ONE Connection | 13 Fascinating Facts About Thomas Jones and Luther Day
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Jones Day. It's a name as distinct as the careers of the two men who lent their own names to the Firm 85 years ago: Thomas ("Tom") Hoyt Jones and Luther Day. Read to learn more about these pivotal figures who helped shape the Firm as we know it today.
1. Jones served as the second Managing Partner and brought Day into the Firm through a merger.
Jones became the Firm's second Managing Partner in 1938, following the death of his mentor, Frank Hadley Ginn, who is credited with the Managing Partner structure that endures to this day. Jones was regarded as a "rainmaker" due to his success in bringing in new business and winning over clients, many of whom he befriended. A brilliant corporate lawyer, clients considered Jones a business advisor as well as a legal counselor. By his mid-twenties, he was corporate attorney for the powerful Cleveland financier Cyrus S. Eaton. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, financial writers pegged Jones as "a young man who was going somewhere."
One of Jones's first acts as Managing Partner was the January 1, 1939, strategic merger of the Firm—then named Tolles, Hogsett & Ginn and its 34 lawyers—with the small but mighty eight-lawyer Cleveland firm of Day, Young, Veach & LeFever. And with the stroke of a pen, Luther Day joined the newly merged Firm as partner.
2. Day had "a tongue that could drip honey or spit fire."
The merger's main appeal was the addition of Day and his well-known litigation prowess. Widely regarded as one of the greatest trial lawyers in Ohio's history, the Cleveland Plain Dealer once described Day as "a real court gladiator with a tongue that could drip honey or spit fire as the occasion demanded."
The merger also strengthened the Firm's labor law offerings and added powerhouse clients such as Republic Steel Corporation, Cleveland-Cliffs Company, and M.A. Hanna, with Day leading the litigation efforts.
3. With the merger, the Firm almost took the name Jones & Day.
Jones wanted to name the newly merged Firm "Jones & Day." (Jones reportedly thought having just two names would have greater appeal to clients.) However, the name grew longer as merger talks continued, adding the names of partners William "Bud" Cockley and Jack Reavis, to become Jones, Day, Cockley & Reavis.
4. As Managing Partner, Jones brought levity to the Firm.
Ginn and Jones shared a passion for Jones Day and the law. But they had vastly different managing styles and temperaments.
In the Jones Day history book, Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue: The First Century, Hildegarde Dobay, Jack Reavis's long-time secretary, vividly described their different approaches:
"Mr. Ginn liked anyone who worked hard, but boy, there was no levity in the Firm when he was boss. I mean you just walked silently down the hall, but there was no gaiety or first-name greetings as we had later. Tom Jones, on the other hand, could have been in the movies. He had a charming character; he was just charming to everybody. He knew every office boy's name, he was just that type."A second source, Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue: A Slightly Irreverent History, described their differences another way: "Frank Ginn was Mr. Ginn to everyone. Jones was Tom to almost everyone. Ginn's reprimand could be pretty sharp. Jones' criticism was so smooth you had to think about it to know you had had it."
5. Jones believed that a law firm should be a "kind of extended family unit."
As Managing Partner, Jones encouraged the hiring of family members. Under his leadership, the Firm hired the sons of several partners—as long as they met the required professional standards. Family hires included his own son, Brooks, a lawyer with the Firm from 1947 to 1989. (Much earlier in his career, in 1917, Jones had persuaded his brother-in-law, William Cockley, to join the Firm).
However, Jones's successor as Managing Partner, Jack Reavis, put an end to this practice when he took the reins in 1948, imposing a strict anti-nepotism rule. Under Reavis, no child of a current partner or of the chief executive of an active client could be hired as an associate.
6. Day and Jones both descended from distinguished justices.
Day hailed from a long line of justices who held positions of great influence. His father, William R. Day, was United States Secretary of State under President William McKinley, a U.S. Court of Appeals Judge for the Sixth Circuit, and a U.S. Supreme Court Justice from 1903 to 1922.
Additionally, Day's maternal great-grandfather was Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, and his maternal grandfather served on the Ohio Supreme Court. His brother, William Louis Day, was a federal judge in Cleveland from 1911 to 1914, and his uncle, Robert H. Day, was a member of the Ohio Supreme Court.
The family's judicial renown "made the name 'Day' a magic one at the polls in Ohio," according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Jones also had a strong familial tie to the legal community. His father, Thomas A. Jones, was elected to Ohio's Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and was an Ohio Supreme Court justice from 1914 until his death in 1937.
7. Day's first wife was the niece of a U.S. president.
In 1903, Day married Ida McKinley Barber, the niece of U.S. President William McKinley. She passed away in 1944.
8. As Managing Partner, Jones oversaw the Firm's response to the East Ohio Gas explosion.
In 1944, the Firm represented East Ohio Gas following a devastating explosion in Cleveland that left 130 people dead and many more injured. Lawyers at the Firm advised the gas company not to deny liability and to immediately pay provable claims. Within four months after the fire, East Ohio Gas had settled 78% of all death claims, 83% of personal injury claims, and 77% of property damage claims. Total settlements amounted to nearly $7 million (worth more than $123 million in 2024), and only 24 lawsuits were filed out of thousands of claims.
Jones Day's counsel is credited with helping individuals, businesses, and the community get back on their feet and saving East Ohio Gas.
9. "Be a constructive lawyer first": Day preached substance over style.
As president of the Cleveland Bar Association in 1930, the no-nonsense Day shared the following advice with a roomful of young lawyers:
Don't try to be smart. The day of the smart-alecky, foxy, sly lawyer has gone by. Be a constructive lawyer first and a case lawyer second. When you get a case don't run it straight to the library to look up the law to support your side. Decide in your own mind first what you think the law ought to be on the basis of right and wrong and then try to find law to support your view.
10. Jones kept the Firm running during World War II.
Many Firm lawyers left for military service and civilian war jobs following the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor and America's entrance into WWII. Jones, a World War I Army veteran, hired law school faculty members to temporarily fill the Firm's depleted ranks, but he was careful to let his lawyers and staff know that the new hirings were only intended for the duration of the war effort. However, some of the recruits remained after the war and became partners.
To keep morale up during wartime, the Firm published The Roll Call to serve, as Jones himself put it, "as a medium of contact between those in front and us behind."
11. Jones was an athlete and a scholar.
Jones, a 1911 graduate of The Ohio State University law school, excelled at athletics as well as academics. As an undergraduate, he was captain of the Ohio State football team and an All-Ohio quarterback, as well as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest and most prestigious academic honor society in the United States.
Later, he took up horseback riding. But when Jones developed symptoms of heart disease in the 1940s, his doctor suggested he switch from horseback riding to sailing, suggesting that the latter was a less strenuous form of exercise. Competitive by nature, Jones threw himself into sailing with gusto, entering competitions, and even winning some.
12. Following Jones's death, his wife shared a letter of gratitude with the associates.
Jones died of a heart attack in 1948 at age 60, leaving behind his wife, Katharine, whom he met in college, and two sons. He also left behind a Firm reeling from the unexpected loss of its leader.
Katharine expressed her late husband's admiration for the Firm and its young lawyers in a heartfelt letter, writing, "Did you know how very dear you all were to him?"
She also shared the story of his start in the law, recalling how Jones, as a recent law school graduate, set his sights on the Firm for employment and sat in the office every day until he was hired.
13. Day retired nearly 20 years after the merger.
Day retired from the Firm in 1957 and passed away in 1965 when he was 85 years old. He was survived by his second wife, Margaret, and two daughters.
His obituary in the Cleveland Plain Dealer offered just a glimpse of the many high-profile cases represented by Day, including his successful battle to halt the merger of two steel companies—a victory for his client, Cyrus Eaton.
— Written by Julie Evans
