Hamilton Potter Dies at 68; Specialized in Banking Law

Hamilton Fish Potter Jr., a specialist in banking law and partner in the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, died March 21 during a skiing vacation in Sun Valley, Idaho. He was 68 and lived in New York City and St. James, N.Y.

Mr. Potter founded the banking group at Sullivan & Cromwell and advised many U.S. and foreign banks. He played a major role in facilitating the bank funds transfers needed to resolve the Iranian hostage crisis in 1981.

He advised Marine Midland Bank in many acquisitions during the 1960s and 1970s and was instrumental in the formation of European American Bank. He represented the new bank in its acquisition of a major branch network from failed Franklin National Bank in 1974 and served as a director for many years.

Mr. Potter was a descendant of Dutch colonist Peter Stuyvesant, who established the first municipal government in what is now New York City.

He was also descended from Hamilton Fish, U.S. secretary of state under President Ulysses S. Grant, and related to Henry Codman Potter, the Episcopal bishop who laid the cornerstone of New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 1892.

During his career, Mr. Potter was frequently a speaker during symposia on bank holding companies, bank acquisitions, secured transactions, and bankruptcy matters. He retired from Sullivan & Cromwell in 1991 and subsequently wrote a novel.

Mr. Potter was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 21, 1928, and graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He is survived by his wife, their two sons, and four children from a previous marriage.