Background
Bromley, Bruce was born on March 20, 1893 in Pontiac, Michigan, United States. Son of Peter Brewater and Sarah Suydam (Ditmas) Bromley.
Bromley, Bruce was born on March 20, 1893 in Pontiac, Michigan, United States. Son of Peter Brewater and Sarah Suydam (Ditmas) Bromley.
He graduated from Michigan University in 1914, and then entered Harvard Law School, but left to serve in the U. S. Navy during World War I. He received his law degree from Harvard after the war, was admitted to the bar in 1920, and commenced practice in New York City as assistant to Henry L. Stimson.
He later joined the law firm that is now known as Cravath, Swaine & Moore, and stayed with it for more than 50 years. On January 14, 1949, he was appointed by Governor Thomas E. Dewey to the New York Court of Appeals, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Thomas D. Thacher. In November 1949, he was defeated by Democrat Charles W. Froessel when running for a full term.
In 1969, he appeared for the U.S. House of Representatives in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Powell v. McCormack, in which Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., questioned his exclusion from the House. Bromley died at the New York Hospital—Cornell Medical Center.
A law chair at Harvard Law School is named after him. Among Bruce Bromley Professors of Law were Arthur R. Miller and Paul M. Bator. The current holder is John F. Manning.
Member Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, 1963-1980, New York City Mayor’s Board Ethics, 1961-1980, National Committee Study Antitrust Laws, 1953-1980. Fellow American College Trial Lawyers. Member American, New York bar associations, Metropolitan Trial Lawyers Association.
Married Esther Baldwin, May 10, 1922. Children: Stephen Baldwin, Peter Brewster, Bruce (deceased), Sarah Suydam (Mistress Cory B. Kilvert).