Partner Cushing Goodhue, who also became Goodwin Procter’s office manager in 1932, was by all accounts a stylish dresser, and he set the tone at the firm. Patrician and proper, he insisted on formal attire and strict hierarchical demarcations to keep the firm’s junior lawyers in line. A man’s head was always covered outdoors, for instance; one wore a boater in summer and a felt hat in winter.
Goodhue helped set the tone in other ways as well. He was thorough in the extreme in his own work, ran a tight ship and, recalled partner Charlie Post later, was careful with a dollar.
“Cushing Goodhue, an elegant aristocrat, had one peculiarity,” recounted Post. “Though he had a large North Shore estate and travelled well, he liked to save money on recurring items. Fish, for example. Since he knew that the nearby fish market dropped its prices the last half hour on Friday, he would dispatch the youngest lawyer at 4:45 to strike a bargain. For a while I held that distinction. So I would bring back the trophy, wrapped in the Transcript, and plop it on Goodhue’s desk, on top of Foreign Affairs.”
For more on our firm's history, click here.
Goodhue helped set the tone in other ways as well. He was thorough in the extreme in his own work, ran a tight ship and, recalled partner Charlie Post later, was careful with a dollar.
“Cushing Goodhue, an elegant aristocrat, had one peculiarity,” recounted Post. “Though he had a large North Shore estate and travelled well, he liked to save money on recurring items. Fish, for example. Since he knew that the nearby fish market dropped its prices the last half hour on Friday, he would dispatch the youngest lawyer at 4:45 to strike a bargain. For a while I held that distinction. So I would bring back the trophy, wrapped in the Transcript, and plop it on Goodhue’s desk, on top of Foreign Affairs.”
For more on our firm's history, click here.