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39 A fter resigning from the bench in 1957, Hughes opened a private practice in Trenton. He divided his time between Trenton and Newark, where he had a working relationship with the law firm Bilder and Bilder. As his Trenton practice grew, Hughes asked a young attorney, James McLaughlin, to join him. Later, he added Mary Jo Dixon as an associate. McLaughlin said that the former judge and future governor always handled his own cases, even researching and writing briefs. Hughes said the hiring of McLaughlin was one of the best things he ever did. For McLaughlin the experience was equally satisfying. He viewed Hughes as a father figure and he described the four years he spent working with him as the best four years of his life.1 He said that he never met anyone who did not like Hughes. McLaughlin came from the same Irish Catholic area of Trenton where Hughes and his family lived. He had even attended Blessed Sacrament School with Betty Hughes’s brother.2 Hughes’s large circle of friends—professional, political, and personal— played a significant part in his thriving practice. Joseph Katz, who would later work in public relations for Governor Hughes, said, “Clients streamed in; he was soon earning multiples of a judge’s salary.”3 Perhaps the firm’s most important client came as a result of Hughes’s relationship with another professional, John Pindar. Pindar was a well-known trial attorney from Newark. While a partner at Shaw, Pindar, Connell, Foley & Geiser he tried a number of cases before Judge Hughes. At the conclusion of one of the cases, Hughes complimented Pindar on the excellence of his presentation. Pindar was impressed by the quality of judicial craftsmanship exhibited by Judge Hughes. The two men became friends. Pindar, who handled all the Chapter 4 Private Practitioner The LIFE and TIMES of R ICHARD J. HUGHES 40 defense work for New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company in the northern part of the state, arranged for Hughes’s new practice to get the NJM work in Mercer County. This client became an important one for the practice, although there were many other sources of work as well. Grover Richman, Governor Robert Meyner’s attorney general, appointed Hughes as a rate counsel before the Public Utility Commission. The rate counsel position, which paid very well, was seen as a political plum.4 Thorn Lord, Hughes’s close friend and former partner, had, as Democratic leader of Mercer County, strongly supported Meyner’s quest for the governorship. Hughes’s many political friendships were also responsible for his service as legislative counsel to the railroad industry. Edward O’Mara, a senator from Hudson County who headed a prominent law firm in Jersey City, arranged for Hughes to represent the railroads. Hughes said, “I was recommended by Senator Edward O’Mara. They had a representative, a Republican named Harry Towe used to be a congressman from Bergen County [served as Representative for the Ninth District from 1943–1951], a lovely man, very fine man, we were good friends. His job was to handle the Republican members of the legislature and I was supposed to know something about the Democrats. And the job, the Brotherhood of Railroad Workers had always special legislation that would hurt the railroads financially, we were supposed to fight that. So it was quite a job, had a lot of fun.”5 In this position Hughes willingly opposed unions, in spite of his strong Democratic values. At the time, he was trying to build his practice and was happy to have the work. His lobbying efforts on behalf of the railroads brought in $15,000 a year. Hughes also handled an important case involving the Seabrooks—a wealthy family who owned Seabrook Farms, a large frozen food company. A major family feud had erupted when the patriarch of the family, C. F. Seabrook, tried to cut his sons out of the business. The sons hired Hughes to represent them, and he worked to call into question the competency of the patriarch. However, just before the case was to be heard, the patriarch sold the company, making the matter moot.6 Nevertheless, Hughes won some of the early skirmishes in the case by bringing in an expert in the area, Alfred Clapp. While on the Appellate Division, Hughes sat with Clapp, one of the giants of the legal profession in New Jersey. Prior to becoming a judge, Clapp had been a state senator, a...

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