Dewey, Cheatem & Howe

Dewey, Cheatem & Howe is the gag name of a fictional law or accounting firm,^[1] used in several parody settings. For example, a popular Three Stooges poster features the Stooges as bumbling members of such a firm (although the name was never used in an actual episode, "Dewey, Burnham, and Howe" was used). Similarly, mention of a firm by this name is employed by comic figures such as Johnny Carson, Groucho Marx, and Daffy Duck.

The name pokes fun at the perceived propensity of some lawyers and accountants to take advantage of their clients, as the firm name is a pun on the phrase "Do we cheat them? And how!" ("and how!" is an American idiom meaning "yes, very much so!") Many law professors perversely work "Dewey, Cheatem & Howe" into the hypotheticals presented on final exams, especially in professional responsibility and legal ethics courses. The name is also used more broadly as a placeholder for any hypothetical law firm.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

The spelling of the second name varies somewhat, including Cheetem, Cheater, Cheethem and Cheatham.

Examples

The name of the DC&H corporate offices is visible on the third floor window above the corner of Eliot and JFK Streets, in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Tom and Ray Magliozzi, of NPR's Car Talk radio program, named their business corporation "Dewey, Cheetham & Howe". Their corporate offices are located on a third-floor office in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The office is clearly visible from the square, with lettering on the window readable from ground level. The Magliozzi brothers have asserted that they established the firm in 1989, although this assertion is immediately followed by the sentence "In all seriousness, we've had lot of fun along the way."^[7]

In the 1989 video game Leisure Suit Larry III, "Dewey, Cheatem & Howe" is a law firm set on Nontoonyt island. Larry Laffer sees lawyer Suzi Cheatem to discuss his divorce (with whom he has an erotic encounter later).

The UK magazine Private Eye uses the similarly-inspired "Sue, Grabbitt and Runne" (sue, grab it and run) when satirising the legal profession, reflecting the magazine's experience defending from libel lawsuits.

In a set of legal forms published for lawyers and other legal professionals,^[vague] one fictitious law-firm name is "Skrewer, Widow & Children."

The champion Standardbred race horse Deweycheatumnhowe takes his name from this pun. On August 3, 2008, that undefeated horse won harness racing's most prestigious event, the Hambletonian Stakes, run at the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey.^[8]

The ABC channel show America's Funniest Home Videos showed a clip of a live building of "Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe".

In a slight variation, the narrating presidential aide in Christopher Buckley's novel The White House Mess came from the law firm of "Dewey, Scruem and Howe".

There is a firm of solicitors in Leamington Spa called Wright Hassall Solicitors,^[9] and not to be confused with the phrase "right hassle".^[10]

The joke is subverted in the Simpsons episode Bart the Fink. The episode opens with the family visiting the law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, Howe, and Weissman. Though the characters don't mention it, the implication is that Weissman ruined the classic joke by making partner at the firm.

A prankster President Abraham Lincoln portrayed in Young Mr. Lincoln by Henry Fonda used a variation of this genre, explaining why he tried to be so honest, was due to his being wary of joining the ranks of a law firm "Ketchem, Cheatham & Howe".

A variation of this joke was used on 30 Rock when Alec Baldwin's character Jack Donaghy tells Tina Fey's Liz Lemon that Tracy Jordan's lawyer Steven (played by Wayne Brady) works for the firm "Dewey, Cheatem, and Livingston."

In the fourth season of Gilmore Girls ("The Lorelai's First Day at Yale"), in order to placate a lawyer, Luke Danes claims his legal representation as "Don Dewey of 'Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe'"

Examples of placeholder use

• "The annual profit was to be certified by Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe, a huge public accounting firm".^[11]
• "So, the phone rings and the voice on the other side introduces itself as Joe Lawyer from Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe".^[12]
• "Dewey, Cheatham & Howe contracts with Bill's Cleaning Service to clean its offices every week".^[13]
• "The seminar is being hosted by John/Jane Smith, a wealth manager/vice president/certified retirement specialist, etc., with Dewey, Cheatem & Howe brokerage firm".^[14]

See also

• Aptronym, a personal name descriptive of the person so named.
• Blackacre, another legal placeholder name

References

1. ^ Gerald P. Koocher, Patricia Keith-Spiegel (1998). Ethics in psychology: professional standards and cases. Oxford University Press. p. 108. ISBN 9780195092011. http://books.google.com/books?id=KwatUOmKCrUC&pg=PA108&dq=dewey+cheatem+and+howe&lr=&as_brr=3&cd=18#v=onepage&q=dewey%20cheatem%20and%20howe&f=false. 
2. ^ "The Fullname Citation Style". Harvard University. http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~shieber/Distrib/Sources/fullname/fullname-doc.ps. Retrieved 2010-03-09. 
3. ^ "LaTeX letter using "appmhead" styles". University of Colorado at Boulder. http://amath.colorado.edu/documentation/LaTeX/Letterhead/Sample1.html. Retrieved 2010-03-09. 
4. ^ "Math 103, Fall 2009, questions for final exam televised review, with solutions". Rutgers University. http://rutv.rutgers.edu/pdf/math-103-f09-solutions.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-09. 
5. ^ "MEET YOUR CLIENTS - CONSUMER PROTECTION - FALL 2002". Georgia State University. http://law.gsu.edu/mbudnitz/fall02/meetclients_law7155.pdf. Retrieved 2010-03-09. 
6. ^ "RESEARCH MEMO ASSIGNMENT". Louisiana State University. http://faculty.law.lsu.edu/ccorcos/fall2002/Researchmemoassignment.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-10. 
7. ^ "The History of Car Talk". Cartalk (cartalk.com). http://www.cartalk.com/content/about/history/. Retrieved 2010-03-09. 
8. ^ New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority, August 2, 2008
9. ^ Wright Hassall Solicitors
10. ^ "Wright Hassall = Right Hassle solicitors (The One Show photo gallery)". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/theoneshow/gallery/photo/129387. Retrieved 16 December 2009. 
11. ^ Charles T. Horngren, Cost Accounting: A Managerial Emphasis‎ (1967), p. 333
12. ^ Douglas Matthews, Sue the B*st*rds: The Victim's Handbook (1973), p. 53.
13. ^ Stephen Fishman, Consultant and Independent Contractor Agreements‎ (2000), p. 6
14. ^ Richard A. Lewins, How to Keep from Going Broke With a Broker (2010), p. 18.