James C. Carter

James C. Carter
After an etching on copper plate by James S. King, copyrighted and published by Charles Barmore of New York.
Born	(1827-10-14)October 14, 1827 Lancaster, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	February 14, 1905(1905-02-14) (aged 77)
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard College, 1850 Harvard Law School, 1853
Occupation	Lawyer

James Coolidge Carter (1827-1905) was an American lawyer, a partner in the firm that eventually became Carter Ledyard & Milburn (CL&M), which he helped found in 1854. He helped create the The Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Carter was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, on October 14, 1827, the youngest child of a large and needy family. He entered Harvard College in 1846 and graduated in 1850. He rowed stroke oar in his class boat and was class orator at commencement. Joseph H. Choate said of him:

When I entered Harvard College in 1848 Mr. Carter, who had already been there for two years, was a very marked man among the 300 students who then constituted the entire community of the little college. To very commanding abilities he added untiring industry and to a lofty character most pleasing manners, a combination which easily made him foremost. He was filled with an honorable ambition, and took all the prizes; he took an interest in the public questions of the day and cultivated the art of speaking with discriminating assiduity; he was a devoted admirer of Mr. Webster . . ., and I always thought he modeled himself upon that noble example in style, in expression and in the mode of treating every question that arose. Indeed in his last years I regarded him as the last survivor of the Websterian school.

Carter later attended Harvard Law School until 1853. He had entered the law school in 1851 after spending a year tutoring in New York City. It was during this year in New York City that he worked in the office of Kent & Davies, where his attendance was only nominal.

One of the partners of Kent & Davies, Henry E. Davies, later came to see Carter at Harvard Law School. Davies told Carter that the firm of Kent & Davies was about to be dissolved, that the firm of Davies & Scudder would be located at 66 Wall Street, and that he wanted Carter to accept a position as managing clerk. Carter accepted the offer, and shortly thereafter was admitted to the New York bar. After about a year, Davies & Scudder dissolved when Davies left to become Corporation Counsel of The City of New York. So in 1854, at the age of 28, after one year of practice, Carter became a junior partner in Scudder & Carter, which has under its successive organization leading to CL&M, in the words of Joseph Choate, “occupied a great place in the annals of the profession in New York.”