for all Americans and was established in 1911. History The Fourteenth Amendment ...
from 1949 to 1955. In 1945, Tweed was elected president of the
New York City bar association The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...
. To rejuvenate the staid organization, he brought in younger lawyers, established a bulletin, reorganized committees that issued reports, and created the position of executive secretary. All of this was done in a spirit of openness, equality, informality, and fun (a recurring word with Tweed). In this way, Tweed transformed a stuffy club into a strong progressive force for public service. C. C. Burlingham, the doyen of the New York bar, said that Tweed was ''"the best president the Bar Association has ever had."'' In 1947, Tweed became president of the American Law Institute (ALI). He was a guiding force in its major labors—the updating of the institute's published Restatements, as well as the preparation of the
Uniform Commercial Code The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), first published in 1952, is one of a number of Uniform Acts that have been established as law with the goal of harmonizing the laws of sales and other commercial transactions across the United States through U ...
, model codes and statutes on penal law and taxation, and the first restatement on the foreign-relations law of the United States. He took a light, subtle approach, usually talking around the matter at hand so as to envelop the object of his attention; only occasionally did he take a direct part in the proceedings over which he smoothly presided. Starting in 1947, Tweed was chairman of the ALI -
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
(ABA) joint committee on continuing legal education. Refreshment of the law, Tweed believed, was a professional responsibility. He wrote articles, spoke to lawyers' groups, buttonholed bar leaders, and organized conferences. For many years, a colleague noted, he ''"was the committee."'' The number of administrators of state continuing-legal-education programs increased markedly during his tenure. Educational matters and public service occupied much of Tweed's time. He served as a trustee of Sarah Lawrence College from 1940 to 1965, including eight years as chairman of the board of trustees (1947 to 1955), and was interim president of the college in 1959-1960. In his term as interim president, he is credited with saving the college from bankruptcy by increasing the number of students.Presidential Voices
, Sarah Lawrence College website, accessed April 8, 2009 He also served as an overseer of
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
from 1950 to 1956, and from 1951 to 1967 he was a trustee of the Cooper Union Center for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. New York Governor
Thomas E. Dewey Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer, prosecutor, and politician who served as the 47th governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. He was the Republican candidate for president in 1944 and 1948: although ...
in 1953 appointed him chairman of the state’s commission to study the reorganization of the judicial branch (courts); many of its recommendations, including the formation of a new judicial conference of the state's judges, were later adopted by the state. In 1963, at the request of US President
John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
, Tweed became co-chairman of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a position that he held for two years. Tweed believed that lawyers' training to define complicated issues enabled them to play a special role outside the practice of law: ''"Even if he contributes nothing more than a sense of orderliness and an ability to organize thought and to pose the right questions, the lawyer will have pulled his weight in the boat."'' Of his year as president of Sarah Lawrence College, he wrote, ''"I think that I did manage to bring to the faculty an organization and an understanding of democratic procedures which no one but a lawyer could have done."'' Tall, erect, and lean, Tweed was ''"the most democratic of aristocrats."''He was the only lawyer to be awarded medals for distinguished service from the New York City, New York State, and American bar associations. The ABA tribute noted that his was ''"the Horatio Alger story in reverse." "I have a high opinion of lawyers,"'' Tweed said in 1945. ''"With all their faults, they stack up well against those in every other occupation or profession. They are better to work with or play with or fight with or drink with than most other varieties of mankind."'' He died in New York City.


Family

Tweed was married three times and divorced twice. By his first marriage on June 14, 1914 to Eleanor Roelker, he had two children. Following his divorce in 1928, he married Blanche Oelrichs Barrymore, the former wife of
John Barrymore John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly att ...
who used the name
Michael Strange Blanche Marie Louise Oelrichs (October 1, 1890 – November 5, 1950) was an American poet, playwright and theatre actress. Oelrichs first used the masculine pen name Michael Strange to publish her poetry in order to distance her society reput ...
in her acting and writing careers. They were divorced in 1942. He married Barbara Banning on 21 November 1942; they had one child. His daughter (with Eleanor Roelker) Katharine Winthrop Tweed married Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt, Jr. in 1940 and was divorced in 1950. She had one son, Tweed Roosevelt, born in 1942.


Further reading

Tweed's history of the Legal Aid Society was published as The Legal Aid Society, New York City, 1876-1951) (1954). See his chapter, "One Lawyer's Life," in Albert Love and James Saxon Childers, eds., Listen to Leaders in Law (1963). A series of interviews dealing largely with his law practice are in the Columbia Oral History Collection, Tributes to Tweed appear in the 1969 Association of the Bar of the City of New York Yearbook and the 1970 American Law Institute Proceedings. George Martin, Causes and Conflicts (1970), deals with Tweed's activities in the New York City bar association. An obituary is in the New York Times, June 17, 1969.]


References

;General "Harrison Tweed, "Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 8: 1966-1970. American Council of Learned Societies, 1988. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2005

;Notes


External links


Harrison Tweed PapersSarah Lawrence College
* Harrison Tweed Award {{DEFAULTSORT:Tweed, Harrison 1885 births 1969 deaths St. Mark's School (Massachusetts) alumni New York (state) lawyers American legal scholars Harvard Law School alumni Presidents of the New York City Bar Association People associated with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy Harvard College alumni Presidents of Sarah Lawrence College 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American academics