Victor Morawetz

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Victor Morawetz

Victor Morawetz (born April 3, 1859 in Baltimore , † May 18, 1938 in Charleston , South Carolina ) was an American lawyer and railroad manager.

He was considered one of the most important corporate lawyers in the United States of his time .

Origin and education

Victor Morawetz was born as the son of the Austrian doctor Leopold Franz (Francis) Morawetz, who had emigrated to the United States, and his wife Elise Meyer. He received his education at private schools in Baltimore. From 1873 he then went to various schools and universities in Germany, Switzerland and France. He completed his language skills in French, German and Spanish and learned to play the violin. After returning to the United States in 1876, he went to Harvard Law School . He graduated there in 1879 at the age of 20. From 1880 to 1882 he was less successful as a lawyer in Chicago. He used his free time to write his 1882 work A Treatise on the Law of Private Corporations , which was the first work in this legal field.

Career as a corporate lawyer

The success of his book established his reputation as a corporate lawyer. In the same year he moved to New York. There he came into contact with the entrepreneur Andrew Carnegie . This commissioned him to clarify a legal matter in the rail sector. The successful completion of this process resulted in Morawetz becoming Carnegie's personal attorney. On April 1, 1887, he joined the law firm Seward, Da Costa & Guthrie, and on July 5, 1890, he became a partner in the firm, now trading as Seward , Guthrie & Morawetz (today: Cravath, Swaine & Moore ). There he supported Charles M. da Costa with legal advice and support for railway companies and other companies. He later took over this area independently. He came into close contact with the client and banker JP Morgan and the Kuhn, Loeb & Co.

As a result, there was close cooperation with Morgan and he represented the interests of the banker in the reorganization of insolvent railway companies at the end of the 1890s, which Morawetz advised and led. In 1894, he was the senior legal advisor on the reorganization of the bankrupt Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad . In 1896 he became the principal lawyer of the reorganized company and in 1900 he became the chairman of the executive committee. He held this position until 1909. At the same time he was also active in the reorganization of the Norfolk and Western Railway and in 1896 became a member of the board and principal lawyer of the company. As a result of these activities, he left the law firm on October 31, 1896 and from then on was almost exclusively active in providing legal advice and support to these railway companies. On the one hand, it played a role that Morawetz had to cope with a very high workload in the previous three years. On the other hand, the income from the two jobs at the railway companies was sufficient for his lifestyle, and by giving up work in the law firm, any conflicts of interest were avoided.

Morawetz still had an office in New York, from which he coordinated his activities for the two railway companies and devoted himself to selected legal issues. In 1901 Morawetz was involved in founding the US Steel Corporation.

Privatier

His larger share investments in the railway companies ATSF, N&W and the Union Pacific Railroad and their economically successful development enabled him to largely cease his legal and other economic activities in 1910 at the age of 51. As a result, the ailing Morawetz devoted himself to his other interests and supported charitable activities.

Among other things, he was an enthusiastic parforce hunter . He was also a member of several New York clubs (including the Union , Union League , Metropolitan , Century Association , Harvard , Down Town Association and University ) and wrote legal papers for the Law Reviews of Harvard University and Columbia University. Together with Elihu Root and George W. Wickersham , he founded the American Law Institute in 1923 .

Family and inheritance

Victor Morawetz married Violet Westcott, daughter of the writer Edward Noyes Westcott , on April 20, 1911 . She died on December 15, 1918. In 1924 he married Marjorie Nott. Both marriages remained childless.

In 1911 he acquired the Three Ponds estate in Woodbury on Long Island . The architects Delano and Aldrich expanded it to what would later become the Woodlands property. In 1928 he sold the property to Andrew W. Mellon . He and his second wife settled in Charleston in 1929 . In 1930 he acquired the ruined Fenwick Hall estate, dating from 1730 . He had the building rebuilt and laid out the garden again. This included a large cactus garden, second only to the one at the Huntington Library in Pasadena. The cactus researcher Curt Backeberg named the cactus species Cleistocactus morawetzianus after him . Morawetz had financed two of Backeberg's research trips.

He also campaigned in Charleston for the preservation of monuments and the preservation of the Spirituals ( Society for the Preservation of Spirituals ).

He died on May 18, 1938 after a heart attack in Charleston. After his death, his widow managed his estate. After her death, the fortune went to the Boys Club of New York , the Medical Society of South Carolina , the Roper Hospital in Charleston and the Johns Hopkins Hospital .

Works

  • 1882: A Treatise on the Law of Private Corporations (2nd edition 1886) ( Online )
  • 1909: The Banking & Currency Problems in the United States ( Online )
  • 1927: Elements of the Law of Contracts

literature

  • Robert T. Swaine: The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessors , 1819–1948, Vol. 1–3, AdPress (Reprinted 2007: The Lawbook Exchange)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Victor Morawetz, Noted Lawyer, 79 , The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 18, 1938, p. 13
  2. ^ Robert T. Swaine: "The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessor", p. 381 f.
  3. ^ Robert T. Swaine, "The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessor," p. 382
  4. ^ Robert T. Swaine, "The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessor," p. 562
  5. ^ Robert T. Swaine, "The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessor," p. 563
  6. ^ Robert T. Swaine, "The Cravath Firm and Its Predecessor," p. 384
  7. ^ Victor Morawetz in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  8. ↑ Cyril AE Parr and Gordon D. Rowley: CURT BACKEBERG 1894-1966, The National Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 21, No. 2 (June 1966), p. 48
  9. ↑ Barbara L. Bellows: A Talent for Living: Josephine Pinckney and the Charleston Literary Tradition, LSU Press 2006, p. 127
  10. ^ Richard Jay Hutto, June Hall McCash: Their Gilded Cage: The Jekyll Island Club Members, Henchard Press 2006, p. 110
personal data
SURNAME Morawetz, Victor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer and railroad manager
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1938
Place of death Charleston, South Carolina