Discovering William Cook: Ten Sources for Reconstructing the Life of a Lawyer

• Published in: Law Library Journal Vol. 100; pp. 39 - 851
• Main Author: Margaret A. Leary
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Association of Law Libraries Law Library Journal 01-12-2008
• Subjects: corporation; education law; family law; graduation; illustrate; immediately; information; manhattanite; practitioner; prestigious; reconstruct; reconstructed
• ISSN: 0023-9283

On Sunday, September 21, 1924, news of William W. Cook's gift of a Lawyers Club and dormitory to the University of Michigan Law School was front page top and center in the New York Times. The Times covered that first gift, and Cook's subsequent ones, ultimately including his entire estate, with respect if not awe. 1 Cook was a Manhattanite. Why would he send his fortune out west to Michigan? This article uses Cook as a case study to illustrate major resources that could be used by others to reconstruct the life of a lawyer. Why would a man give his entire $ 246 million fortune to a law school he scarcely visited after graduation? How did he earn that fortune? What was he like, how did he become the nation's leading scholar and practitioner of corporation law, and why did he write a final, nonlaw book we might find racist and bigoted today? Did the opinions expressed in that book affect his gift to the law school? Who did he love, who were his family and friends, and where did he live, work, and play? Why did a young man from a small town in Michigan go to Manhattan and almost immediately join a prestigious Masonic Lodge and achieve great success? These questions led me to research Cook's life. The path I took to answer them could be followed by anyone seeking similar information about an American lawyer. I have reconstructed Cook's life 2 because his gifts ...