Henry Friendly

Born in Elmira, New York, Friendly received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Harvard College in 1923. He received a Bachelor of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1927. On June 23, 1927, the Harvard Crimson reported that Friendly was the first Harvard Law graduate to receive a degree summa cum laude.[1] Felix Frankfurter, as a professor at Harvard Law School, sent his student Friendly to work as a clerk for Justice Louis Brandeis of the United States Supreme Court, where he served from 1927 to 1928.[2] He was in private practice of law in New York City, New York from 1928 to 1959. He was a founding partner of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where his law partners included George W. Ball and Melvin Steen. He was vice president and general counsel of Pan American World Airways in New York City from 1946 to 1959.[3]

Friendly was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on March 10, 1959, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated by Judge Harold Medina. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 9, 1959, and received his commission on September 10, 1959. He served as Chief Judge and as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1971 to 1973. He assumed senior status on April 15, 1974. He was a Judge of the Special Railroad Court from 1974 to 1986, serving as Presiding Judge from 1974 to 1986. His service was terminated on March 11, 1986, due to his death.[3]

Friendly took his own life at age 82 on March 11, 1986, in his Park Avenue apartment in New York City. Police said they found three notes in the apartment, one addressed to his resident maid and two unaddressed notes. In all three notes, the judge talked about his distress at his wife's death, his declining health and his failing eyesight, according to a police spokesman. His wife, the former Sophie M. Stern, had died a year and four days earlier.[4] They had been married for 55 years.[5]

In a ceremony following Friendly's death, then-Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger said, "In my 30 years on the bench, I have never known a judge more qualified to sit on the Supreme Court." At the same ceremony, Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall called Friendly "a man of the law."[6] In a letter to the editor of The New York Times following Friendly's obituary, 2nd Circuit Judge Jon O. Newman called Friendly "quite simply the pre-eminent appellate judge of his era" who "authored the definitive opinions for the nation in each area of the law that he had occasion to consider."[7] In a statement after Friendly's death, Judge Wilfred Feinberg, the 2nd Circuit's chief judge at the time, called Friendly "one of the greatest Federal judges in the history of the Federal bench."[7] United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner described Friendly as "the most distinguished judge in this country during his years on the bench."[7]

Harvard Law School has a professorship named after Friendly. Paul C. Weiler, a Canadian constitutional law scholar, held it from 1993 to 2006;[8] William J. Stuntz, a scholar of criminal law and procedure, held it from 2006 until his death in March 2011.[9] The professorship is currently held by Carol S. Steiker, a specialist in criminal justice policy and capital punishment.[10] The Federal Bar Council awarded Friendly a Certificate of Distinguished Judicial Service posthumously in 1986.[11] The American Law Institute has an award named in memory of Friendly and endowed by his former law clerks.[12]

Friendly's wife of 55 years died a year before his suicide.[13] He was survived by a son and two daughters.[2]

• David P. Currie (1960–1961), Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago Law School[14]
• Peter B. Edelman (1961–1962), professor of law and co-director, joint degree in law and public policy, Georgetown Law Center[15]
• Stephen R. Barnett (1962–1963), Elizabeth Josselyn Boalt Professor of Law, emeritus, Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley[16]
• Pierre N. Leval (1963–1964), judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
• Michael Boudin (1964–1965), chief judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit[17]
• Robert M. Berger (1966-1967), partner Mayer Brown & Platt, lecturer in law University of Chicago Law School, adjunct professor of Law Northwestern University Law School and John Marshall School of Law
• Bruce A. Ackerman (1967–1968), Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale Law School[18]
• Arthur Raymond Randolph (1969–1970), judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit[19]
• Walter Hellerstein (1970–1971), Francis Shackleford Distinguished Professor of Taxation Law, University of Georgia School of Law[20]
• Martin Glenn (1971–1972), Judge, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York[21]
• Lawrence B. Pedowitz (1972–1973), partner, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz[22]
• Frederick T. Davis (1972–1973), partner, litigation department, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, Paris[23][24]
• William Curtis Bryson (1973–1974), judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit[25]
• James R. Smoot (1974–1975), dean and professor of law, Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, The University of Memphis[26]
• Philip Bobbitt (1975–1976), Thomas M. Macioce Professor of Law, Columbia Law School[27]
• Ruth Wedgwood (1976–1977), Edward B. Burling Professor of International Law and Diplomacy & Director of the International Law and Organization Program, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of Johns Hopkins University; Member, United Nations Human Rights Committee
• Theodore N. Mirvis (1976–1977), partner, litigation department, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz [28]
• Merrick B. Garland (1977–1978), chief judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit[19]
• Mary I. Coombs (1978–1979), professor of law, University of Miami School of Law[29]
• John Roberts (1979–1980), Chief Justice of the United States[30]
• Marc Wolinsky (1980–1981), partner, litigation department, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz [31]
• Gary Born (1981–1982), partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr[32]
• Jonathan R. Macey (1982–1983), Sam Harris Professor of Corporate Law, Corporate Finance and Securities Law, Yale Law School[33][34]
• David J. Seipp (1982–1983), professor of law, Boston University School of Law[35]
• Larry D. Kramer (1984–1985), president of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; on leave as Richard E. Lang professor of law and formerly the dean, Stanford Law School [36]
• Louis Kaplow, professor of law Harvard Law School
• Thomas G. Dagger (1986)[37] of AT&T[38]

• Henry Jacob Friendly at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.