Henry Friendly - Before The Bench

Before The Bench

Judge Friendly graduated from Harvard College in 1923 and received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1927. It is widely rumored that Friendly graduated with the highest grade point average ever attained (before or since) at Harvard Law School, but confirmation of this claim is difficult to find, and the claim is sometimes also made for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Louis Brandeis and Felix Frankfurter. The Harvard Crimson on June 23, 1927 reported that Friendly was the first Harvard Law graduate to receive a degree summa cum laude. Frankfurter, while still a professor at Harvard Law School, sent his student to work as a clerk for Justice Louis D. Brandeis of the United States Supreme Court. Friendly then entered private practice in New York City from 1928 to 1959, and was a founding partner of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where his law partners included George W. Ball and Melvin Steen. He served as Vice President and General Counsel of Pan American World Airways in New York City from 1946 to 1959.