Desbecker, Louis Eugene - Erie County

LOUIS EUGENE DESBECKER, whose character and legal ability received so notable a popular tribute by his election to the office of Corporation Counsel, is one of the very ablest of the rising men of the Buffalo bar, and in learning and other professional qualifications ranks with the foremost of his compeers of the legal fraternity. The high standing Mr. Desbecker has attained in his profession may be regarded as a logical result of native talent finding expression in arduous endeavor. Though still in the early prime of life, Mr. Desbecker is a man of ripe experience and a lawyer of unusual acquirements, scholastic as well as forensic.

Mr. Desbecker is the son of Samuel and Marie (Weil) Desbecker, and was born in Buffalo on the 2d day of April, 1871. He received a liberal education in the grammar schools of this city, the Central High School, and for a year from a private tutor. In 1889 he entered Harvard University, graduating in 1892 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then entered New York Law School in New York City, from which he graduated in 1894, with the degree of LL.B., within a month after graduation being admitted to the bar at New York City. Immediately returning to Buffalo, he entered the law office of Marcy & Close, where he continued until December of the following year, when he associated himself with Mr. Simon Fleischmann and Mr. William E. Pooley. The association he continued for ten years, building up a large and lucrative practice of a general nature.

On the 1st of January, 1906, Mr. Desbecker formed a partnership with Messrs. Irving L. Fiske and James O. Moore, under the firm name of Desbecker, Fiske & Moore.

Viewed from the professional standpoint, Mr. Desbecker is considered a sound, energetic, well-grounded, successful lawyer, who keeps close in touch, not only with the work of his profession, but with those things in the community of a general nature, in which a lawyer, as a good citizen, should be interested.

A Democrat in politics, Mr. Desbecker has always taken an active interest in the welfare of his party, but was never a candidate for any office until 1903, when ten days before election he accepted the Democratic nomination for Councilman to fill a vacancy on the ticket. Out of thirty-four candidates, J. N. Adam for Councilman was the only Democratic elected, and Mr. Desbecker received the largest vote of any Democratic nominee save Mr. Adam.

In the fall of 1905 Mr. Desbecker was unanimously nominated by the Democratic City Convention for Corporation Counsel, and was elected by nearly 5,000 plurality, again running next to Mr. Adam, who was elected Mayor. On the 1st of January, 1906, Mr. Desbecker began serving his four-year term of office as Corporation Counsel, and during the brief time he has held the position has made an excellent record.

Mr. Desbecker is ex-officio a. trustee of the Buffalo Public Library and of the Historical Society; is a member of Temple Beth-Zion, and is one of the original members of the University Club, of which he has served as Director and Secretary. He is also a member of the Buffalo Yacht Club, the Buffalo Club, and Park Club of Buffalo, and the Harvard Club of New York City. He is a Mason, being affiliated with the Ancient Landmarks Lodge of this city.

SOURCE: Memorial and Family History of Erie County New York; Volume I