Background
Lloyd Paul Stryker was born June 5, 1885, in Chicago, Illinois, United States, to Melancthon Woolsey Stryker (a Presbyterian minister) and Elizabeth Goss. He had five siblings.
(The author, a colorful trial lawyer, was once described b...)
The author, a colorful trial lawyer, was once described by Alexander Woollcott as the "Knight with the rueful countenance." This book is based on lectures Mr. Stryker gave at Yale Law School in the 1950s. Stryker's uniformly delightful anecdotes afford unusual insight into how lawyers approach their work, try cases, cross-examine, and argue appeals - and, repeatedly, how they comes to terms with lawyer's common duty to serve both his client and the ethics of his profession.
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Advocacy-Renaissance-Trial-Lawyer/dp/6028397318?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=6028397318
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
https://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Johnson-Study-Courage-Part/dp/1428652078?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1428652078
(Book by Lloyd Paul Stryker)
Book by Lloyd Paul Stryker
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Advocacy-Renaissance-Trial-Lawyer/dp/0892010436?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0892010436
Lloyd Paul Stryker was born June 5, 1885, in Chicago, Illinois, United States, to Melancthon Woolsey Stryker (a Presbyterian minister) and Elizabeth Goss. He had five siblings.
His father, a well-known Presbyterian minister, later became president of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where Stryker received the A. B. (1906). In 1909 he received an MA in Law from New York Law School.
After graduation he moved to New York City, where he was admitted to the bar. Also in 1910 he was appointed assistant district attorney, and for the next two years he spent most of his time prosecuting vice cases.
After the election Stryker returned to private practice, and over the next fifteen years he built a lucrative law practice and a substantial local reputation as a trial lawyer.
On March 1, 1929, retiring President Calvin Coolidge submitted his name to the Senate as appointee to the bench of the district court of the Southern District of New York. The Senate, however, adjourned without confirming the appointment and incoming President Herbert Hoover did not resubmit Stryker's name.
His conversion may have been prompted by the onset of the Great Depression, by Hoover's failure to give him a judicial appointment, or, as Stryker himself claimed, by his own research into the conduct of the Republican party during the presidency of Andrew Johnson, research that led to his first major book, Andrew Johnson: A Study in Courage (1929).
During the 1930's Stryker wrote a second book, Courts and Doctors (1932), a practical text on malpractice law for doctors and the lawyers who defend them. In 1933 he was appointed chairman of the department of law and complaints of the newly created New York City division of the National Recovery Administration (NRA). He resigned from this post in January 1934, as a result of an NRA administrative reorganization; and the following year he accepted the position of general counsel for a special investigation of New York City's relief program.
The four weeks of heated hearings that resulted from this investigation attracted considerable local attention and pushed Stryker into the spotlight. His probing questions dominated the hearings and illuminated the maladministration and waste in New York's gigantic relief system. Despite these brief excursions as author, administrator, and public investigator, throughout his career Stryker's first love remained the courtroom and his talents as a defense attorney were widely recognized.
Stryker demonstrated his talents as a criminal lawyer in dozens of cases, but his national reputation grew from two major trials. The first of these, in 1938, was the trial of James J. Hines, a prominent Tammany Hall leader indicted for conspiring with Dutch Schultz (Arthur Flegenheimer) and his successors to protect the illegal daily lottery known as the policy. The trial attracted national attention, partially because of the frequently heated clashes between Stryker and the district attorney, Thomas E. Dewey, who was just emerging as a national political figure.
The evidence against Hines was overwhelming; but after four weeks of damaging testimony, Stryker caught Dewey incorporating a highly prejudicial statement into a question to a witness and demanded a mistrial, which, after some hesitation, Judge Ferdinand Pecora granted. In the second Hines trial Stryker and Dewey again squared off, but this time Dewey made no mistake. Stryker attempted to discredit the state's more than thirty witnesses, argued that the entire case was a frame-up to further the political ambitions of the district attorney, and concluded with a highly emotional summation that left many spectators in tears - all to no avail.
The blue-ribbon jury convicted Hines on all thirteen counts. Nonetheless, Stryker's reputation was made; Tammany later showed its appreciation by urging the Truman administration to appoint Stryker to the federal bench, a suggestion that was politely ignored. The pinnacle of Stryker's career came in 1949, when he attracted international attention as defense counsel in the first perjury trial of Alger Hiss.
Hiss was charged with lying to a grand jury about prior associations with, and the forwarding of State Department documents to, admitted former Communist Whittaker Chambers. The case against Hiss depended heavily upon Chambers' testimony, and Stryker's relentless cross-examination of Chambers exposed several false statements and other discrepancies. The flaws in Chambers' testimony, however, proved insufficient to insure Hiss's acquittal; the trial resulted in a hung jury.
Stryker did not serve in the second Hiss trial, which resulted in a conviction. During his later years Stryker frequently delivered addresses to law schools. The recurrent theme of these lectures was developed most fully in his final work, The Art of Advocacy (1954), a plea for a renaissance of the trial lawyer. He also wrote For the Defense (1947), a biography of Thomas Erskine. He died in New York City.
(The author, a colorful trial lawyer, was once described b...)
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
(Book by Lloyd Paul Stryker)
In 1914 he resigned to run, unsuccessfully, as a Republican candidate for the City Court of New York. Between 1928 and 1933 Stryker switched his political affiliation to the Democratic party.
He was particularly known for his meticulous attention to detail, his intensive cross-examination of hostile witnesses. and his often classical summations to the jury.
Quotes from others about the person
At his death the New York Times referred to him as "the most celebrated American criminal lawyer since Clarence Darrow. "
Yale Law School's biographical dictionary states: "His skillful, ferocious, and relentless cross-examination of Whittaker Chambers. .. led to a hung jury. "
Irving Younger has called "the then-ablest criminal lawyer in practice" and "the preeminent criminal lawyer of his generation. "
On April 30, 1910, he married Katharine Truax; they had one daughter.