{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2022}} {{Short description|American lawyer, ethics scholar and musicologist (1880-1965)}} {{About||the Lehigh University president|Henry Sturgis Drinker}} {{Infobox person | name = Henry Sandwith Drinker | image = Beaux Henry Sandwith Drinker 1901.jpg | caption = ''Portrait of Henry Sandwith Drinker'' (1901) by Cecilia Beaux | birth_date = {{Birth date|1880|9|16|mf=y}} | birth_place = West Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1965|3|10|1880|9|16|mf=y}} | resting_place = West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, U.S. | occupation = lawyer, musicologist | alma_mater = Haverford College<br/>Harvard University<br/>University of Pennsylvania Law School }} '''Henry Sandwith Drinker''' (September 15, 1880 – March 10, 1965) was an American lawyer and amateur musicologist. In 1964, the American Bar Association gave Drinker the American Bar Association Medal, stating that Drinker's monumental work ''Legal Ethics'' (1953)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Drinker |first1=Henry Sandwith |title=Legal Ethics |date=1953 |publisher=Columbia Univ. Press |location=New York |isbn=9780231917865 |edition=William Nelson Cromwell Fdtn.}}</ref> was "recognized throughout the civilized world as the definitive treatise on this subject."<ref name="ABA">{{cite journal|journal=ABA Journal|date=October 1964|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lwg5utiMU_EC&q=henry+drinker++legal+ethics&pg=PA942|page=942|volume=50|title=Henry S. Drinker Receives the American Bar Association Medal}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Drinker was born into a prominent Quaker family in Philadelphia, the son of Henry Sturgis Drinker, a mechanical engineer for the Lehigh Valley Railroad who became president of Lehigh University, and Aimee Ernesta “Etta” Beaux. He had three brothers: Jim; Cecil, a physiologist and dean of the Harvard School of Public Health;<ref>{{cite web |title=DR. C.K. DRINKER, A HEALTH EXPERT; Ex-Dean of Harvard School Is Dead at 69--Authority on Blood Circulation Challenged U.S. Finding |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/04/16/archives/dr-ck-drinker-a-health-expert-exdean-of-harvard-school-is-dead-at.html |website=www.nytimes.com |publisher=The New York Times |access-date=29 November 2025}}</ref> and Philip, inventor of the iron lung; and two sisters, Catherine and Ernesta.<ref name="Tappert">{{cite web | url=https://www.tfaoi.com/aa/9aa/9aa214.htm | title=Out of the Background: Cecilia Beaux and the Art of Portraiture – Part I: Beginnings| publisher=Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc. | date=1974 | author=Tara Leigh Tappert | accessdate=March 6, 2019 }}</ref> The painter Cecilia Beaux was his mother's sister.<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry Drinker research material on Cecilia Beaux, circa 1880-1920 |url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/henry-drinker-research-material-cecilia-beaux-10172 |website=www.aaa.si.edu |publisher=Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution |access-date=4 December 2025}}</ref>
Drinker graduated from Haverford College in 1900 with an A.B., then earned another A.B. from Harvard University in 1901. He attended University of Pennsylvania Law School and Harvard Law School, earning his LL.B. in 1904 from Penn.<ref name="ABA" />
==Legal career== Drinker began working for what became Drinker Biddle & Reath in 1904, becoming a partner in 1918. The firm became one of the most prominent in Philadelphia.<ref name = "ABA" />
Drinker was elected in 1951 to the American Philosophical Society.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Henry+S.+Drinker&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-02-17 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
As Chair of the ABA Committee on Professional Ethics, Drinker authored what is generally considered the definitive mid-twentieth century American treatise on lawyers' professional norms and standards, ''Legal Ethics'' (1953).<ref name = "ABA" />
In 1949, Drinker delivered an address to the Grolier Club titled "The Lawyers of Anthony Trollope". The Grolier Club published it in a book in 1950,<ref>''Two Addresses Delivered to Members of the Grolier Club'' (1950). New York: The Grolier Club. The other address, also included in the book, was "Trollope's America", by Willard Thorpe.</ref> and ''The Federal Lawyer'' reprinted it in its January 2008 issue.
===Posthumous criticism=== In 1976, Drinker's record was harshly criticized by historian Jerold Auerbach of Wellesley College, who claimed that Drinker personified the elitism of the bar in the early twentieth century.<ref>Auerbach, Jerold S., ''Unequal Justice: Lawyers and Social Change in Modern America'', Oxford U. Press, 1976, pp. 125–27.</ref> Auerbach quotes Drinker as having referred, in remarks at a 1929 ABA committee meeting addressing standards for Bar admission, to "Russian Jew boys" who came "up out of the gutter" as the subject of a disproportionate number of ethical complaints against lawyers.<ref>Auerbach, Jerold S., ''Unequal Justice: Lawyers and Social Change in Modern America'', Oxford 1976, p. 127</ref> A solution to the problem of immigrant lawyers who had not absorbed the professional norms of the American legal profession, Drinker argued, would be to require at least two years of college before admission to the Bar.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Proceedings of the Section on Legal Education of the American Bar Ass'n (10/22/1929) |journal=American Law School Review |date=1930 |volume=6 |issue=10 |pages=589–590}} See Auerbach, Jerold S., ''Unequal Justice: Lawyers and Social Change in Modern America'', Oxford 1976, pp. 81–82, 96–97 (discussing credentials debate).</ref> The fairness of Auerbach's criticism was both attacked<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bishop |first1=Joseph W. |title=Unequal Justice, by Jerold S. Auerbach |url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/joseph-bishop-2/unequal-justice-by-jerold-s-auerbach/ |website=Commentary Magazine: Archive |publisher=Commentary |accessdate=July 11, 2020}} Bishop contended, ''inter alia'', that Auerbach infers antisemitism on too little evidence. Auerbach responded to Bishop. See https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/on-lawyers/ (Nov. 1976).</ref> and defended.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dershowitz |first1=Alan |title=Unequal Justice (1/25/1976) |work=The New York Times |date=January 25, 1976 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/01/25/archives/unequal-justice-counselor-counsel-thyself.html |access-date=August 28, 2021}}</ref>
==Music work== Though he was a successful lawyer, Drinker spent his spare time playing music, a passionate hobby that was as important to him as his real profession. Apart from active music-making, he devoted himself to the translation of the German text of vocal compositions of great composers into English. Among them are Schubert's songs and the vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach.<ref name="Solie">{{cite web|url=https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft838nb58v;chunk.id=d0e10464;doc.view=printCultivating|title=Cultivating Music in America|publisher=|accessdate=December 21, 2016}}</ref> From 1912 to 1920, Drinker served as President of the Board of Managers of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bach.org/board.php|title=Board of Managers|website=About:Board of Managers:Past Presidents|publisher=The Bach Choir of Bethlehem|accessdate=January 2, 2017}}</ref>
All of his children had daily music lessons, and the whole family sat down together regularly to sing. They often visited musical events such as concerts, opera performances and music festivals, and were for 25 years subscribers to the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1928, the Drinkers built a new house that contained a large music room where they regularly organized singing evenings, and sometimes they used the premises of the American Musicological Society for their gatherings.<ref name="Solie"/> Most well-known were their invitation-only singing parties that involved a dinner prepared by the Drinker household staff with group song and music before and after. Often these evenings involved the accompaniment of musicians invited from prestigious institutions, such as the Philadelphia Orchestra and Curtis Institute.
During World War II, Drinker intervened on behalf of the von Trapp family when they were detained at Ellis Island by visa problems.<ref>[https://www.drinkerbiddle.com/about-us About Us] at Drinkerbiddle.com</ref> He sponsored the family, providing them with housing and financial support for their first three years in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wyman |first1=Carolyn |title=Philly's little-known 'Sound of Music' connection comes full circle this weekend |url=https://www.inquirer.com/entertainment/sound-of-music-philadelphia-connection-elisabeth-von-trapp-20191009.html |website=The Philadelphia Inquirer |date=October 9, 2019 |publisher=The Lenfest Institute |accessdate=October 12, 2019}}; also appeared as "A 'Sound of Music' Legacy," ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', October 11, 2019, pp. W16-17</ref>
==Personal life, death== Henry Drinker married the musician Sophie Drinker (born Sophie Lewis Hutchinson), then moved to Merion, Pennsylvania. The couple had five children together: Sophie, Henry S. III, Cecilia, Ernesta, and Pemberton.<ref name="Solie"/> He died in 1965<ref>{{cite news |title=Drinker's Estate Set at $50,000 |url=https://access.newspaperarchive.com/us/pennsylvania/doylestown/doylestown-daily-intelligencer/1965/03-25/page-21 |access-date=16 December 2025 |work=The Daily Intelligencer |date=March 25, 1965 |location=Doylestown, PA |url-access=subscription}}</ref> and was interred at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite web |title=Henry Sandwith Drinker |url=https://remembermyjourney.com/memorials/henry-sandwith-drinker?id=wN4Dl4WN |website=remembermyjourney.com |publisher=webCemeteries |access-date=4 December 2025}}</ref>
==Legacy== Drinker's papers are in the University of Pennsylvania Law School archives.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.law.upenn.edu/library/archives/mss/|title=Biddle Law Library: Manuscript Collections • Penn Law|publisher=|accessdate=December 21, 2016}}</ref>
Despite several rounds of renaming and mergers, the law firm he long led continues to bear Drinker's name.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200203005381/en/Faegre-Drinker-Launches-Forming-Top-50-Firm |title=Faegre Drinker Launches, Forming Top 50 Firm Designed for Clients |publisher=businesswire.com |date=February 3, 2020 |access-date=June 5, 2020}}</ref>
The Drinker House at Haverford College was renamed in his honor in 1961, when it was converted into the music department building and library. In 1974, it was converted to student housing.<ref name="biconews">{{cite web |url=http://www.biconews.com/article/view/972 |title=Bi-Co News: What?s in a Name? |accessdate=2006-10-01 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061021122351/http://www.biconews.com/article/view/972 |archivedate=2006-10-21 }}</ref> <gallery> File:Les derniers jours d' enfance by Cecilia Beaux.jpg|''Les derniers jours d' enfance'' (1883) by Cecilia Beaux, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts File:Sophie and husband, Henry Sandwith Drinker.jpg|''Summer Portraits – Mr. & Mrs. Henry Sandwith Drinker'' ({{circa}}1911), by Cecilia Beaux, private collection </gallery>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Henry Drinker |birth=1880 |death=1965}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Drinker, Henry}} Category:1880 births Category:1965 deaths Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:Burials at West Laurel Hill Cemetery Henry Category:Lawyers from Philadelphia Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:Haverford College alumni Category:Haverford School alumni Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:People from Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania Category:University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni