Topic summary
Henry Friendly
July 3, 1903
Henry Jacob Friendly (July 3, 1903 – March 11, 1986) was an American jurist who served as a federal circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1959 to 1986. He was the court's chief judge from 1971 to 1973 and presided over its specialized railroad court from 1974 to 1986.
Born in Elmira, New York, Friendly graduated with highest honors from Harvard College at age 19. He then excelled as a prodigy at Harvard Law School, where he achieved the highest grades in the school's history, was elected president of the Harvard Law Review, and is credited with inventing The Bluebook. After clerking for Justice Louis Brandeis, he co-founded the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in 1945 and became the general counsel and vice president of Pan Am Airways in 1946. On the recommendation of Judge Learned Hand and Justice Felix Frankfurter, President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Friendly to the Second Circuit in 1959.
In his 27 years on the federal circuit, Friendly penned more than 1,000 opinions while authoring books and law review articles that are now considered seminal. He was especially influential in the fields of administrative law, securities regulation, and federal jurisdiction. His opinions remain some of the most cited in federal jurisprudence and he is considered one of the most prominent and influential federal judges of the 20th century.