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White Shoe: How a New Breed of Wall Street Lawyers Changed Big Business and the American Century
The fascinating true story of how a group of visionary attorneys helped make American business synonymous with Big Business, and Wall Street the center of the financial world
"Entertaining."--The Wall Street Journal
The legal profession once operated on a smaller scale--folksy lawyers arguing for fairness and justice before a judge and jury. But by the year 1900, a new type of lawyer was born, one who understood business as well as the law. Working hand in glove with their clients, over the next two decades these New York City "white shoe" lawyers devised and implemented legal strategies that would drive the business world throughout the twentieth century. These lawyers were architects of the monopolistic new corporations so despised by many, and acted as guardians who helped the kings of industry fend off government overreaching. Yet they also quietly steered their robber baron clients away from a "public be damned" attitude toward more enlightened corporate behavior during a period of progressive, turbulent change in America.
Author John Oller, himself a former Wall Street lawyer, gives us a richly-written glimpse of turn-of-the-century New York, from the grandeur of private mansions and elegant hotels and the city's early skyscrapers and transportation systems, to the depths of its deplorable tenement housing conditions. Some of the biggest names of the era are featured, including business titans J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, lawyer-statesmen Elihu Root and Charles Evans Hughes, and presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.
Among the colorful, high-powered lawyers vividly portrayed, White Shoe focuses on three: Paul Cravath, who guided his client George Westinghouse in his war against Thomas Edison and launched a new model of law firm management--the "Cravath system"; Frank Stetson, the "attorney general" for financier J. P. Morgan who fiercely defended against government lawsuits to break up Morgan's business empires; and William Nelson Cromwell, the lawyer "who taught the robber barons how to rob," and was best known for his instrumental role in creating the Panama Canal.
In White Shoe, the story of this small but influential band of Wall Street lawyers who created Big Business is fully told for the first time.
"Entertaining."--The Wall Street Journal
The legal profession once operated on a smaller scale--folksy lawyers arguing for fairness and justice before a judge and jury. But by the year 1900, a new type of lawyer was born, one who understood business as well as the law. Working hand in glove with their clients, over the next two decades these New York City "white shoe" lawyers devised and implemented legal strategies that would drive the business world throughout the twentieth century. These lawyers were architects of the monopolistic new corporations so despised by many, and acted as guardians who helped the kings of industry fend off government overreaching. Yet they also quietly steered their robber baron clients away from a "public be damned" attitude toward more enlightened corporate behavior during a period of progressive, turbulent change in America.
Author John Oller, himself a former Wall Street lawyer, gives us a richly-written glimpse of turn-of-the-century New York, from the grandeur of private mansions and elegant hotels and the city's early skyscrapers and transportation systems, to the depths of its deplorable tenement housing conditions. Some of the biggest names of the era are featured, including business titans J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, lawyer-statesmen Elihu Root and Charles Evans Hughes, and presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.
Among the colorful, high-powered lawyers vividly portrayed, White Shoe focuses on three: Paul Cravath, who guided his client George Westinghouse in his war against Thomas Edison and launched a new model of law firm management--the "Cravath system"; Frank Stetson, the "attorney general" for financier J. P. Morgan who fiercely defended against government lawsuits to break up Morgan's business empires; and William Nelson Cromwell, the lawyer "who taught the robber barons how to rob," and was best known for his instrumental role in creating the Panama Canal.
In White Shoe, the story of this small but influential band of Wall Street lawyers who created Big Business is fully told for the first time.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published March 19, 2019
145 people are currently reading
576 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 11, 2020
Interesting to start but got dry pretty quickly. There’s only so much you really want to hear about how famous lawyer #4 helped establish the railroads or save the banks or ...
May 19, 2019
An interesting history of the New York lawyers who helped form the way big business worked in the period from 1890 to 1920. These fellows worked for the likes of Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, J.P. Morgan, and E. H. Harriman (made popular in movie lore as the owner of the Union Pacific Railroad and nemesis of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid).
The author took what could be extremely dry and made it a very readable story. I learned much about the period (tangential to the main topic) and about how big business operated and evolved as time went by.
The author took what could be extremely dry and made it a very readable story. I learned much about the period (tangential to the main topic) and about how big business operated and evolved as time went by.
March 24, 2019
The author's painstaking research and attention to detail is obvious in the writing of this book. There were many facts that I only discovered after reading this!
June 26, 2019
Enjoyed this book
As an attorney, I really enjoyed this book. The history of the profession and its influence on American business and politics is fascinating.
As an attorney, I really enjoyed this book. The history of the profession and its influence on American business and politics is fascinating.
May 29, 2025
“The 1980s saw the collapse of the liberal Rockefeller wing of the Republican Party, previously led by Wall Street lawyers such as Wendell Willkie and Thomas Dewey, which had long been a recruiting ground for members of the Eastern foreign policy establishment. The loosening of the monopoly once held by WASPs in America's power centers, which had remained strong through the 195os, and the waning of the WASP elite social culture by the end of the twentieth century further contributed to the decline of the white shoe brand.
As a group, Wall Street lawyers remain a powerful force within the corporate world they inhabit. They are just as bright, hardworking, and creative as their predecessors. And if they are not as wealthy as the richest of the early corporate lawyers, they are well paid indeed. Today's top corporate law firm leaders run very large enterprises-highly profitable, multinational concerns of thousands of attorneys and staff—rendering quaint the early-twentieth-century perception of a firm of two dozen lawyers as a law factor.
But just as the J. P. Morgans, E. H. Harrimans, and Thomas Fortune Ryans of the world are never to return, neither will America again witness a coterie of such lawyers as Paul Cravath, William Nelson Cromwell, Francis Lynde Stetson, Elihu Root, and their white shoe brethren. These figures pioneered a new legal world when the field of corporate law was virgin territory. Operating only as private citizens, at times almost singlehandedly, they could achieve the extraordinary: create a great interocean waterway or a massive city transportation system, or lead the debates on constitutional amendments and international treaties,
Their advice was eagerly sought by robber barons and presidents alike, and they were known to the public to a greater degree than any present-day corporate lawyer. Stetson was recognized as Morgan's lawyer, Cromwell as Harriman's, and Cravath as Westinghouse's. Few people in 2019 could name the most trusted attorney for Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg or for Amazon's Jeff Bezos (and they wouldn't be Wall Street lawyers, anyway).”
As a group, Wall Street lawyers remain a powerful force within the corporate world they inhabit. They are just as bright, hardworking, and creative as their predecessors. And if they are not as wealthy as the richest of the early corporate lawyers, they are well paid indeed. Today's top corporate law firm leaders run very large enterprises-highly profitable, multinational concerns of thousands of attorneys and staff—rendering quaint the early-twentieth-century perception of a firm of two dozen lawyers as a law factor.
But just as the J. P. Morgans, E. H. Harrimans, and Thomas Fortune Ryans of the world are never to return, neither will America again witness a coterie of such lawyers as Paul Cravath, William Nelson Cromwell, Francis Lynde Stetson, Elihu Root, and their white shoe brethren. These figures pioneered a new legal world when the field of corporate law was virgin territory. Operating only as private citizens, at times almost singlehandedly, they could achieve the extraordinary: create a great interocean waterway or a massive city transportation system, or lead the debates on constitutional amendments and international treaties,
Their advice was eagerly sought by robber barons and presidents alike, and they were known to the public to a greater degree than any present-day corporate lawyer. Stetson was recognized as Morgan's lawyer, Cromwell as Harriman's, and Cravath as Westinghouse's. Few people in 2019 could name the most trusted attorney for Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg or for Amazon's Jeff Bezos (and they wouldn't be Wall Street lawyers, anyway).”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 29, 2019
Disclaimer: I received this publication as an eARC via NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton in exchange for an honest review.
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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.
—————————
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.
May 20, 2019
Fascinating book about how a cadre of lawyer capitalists worked with the 19th-century industrialists and bankers to design and develop the modern banking and business regulatory system. Ruthless men, but men of great vision and foresight who used the law and crafted the international system of finance, international relations and Government to the end of WWII.
The book gives the history of the founders of Cravath Swaine, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Dewey Ballantine and others. My only disappointment in the book is that it stopped short of telling the story of how the firms evolved into modern business practices. The founding era is detailed in the ties of the founders to the robber barons of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
The book gives the history of the founders of Cravath Swaine, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Dewey Ballantine and others. My only disappointment in the book is that it stopped short of telling the story of how the firms evolved into modern business practices. The founding era is detailed in the ties of the founders to the robber barons of the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
February 2, 2021
This book covers American business in the late 19th/early 20th century through the eyes of the top lawyers of the era. It is a unique perspective on that period of history and shows that the various outcomes of trust-busting, isolationism, prohibition, WW1, Panama Canal, etc. were far from inevitable at the time.
The downside is that there was little about the this book to really make this historical narrative relevant or interesting to someone not already deeply curious about the subject matter. It also barely touched on the professional development of the business of law itself.
The downside is that there was little about the this book to really make this historical narrative relevant or interesting to someone not already deeply curious about the subject matter. It also barely touched on the professional development of the business of law itself.
January 30, 2022
As a lawyer and lover of history, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Through the lens of the first corporate lawyers, this book takes you from the gilded age to the progressive and through world war 1. While the names of Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie are well known, less is heard of the lawyers who also became quite wealthy helping these men keep, dominate, and be restructure their industries. The book is was well researched, well written, and be worthy of a read by any law student, lawyer, or anyone interested in the history covered in that time.
September 6, 2022
It took me a long time to read this- I think because it’s kind of lawyerly writing: factual, dry, but also straightforward- which I guess isn’t so lawyer-y. But it’s a really interesting time in American history, and these bankers and robber barons and their lawyers were making up the rules as they went along.
I work for one of the law firms mentioned so it was interesting to see its roots. Probably most interesting for those interested in railroad and robber baron history and the history of corporate law.
I work for one of the law firms mentioned so it was interesting to see its roots. Probably most interesting for those interested in railroad and robber baron history and the history of corporate law.
July 16, 2019
Excellent book not just about the lawyers but the period from 1890 to 1920. A period during which huge corporations were built and the Panama Canal deal was finalized. This book is a great read for lawyers and general history readers. Oller ha written a fantastic book.
April 8, 2019
Very interesting and well written. I work in the industry, so it was quite relevant for me.
November 2, 2020
A terrific explanation of the foundations of American corporations and how they got to be the way they are.
February 24, 2025
Pointed.
September 27, 2019
The author came to my book club.
October 17, 2021
an overview of the influential lawyers that built up American corporate law and antitrust law during the Gilded Age when America's mammoth big corporations were developed. They moved in and out of government roles. Some big names were Charles Evans Hughes later on the supreme court, and John Foster Dulles, a negotiator of German reparations after WWI, later secretary of state and an admirer of Nazis before the war.
June 17, 2021
This is a very well researched book about the formation of Big Law at the turn of the century. John Oller weaves a great amount of US history into the story, most of which has been forgotten by most people. This is a great read if you work for or with lawyers in Big Law. I’m not sure it has widespread appeal. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews