Bethuel Matthew Webster, Jr. (June 13, 1900 – March 31, 1989) was a lawyer in New York City, a president of the

New York City Bar Association The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...

, an adviser to Mayor

John Lindsay John Vliet Lindsay (; November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular ...

, and founder of

Webster & Sheffield Webster & Sheffield, formerly Webster, Sheffield, Fleischmann, Hitchcock & Chrystie, was a major "white shoe" law firm in New York City from 1934 to 1991. Webster & Sheffield dissolved in 1991, 57 years after it was established.Susan Heller Ander ...

Early life and education

Webster was born in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

, on June 13, 1900. He attended the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

Early career

After graduating from Harvard, Webster served as assistant

US Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

for the

Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New ...

from 1926 to 1927, and as special assistant to the

US Attorney General The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

in the

antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...

division of the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

from 1927 to 1929. From 1929 to 1930, Webster was general counsel for the

Federal Radio Commission The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by t ...

, predecessor to the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...

, where he played an important role in upholding the licensing power of the federal government for radio airwaves, decisions later upheld for television airwaves as well. In 1934, Webster founded the now-defunct law firm of Webster, Sheffield, Fleischmann, Hitchcock & Chrystie (later, Webster & Sheffield) with Frederick Sheffield and

Manly Fleischmann Manly Fleischmann (1908-1987) was an attorney whose record of public service included positions in the Democratic Administration of Harry S Truman and in the Republican Administration of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. He served as Presi ...

, which dissolved in 1991. With Webster & Sheffield, Webster represented a number of high-profile clients including Goldman Sachs,

Consolidated Edison Consolidated Edison, Inc., commonly known as Con Edison (stylized as conEdison) or ConEd, is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $12 billion in annual revenues as of 2017, and over $62 ...

, the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the dea ...

, the

New York City Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) ...

, and Carnegie Hall.

Later career

After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Webster served as special assistant to the High Commissioner of Germany, specializing in the

decartelization Decartelization is the transition of a national economy from monopoly control by groups of large businesses, known as cartels, to a free market economy. This change rarely arises naturally, and is generally the result of regulation by a governing bo ...

of the German steel and

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as stratum, rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen ...

industries and the enforcement of antitrust regulations. Webster was counsel to the

Fund for the Republic The Fund for the Republic (1951–1959) was an organization created by the Ford Foundation and dedicated to protecting freedom of speech and other civil liberties in the United States. In 1959, the Fund moved from New York City to Santa Barbara, ...

, a "think tank" established in 1952 for the defense of civil rights and civil liberties during the McCarthy period. As counsel, he represented the Fund in hearings before the notorious Un-American Activities Committee of the House of Representatives (

HUAC The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

). During this period he also defended William Remington, an economist and alleged Communist accused of espionage. From 1959 to 1965, he served as a member of the

Permanent Court of Arbitration The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization located in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes that aris ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

, and from 1965 to 1968 he mediated the international territorial dispute between Great Britain and Guatemala over

British Honduras British Honduras was a British Crown colony on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, from 1783 to 1964, then a self-governing colony, renamed Belize in June 1973,

, now

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wa ...

.The Territorial Dimension of Caribbean Security: The Case of Belize
Alma H Young, ''Strategy and Security in the Caribbean'', Ivelaw L. Griffith, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1991, page 129 Webster served chairman of the Drug Abuse Council created in 1972 by Ford and three other foundations to conduct an independent study of public drug policies and programs.

New York City politics

Webster was a member of Mayor

Robert F. Wagner Robert Ferdinand Wagner I (June 8, 1877May 4, 1953) was an American politician. He was a Democratic U.S. Senator from New York from 1927 to 1949. Born in Prussia, Wagner migrated with his family to the United States in 1885. After graduating ...

's Committee for the Preservation of Structures of Historic and Esthetic Importance, and presided over Mayor

's transitional team in 1965. Under Lindsay, who was also a partner at Webster & Sheffield, Webster served as head of the New York City Cultural Council and was a key adviser in the administration. In ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' obituary of Webster, Lindsay recalled: ''"He was always my guiding light, beginning with the law. Both as a Congressman and as Mayor, I turned to him in tough ones, on relations with people and arts programs. He was a constant adviser on arts programs, of particular concern because of the creation of Lincoln Center."'' He was a member of the city's Art Commission and a trustee of the

. He was president of the Harvard Law School Association, and the Public Education Association, and, from 1952 to 1954, president of the

. He died on March 31, 1989, in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

Early life and education

Early career

Later career

New York City politics

References

Further reading