The Story

                                                                                          By Mr. Will Bangs

In 1956, Mr. Will Bangs was hired to work for Mr. Branch at the Choate, Hall and Stewart Law firm in Boston, Massachusetts. For the next  five years, he handled for Mr. Branch litigation from the Providence Washington Insurance Company, a medium size casualty insurance company. Mr. Branch was 70 years old when Mr. Bangs started with him. 

In his short story on Mr. Branch, Mr. Bangs is not only specific, but most telling. 

Mr. Bangs says of his casework that he delivered, he worked "everything on the case right up to the trial or settlement." Indeed, Mr. Branch was a demanding man to work for. This said, he speaks of the "such ease" Mr. Branch displayed when handling his cases. 

He also speaks of "Mr. Branch's energy...he loved to play tennis and he did play tennis up until at least his mid 80's." 

Bang's also recounts how Mr. Branch had shaken the hand of more than half of all of the Supreme Court Justices of the United States Supreme Court since the court was founded in 1789. 

Mr. Bang's said of Mr. Branch, " He was really quite a modest person. He was a brilliant person." He had a, "unique ability to express himself in clear, concise and simple language in briefs and in oral arguments." 

Mr. Branch spoke of his wife Hope, once a Broadway Actress with the famed Walter Hampden Company, as a "very beautiful, talented women." 

Mr. Bangs says Mr. Branch was a "very charming and witty person." In example, Bangs says, "shortly after the great hurricane of 1938 (there must have been 15 partners in the firm at that time), I learned that John L. Hall called every partner after the hurricane to make sure they were all right, but, apparently, the hardest partner  to reach was Claude Branch because the telephone lines to Providence were down the longest. John L. Hall finally reached Claude Branch and said "how are you and your family." Branch's reply was "well the trees are all down but the Branches are fine."

"Very charming and very distinguished looking, he was a tough litigator and a very tough negotiator....very precise."

Bangs says, "A very demanding person to work for, he had a streak of kindness." When Elizabeth O'Keefe, his stenographer of many years, fell on hard times financially, Mr. Branch would "pay her way up from Providence so she could earn a little extra money." 

In 1992, Erin Nathaniel Griswold  published the book, Ould Fields, New Corne. Mr. Griswold was an appellate attorney who argued cases before the Supreme Court, serving as Solicitor General of the United States under Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. He was Dean of Harvard Law School for 21 years. During the 1983 to 1984 timeframe, he was government liaison between attorneys of the United States and Soviet Union, in the Lawyers Alliance Nuclear Arms Control. In 1992 , he authored the book, " Ould Fields, New Corne, The Personal Memoirs of a Twentieth Century Lawyer. "

In the book, Mr. Griswold includes spotlight on his relationship and experiences with Mr. Branch, as seen in below images. 

Thanks to Attorney Philip Tavlian, Fresno, California, for forwarding below pages from Mr. Griswold's Memoir.