Los Angeles County
Biographies
PHILBRICK McCOY
Philbrick McCoy, one of the outstanding members of the Los Angeles bar, has served as chief counsel for the State Bar of California during the past four yeas. He was born in South Orange, New Jersey, November 14, 1897, a son of Hon. Walter Irving and Kate Philbrick (Baldwin) McCoy. The late Walter Irving McCoy was a native of Troy, New York, born December 8, 1859, his parents being James and Cornelia (Beach) McCoy, who accorded him liberal educational advantages. He attended Princeton University for one year and later entered Harvard University, which conferred upon him the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1882, the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1886. In the latter year he began the work of his chosen profession in New York city, where he continued successfully in law practice until 1914. He was elected to the sixty-second congress from the eighth New Jersey district for the term of 1911-13 and was reelected for the succeeding term of 1913-15. He resigned from the sixty-third congress, however, to accept appointment as associate justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. In 1918 he was appointed chief justice of that court which office he held until his retirement in 1929. Always active in civic affairs, Judge McCoy served as trustee of the village of South Orange, New Jersey, from 1893 until 1895 and again from 1901 until 1905. He was a delegate to democratic county and state conventions and also attended as a delegate the democratic national conventions of 1904 and 1908. He likewise rendered effective service to his party as vice president of the Essex county democratic committee in New Jersey and was a director of the Orange Bureau of the Associated Charities and of the South Orange Free Library. He held membership in the New York City Bar Association; the Harvard Club of New Jersey, of which he was president in 1910-11; the Harvard Club of New York; the Harvard Club of the District of Columbia, which he served as president from 1923 until 1931; the Cosmos Club of Washington, D. C., and the Harvard Club of Boston. His death occurred July 17, 1933, when he was in his seventy-fourth year. On the 17th of October, 1888, Judge McCoy had married Kate Philbrick Baldwin, of Savannah, Georgia, and to them were born five children, as follows: Percy B., George Baldwin, Philbrick, Catherine B. and Eleanor Holman.
Philbrick McCoy, the immediate subject of this review, supplemented his early educational training as a law student at George Washington University of Washington, D. C., from which he received the degree of LL.B. in 1922 and the degree of LL.M. in 1923. He acted as his father’s secretary from 1920 until 1926 and was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia and the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia in Washington, D. C., in 1922. Four years later, in 1926, he was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. On coming to California he was admitted to practice law in all California courts, and in the federal courts for the northern and southern districts of the state. Establishing his home in the Golden state in 1926, he has become one of the foremost representatives of the legal profession in Los Angeles. He was associated with counsel for the Petroleum Securities Company of Los Angeles for some time and during the past four years has served as chief counsel for the State Bar of California, which has more than twelve thousand attorneys on its membership roll. He is also engaged in the general practice of law. Mr. McCoy is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the State Bar of California, the Bar Association of San Francisco, the American Bar Association, the Barristers of Washington, D. C., and the Chancery Club, of Los Angeles. He is also a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club and of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
In January, 1921, Mr. McCoy was married to Kathrine Sargent Olds, of Silver Spring, Maryland, a direct descendant of Return Jonathan Meigs, colonel commandant on the staff of General Washington during the Revolution. They have two children, Kathleen Philbrick McCoy, born June 18, 1925, and Marietta Meigs McCoy, born February 28, 1930.
He gives his political support to the democratic party, while his religious faithis that of the Episcopal Church.
Transcribed by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
603-605, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2013 Joyce Rugeroni.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES