Thomas Gardiner Corcoran
Thomas Gardiner Corcoran (December 29, 1900 – December 6, 1981) was an Irish-American legal scholar. He was one of several[1] advisors in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's brain trust during the New Deal, and later, a close friend and advisor to President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Tommy Corcoran
December 6, 1981 (aged 80)
"Tommy the Cork"
Early life and education[edit]
Corcoran was born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on December 29, 1900. He matriculated at Brown University,[2] where he graduated as class valedictorian earning bachelor's and master's degrees in 1922. He attended Harvard Law School, graduating high in his class in 1926 and gaining the recognition of Felix Frankfurter. He earned his doctorate in law the next year. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.[3]
Early career[edit]
He clerked for Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., at the United States Supreme Court from 1926 to 1927. In 1932, after practicing corporate law in New York City, Corcoran joined the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. When Roosevelt began to take notice of his efforts, Corcoran was given a wider range of responsibilities than his official position as assistant general counsel allowed.
Later life[edit]
After leaving the White House, Corcoran retained enormous influence in the administration, in part because of high appointees who owed their positions to him. Corcoran went into private practice as a lawyer along with former U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief counsel William J. Dempsey, whom Corcoran had installed in that job in 1938. Dempsey and Corcoran managed the takeover of New York radio station WMCA for Corcoran's friend, Undersecretary of Commerce Edward J. Noble. That resulted in both an FCC and a congressional investigation.
Corcoran's work after leaving government service led him to be dubbed the first of the modern lobbyists.[9] Corcoran's phones were tapped by the federal government between 1945 and 1947.[10] The transcripts of the wiretaps were deposited in the Truman Presidential Library and not released to researchers until Corcoran's death. The evidence is that a Truman White House aide ordered the tap, but it was then rescinded by President Harry S. Truman.[11]
It is also alleged that Corcoran engaged in improper attempts to influence decisions of the Supreme Court.[12]
Family[edit]
Following in their father's footsteps, his son, Thomas G. Corcoran Jr., attended Brown University and Harvard Law School (class of 1967), before founding the Washington, D.C., law firm of Berliner, Corcoran & Rowe.[13] A daughter, Margaret J. Corcoran, also graduated from Harvard Law School (class of 1965), and clerked for Associate Justice Hugo Black of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1966 Term (the second woman to clerk), while continuing to assist her father at social events.[14]
His granddaughter, Sara Corcoran, earned her undergraduate degree and MBA from the University of Southern California.[15] She is a legal journalist and is the publisher of The National Courts Monitor, a civil courts legal journal.[16]