White Shoe: How a New Breed of Wall Street Lawyers Changed Big Business and the American Century

In his legal history of the period 1890–1920, retired attorney Oller explains how "white shoe" Wall Street law firms, by representing the interests of their clients, helped steer the United States between the extremes of unchecked capitalism and the alternative of state socialism. Prominent lawyer Paul Drennan Cravath, Oller says, created the model for white shoe firms with his focus on efficiency, teamwork, and the hiring and grooming of young associates fresh from top law schools. Oller recounts the role of attorney William Nelson Cromwell in lobbying the U.S. government to take over his French client's project that ultimately resulted in the Panama Canal. Using brief biographical sketches, Oller introduces a host of prominent white shoe attorneys including Elihu Root, Charles Evans Hughes, and John Foster Dulles. He traces their contributions in establishing landmark case law, influencing legislation, advising presidents, and filling key government posts. These elite attorneys, according to Oller, were brilliant, religious, charitable, and patriotic.