Howe and Hummel - Partners of Firm

Partners of Firm

The senior partner in the firm was William F. Howe (1828-September 2, 1902), a corpulent UK-born and later naturalized American trial lawyer who had served 18 months in jail in Britain for false representation, and who was strongly suspected of possessing a more extensive criminal background. Prosecuted in 1874 by a pair of white slavers, William and Adelaide Beaumont, "who maintained that they had in some fashion been cheated by the partners,"

Howe's background was gone into at some length by the Beaumonts' attorney, Thomas Dunphy. Howe was asked by Dunphy to tell the jury why he had left England. Howe's lawyer, ex-mayor A. Oakey Hall, objected on the ground that the question was immaterial. The objection was sustained. Howe was also asked if his license to practice medicine in England had been revoked. Hall again objected and was again sustained. The question may or may not have been material, but it seems unlikely that it would have been asked at all without some foundation... Some other questions of interest were put to Howe at the Beaumont trial. He was asked if he was the same person as the William Frederick Howe wanted for murder in England. He said that he was not. He was asked if he was the same person as the William Frederick Howe convicted of forgery in Brooklyn a few years earlier. He denied that he was that person.

In 1869, Howe made a partner of Abraham Hummel (July 27, 1850–January 21, 1926), his physical opposite and former clerk, a runtish, rake-thin genius renowned for his ability to spot loopholes in the law.