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American Juris Society

Why We Call The Old-Line Firms ‘White Shoe’

Ed. Note: Welcome to our daily feature Trivia Question of the Day!

Every lawyer knows what a “white-shoe firm” is — an old-line, prestigious, tradition-bound, Wall Street firm. But the label is literal: it comes from an actual piece of footwear. What shoe gave the white-shoe firm its name?

Hint: It was a warm-weather staple on Ivy League campuses in the 1930s and ’40s. Wearing it marked you as a member of a particular social set: the same set that ran the old-line Wall Street firms, and, for decades, kept nearly everyone else out.

See the answer on the next page.

The post Why We Call The Old-Line Firms ‘White Shoe’ appeared first on Above the Law.

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