1828-1885
Francis N. Bangs, who founded the Wall Street law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell, was born in 1821 in New York City, the son of a prominent Methodist minister. Bangs graduated from New York University in 1845 and Yale Law School in 1847. He studied law under two eminent lawyers, Hiram Ketchum and Thomas Fessenden, and was admitted to the bar in 1849.[1] Bangs began his legal career as a partner of John Sedgwick, future Justice of the Supreme Court, New York County, for a quarter century.
Bangs “quickly attained an eminent position in his profession, applying himself especially to bankruptcy law and railway and corporation business.”[2] Bangs’s reputation was elevated by his work as counsel for the assignee of Ketchum, Son & Co., a major financial firm that went bankrupt in 1865 after an embezzlement and forgery scandal. “[Bangs] performed his duties with such fidelity and ability that ever afterward his services were in constant request in litigations involving great interests.”[3]
No account of Banks’s career fails to describe his prodigious work ethic. “He was an indefatigable worker, frequently devoting fifteen hours a day, for days in succession, to a single task, and his death at a comparatively early age was ascribed to overwork.”[4]
In 1880, after having practiced law with several prominent attorneys, Banks formed a partnership with Francis L. Stetson — Bangs & Stetson, precursor to today’s Davis Polk & Wardwell. “Nearly twenty years Stetson’s senior, Bangs was a physically large, combative, temperamental courtroom lawyer of the older theatrical school.”[5] Though he had a grave and serious disposition with “tendencies to irritability . . . and bitterness,” Bangs was widely respected professionally as honest and just, and his personal character and integrity were beyond reproach. [6] He was also described as a generous and faithful friend who could be “delightful in conversation and companionship.” [7]
Bangs, a Republican, never took an active part in politics or public affairs, but “[h]e took a lively interest in everything which concerned the welfare and honor of the bar” and was “at all times ready to perform any duty upon committees.”[8] As a founding member of the New York City Bar Association, Bangs “was one of the leaders in the movement for the impeachment of the “ring” judges, Barnard, Cardozo and McCunn.”[9] In 1882-1883, Bangs served as the Association’s third President. He was also a founding member of the Union League Club.
Bangs died in Florida on November 30, 1885.
[1] “Memorial of Francis N. Banks,” New York City Bar Association Yearbook, 1888, at 80-85.
[2] McAdam et al., History of the Bench and Bar of New York State Vol.1, New York Hist. Co., 1897, at 253.
[3] Id. at 253.
[4] Id. at 253-54.
[5] John Oller, White Shoe, Dutton, 2019, at 19.
[6] Memorial, at 84-85
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] McAdam, at 254.