 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2020) |
Howe and Hummel was a New York City law firm, celebrated in the latter half of the nineteenth century and principally renowned for its active involvement in the world of crime and corruption.
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, [1] 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 Howe was also asked if his license to practice medicine in England had been revoked.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. [2]
In 1869, Howe made a partner of Abraham Hummel (July 27, 1850 – January 21, 1926), his former clerk and physical opposite, [3] a runtish, rake-thin genius renowned for his ability to spot loopholes in the law.
Howe handled most of the firm's criminal work, participating in more than 600 murder trials in the course of his fifty-year career and winning a large but unstated proportion of them. He was noted for his extravagant dress, favoring bright waistcoats and large jeweled rings—although he steadily dressed down as a capital trial progressed, invariably ending it in a funereal suit and black tie. [4] He had a markedly florid rhetorical style, on one occasion delivering an entire summing-up, two hours, while on his knees before the jury box. One of his most remarked upon talents was an apparent ability to weep at will, although legal historian Sadakat Kadri notes that his frequent opponent Francis L. Wellman "suspected that he used an onion-scented handkerchief to get in the mood". The less extrovert but more intelligent Hummel specialized in civil law and ran the firm's thriving blackmail racket, representing chorus girls and thwarted lovers, threatening married men with exposure and well-off young bachelors with suits for breach of promise of marriage.
At its peak, operating from offices just across the road from NYPD headquarters on Centre Street, Howe and Hummel received fat retainers from a significant proportion of the criminals, brothel-keepers, and abortion care providers of New York. All 74 madams rounded up during a purity drive in 1884 named Howe and Hummel as their counsel, and at one time the firm represented 23 out of the 25 prisoners awaiting trial for murder in the city's Tombs prison and had an undeclared interest in the twenty-fourth.
Bill Howe's persuasive abilities were the stuff of legend. Perhaps his most notable achievement was to get a client, Ella Nelson, acquitted on a charge of willful murder. Howe admitted that the girl had been armed with a revolver, but successfully persuaded a jury that her trigger finger had accidentally slipped not just once, but four times in the course of an argument with her married lover.
Another of Howe's most spectacular defenses, according to the New York Tribune of 2 September 1902:
was his sudden turn in the trial of Edward Unger, who confessed that he had killed a lodger, cut up the body, thrown part in the East River, and sent the rest in a box to Baltimore. Mr Howe stupefied the courtroom by dramatically denying that Unger had done any of those things. He increased the surprise by asserting that Unger's little seven-year-old girl, at that moment on her father's knee, had done them. After tapping thus a wellspring of astonishment, Mr Howe turned the emotion dextrously into profound sympathy by explaining that it was the thought of the little girl which prompted Unger to conceal a deed done in the heat of passion. The jury convicted the confessed murderer of manslaughter only.
One of Howe's most notorious cases, however, may have been that of John Dolan, convicted in the murder of merchant James H. Noe. Despite a desperate legal battle to save his life, Dolan went to the gallows on April 21, 1875. New York Times coverage of the case, which riveted New York for several months, identifies one William F. Howe as Dolan's attorney. In a noticeable omission, it does not mention Dolan in its obituary for Howe.
Among Abe Hummel's most celebrated achievements was the discovery of an error in procedure that led to the release of 240 of the 300 prisoners on Blackwell's Island in a single day. On another occasion, the partners invoked a technicality that, had it been allowed, would have set free every prisoner awaiting trial, or recently convicted, of first degree murder in the State of New York, and made it impossible for the authorities to obtain further capital convictions for murder for a period of several months.
The final collapse of the firm came in 1907, five years after Howe's death, when Hummel was convicted in New York of suborning perjury, disbarred, and sentenced to a year in jail. After his release, Hummel left the United States and lived chiefly in Paris.
Howe and Hummel kept no records (the partners reportedly met at the end of each day and emptied their respective pockets onto the table and evenly divided the total pile), actively courted publicity (despite bar rules against lawyers advertising (which did not begin to be relaxed until the late 1960s), they maintained a full-sized billboard atop their offices), and were much discussed in their day among the members of the legal profession. As such, many of the stories told about them have the aura of tall tales. Nevertheless, their decades of effective practice suggest that the partners were among the most effective and innovative attorneys to practice in the United States during the nineteenth century.
Although nobody can deny a strong element of "sharp practice", including using suspect surprise witnesses in some trials, or suppressing adverse witness testimony by sending them out of state, all expenses paid, until the trial was over, there was genuine talent in the team, especially in the abilities of William Howe in court. A recent study of the 1897 murder of Willie Guldensuppe, and the 1898 trial of his killer Martin Thorne, gives clear proof of Howe's mastery of cross-examination. At the first trial of Thorne, his co-conspirator, Mrs. Augusta Nack, testified against Thorne. Howe's simple and direct cross-examination ripped her testimony apart on the stand, which led to the prosecution deciding not to use her again in a retrial. Nonetheless, even with Howe's efforts and skill, in the second trial Thorne was convicted and sentenced to be executed. Despite Howe's courtroom skills and Hummel's mastery of legal intricacies, it was ultimately the (mis)use of their talents that ultimately brought down the firm.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.
William Moses Kunstler was an American attorney and civil rights activist, known for defending the Chicago Seven. Kunstler was an active member of the National Lawyers Guild, a board member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the co-founder of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the "leading gathering place for radical lawyers in the country."
Diane Alexis Whipple was an American lacrosse player and college coach. She was killed in a dog attack in San Francisco on January 26, 2001. The dogs involved were two Presa Canarios. Paul Schneider, the dogs' owner, is a high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood and is serving three life sentences in state prison. The dogs were looked after by Schneider's attorneys, Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller, a husband and wife who lived in the same apartment building as Whipple. After the fatal attack, the state brought criminal charges against the attorneys. Noel, who was not present during the attack, was convicted of manslaughter. Knoller, who was present, was charged with implied-malice second-degree murder and convicted by the jury. Knoller's murder conviction, an unusual result for an unintended dog attack, was rejected by the trial judge but ultimately upheld. The case clarified the meaning of implied malice murder.
Louise Woodward, born in 1978 (age 45–46), is a British former au pair, who at the age of 18 was charged with murder, but was subsequently convicted of the involuntary manslaughter of eight-month-old baby Matthew Eappen, in Newton, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Mark John Geragos is an American criminal defense lawyer and the managing partner of Geragos & Geragos, in Los Angeles.
Francis Lee Bailey Jr., better known to the general public as F. Lee Bailey, was an American criminal defense attorney. Bailey's name first came to nationwide attention for his involvement in the second murder trial of Sam Sheppard, a surgeon accused of murdering his wife. He later served as the attorney in a number of other high-profile cases, such as Albert DeSalvo, a suspect in the "Boston Strangler" murders, heiress Patty Hearst's trial for bank robberies committed during her involvement with the Symbionese Liberation Army, and US Army Captain Ernest Medina for the My Lai Massacre. He was a member of the "Dream Team" in the trial of former football player O. J. Simpson, who was accused of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. He is considered one of the greatest lawyers of the 20th century.
Lynne Irene Stewart was an American defense attorney who was known for representing controversial, famous defendants. She herself was convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists in 2005, and sentenced to 28 months in prison. Her felony conviction led to her being automatically disbarred. She was convicted of helping pass messages from her client Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian cleric convicted of planning terror attacks, to his followers in al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an organization designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States Secretary of State.
Thomas Arthur Mesereau Jr. is an American attorney known for defending Michael Jackson in his 2005 child molestation trial, as well as Mike Tyson, Bill Cosby and, in 2023, Danny Masterson, a case in which Mesereau was sanctioned by the judge.
Bernard William Nussbaum was an American attorney, best known for having served as White House Counsel under President Bill Clinton.
Larry Davis, later known as Adam Abdul-Hakeem, was a man from New York City who gained notoriety in November 1986 for his shootout in the South Bronx with officers of the New York City Police Department, in which six officers were shot. Davis, asserting self-defense, was acquitted of all charges aside from illegal gun possession. Davis was later convicted in April 1991 of a Bronx drug dealer's 1986 murder. In 2008, Davis died via stabbing by a fellow inmate.
Martin Wiley Littleton was an American attorney known for his involvement in a number of high-profile trials during the early 1900s, including serving as chief defense counsel for Harry Kendall Thaw at his second trial in 1908 for the murder of renowned architect Stanford White, and defending Harry Ford Sinclair, the head of Sinclair Oil, from criminal charges resulting from the Teapot Dome scandal. Littleton also served one term as United States Representative from New York from 1911 to 1913, and was borough president of Brooklyn.
Gerald Bernard Lefcourt is an American criminal defense lawyer. He has represented a number of high-profile clients, including financier and registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Black Panthers, activist/author Abbie Hoffman, hotelier Harry Helmsley, former Speaker of the New York State Assembly Mel Miller, and actors Russell Crowe and Tracy Morgan.
William Frederick Howe was an American trial lawyer with the New York City firm Howe and Hummel.
Paul Bergrin is an American convicted felon and former criminal defense lawyer who practiced law in Newark, New Jersey. Prior to his conviction, he was known for defending a range of famous and notorious clients. He was convicted of conspiracy to murder a witness and other racketeering, cocaine and prostitution offenses, and sentenced to six concurrent life terms in federal prison in 2013. He was disbarred by the Supreme Court of New Jersey in 2016. A veteran lawyer from the area said that the crimes alleged in the federal indictment would make Bergrin "the craziest, most evil lawyer in the history of New Jersey," and "that is saying something", and a federal court has likened Bergrin's downfall to the plot of a drama by Sophocles or Martin Scorsese.
M. Gerald Schwartzbach is an American criminal defense attorney.
James Foster Neal was an American trial lawyer who was best known for prosecuting labor leader Jimmy Hoffa and later top Nixon administration officials in connection with the Watergate scandal.
Kenneth P. Thompson was an American lawyer who served as the District Attorney of Kings County, New York, from 2014 until his death from cancer on October 9, 2016.
Maria Cristina Gutierrez was an American criminal defense attorney based in Baltimore, Maryland, who represented several high-profile defendants in the 1990s. She was the first Latina to be counsel of record in a case before the Supreme Court of the United States. In 2001, Gutierrez was disbarred, with her consent, following multiple complaints from clients who paid her for legal work she failed to perform. At the time, Gutierrez was dying from a combination of multiple sclerosis and diabetes, and her health was rapidly deteriorating.
The "Dream Team" refers to the team of trial lawyers that represented American athlete O. J. Simpson in his 1995 trial for the murder of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman. The team included Robert Shapiro, Johnnie Cochran, Carl Douglas, Shawn Chapman Holley, Gerald Uelmen, Robert Kardashian, Alan Dershowitz, F. Lee Bailey, Barry Scheck, Peter Neufeld, Robert Blasier, and William Thompson.
Mark Floyd Pomerantz is an American attorney. He is a member of the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, generally referred to as Paul, Weiss. In February 2021, he left that firm to assist with the Manhattan District Attorney's investigation into the finances of former president Donald Trump until his resignation from the case in February 2022.