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Slidell & Slidell
1826 – 1846
Slidell & Clark
1846 – 1851
Clark & Bayne
1851 – 1869
Clark, Bayne & Renshaw 1869 – 1878
Bayne & Renshaw
1878 – 1880
Bayne & Denegre
1880 – 1888
Bayne, Denegre & Bayne
1888 – 1893
Bayne, Deneger & Denegre
1893 – 1895
Denegre & Blair
1895 – 1913
Denegre, Leovy & Chaffe
1913 – 1942
Chaffe, McCall, Bruns, Toler & Phillips
1942 – 1948
Chaffe, McCall, Toler & Phillips
1948 – 1955
Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Burke & Hopkins
1955 – 1962
Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Burke, Toler & Hopkins
1962 – 1968
Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Burke, Toler & Sarpy
1968 – 1971
Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Toler & Sarpy
1971 – 2005
Chaffe McCall
2005 - present |
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Firm History
In 1826, James Fenimore Cooper
published “The Last of the Mohicans” but “The Hunchback
of Notre Dame,” and “The Three Musketeers” were still
years away. Beethoven was still alive, Victoria was
still a Princess, The Spanish Inquisition was still in
progress, the first railroad in the United States had
yet to be built, and the Mormon church had not been
formed. In 1826 Thomas Jefferson died, and there were
only 24 states in the Union.
Also in 1826 Thomas and John
Slidell, two very prominent attorneys in Louisiana,
founded a law firm. Today that law firm, 180 years
“young,” is Chaffe McCall, L.L.P. It is the oldest
continually operating law firm in Louisiana and,
beginning with the Slidell brothers, has developed a
tradition of excellence.
Thomas Slidell prepared one of
the first Louisiana case digests and in 1846 became a
member of the state Supreme Court, and, in 1852, its
Chief Justice. John Slidell became a cause celebre
during the Civil War. While en route as a Confederate
emissary aboard the British vessel TRENT, the vessel was
intercepted by a Yankee frigate and he was taken off.
The incident nearly brought England into the war on the
side of the Confederacy.
Click here to read an
article from the New Orleans Bar Association regarding
John Slidell.
Thomas A. Clark joined the firm
in 1842 and, following Thomas Slidell's departure for
the judiciary, it became Slidell & Clark. Clark was
also a classmate of Confederate Secretary of War Judah
P. Benjamin. When Clark was imprisoned by the Union
forces during the Civil War, Benjamin sent a special
train to rescue Clark.
Thomas L. Bayne joined the firm
and became a partner in 1851, following which the firm
was known as Clark & Bayne. It was subsequently Clark,
Bayne & Renshaw (1869); Bayne & Renshaw (1878); and
Bayne & Denegre (1880). George Denegre was a brilliant
commercial lawyer who also acquired distinction as a
leader in the successful battle overcoming the Louisiana
Lottery and the Citizens' League campaign in 1896 which,
in the words of his obituary written by the state
Supreme Court, "in large measure laid the foundation of
the city's political regeneration."
In 1888, Thomas Bayne's son, T. L.
"Nervy' Bayne, became a member of the firm, and it was then
known as Bayne, Denegre & Bayne. Nervy Bayne was the
legendary figure who coached both football teams of
archrivals Tulane and L.S.U. in their first intercollegiate
game in 1893. It was also said that he built the goal
posts, laid out the field, sold the tickets, and refereed
the game.
During this period, the firm's
practice focused on maritime and commercial law. Its name
changed in 1893 to Bayne, Denegre & Denegre; in 1894 to
Denegre & Denegre; and in 1895, to Denegre & Blair, after J.
Paxton Blair became a partner. Blair became renowned for
representing such railroads as J. P. Morgan's Louisiana &
Texas Railroad. |
In 1902, Victor Leovy joined the firm and
distinguished himself as a stalwart of its admiralty practice.
At the same time, Henry Chaffe finished clerking for state
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Breaux and also became a member.
Chaffe earned great prominence as a trial attorney and
established the oil and gas section.
In 1913, J. P. Blair left the firm to
become General Counsel of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and the
firm was known as Denegre, Leovy & Chaffe, the name it retained
until the deaths of Messrs. Denegre and Leovy. In 1915 Harry
McCall, Sr. joined the firm. While continuing to practice law,
he also taught English and Mathematics at Tulane University.
Later he served as a judge ad hoc of the Court of Appeal, was
President of both the Louisiana and the New Orleans Bar
Associations, and Chairman of the Charter Commission which
drafted the New Orleans Home Rule Charter. In 1942, the firm
became Chaffe, McCall, Bruns, Toler & Phillips.
After his retirement in 1948, Henry Bruns'
name was deleted from letterhead. In
1955 the firm merged with Rosen, Kammer,
Wolf, Hopkins & Burke, and became Chaffe, McCall, Phillips,
Burke & Hopkins, then in 1962 Chaffe, McCall, Phillips, Burke,
Toler & Hopkins. By 1968 James Hopkins had died and Leon
Sarpy’s name was added to the masthead, making it Chaffe,
McCall, Phillips, Phillips, Burke, Toler & Sarpy.
In 1971, Gibbons Burke had departed the
firm, and the firm assumed the name: Chaffe, McCall, Phillips,
Toler & Sarpy. In the years since then, at a time when many
firms were becoming known by shorter versions of their full
names, the firm was referred to simply as CHAFFE MCCALL. In
2005, this change was made official, and it is now the current
name of the law firm.
The year 2005 marked yet another
milestone in the firm’s history. On Friday, August 26, 2005,
the firm cut short its workday to allow members to batten down
their offices and return home to make preparations for Hurricane
Katrina, then still out in the Gulf of Mexico. The expectation
was Chaffe would re-open on Monday, after the storm had passed
but, nonetheless, in a manner typical of the foresight and
planning at Chaffe, a decision was made to take vital computer
information and data on disc.
Hurricane Katrina blew in from the Gulf
and that story is all too well known. In the aftermath, when
firm managers realized it would not be possible to return to the
New Orleans’ offices, the Baton Rouge offices became home.
Within a matter of days, that office was expanded to accommodate
the bulk of the firm’s attorneys, with satellite offices
established in Mobile, Nashville, Asheville, Dallas and
Lafayette, almost anywhere space could be found. The critical
decision to evacuate with the electronic data enabled Chaffe to
be functional by the end of that week and, after an emergency
trip to the New Orleans office to recover the actual hardware
from the main offices, Chaffe’s computers were fully
functional. Clients were contacted by email, land line and cell
phone and assured the firm was operating and ready to serve
them.
Writing to the members of the firm from
her offices in Lafayette, the firm’s managing partner praised
all for coming together in the incredible crisis, and for
working through personal problems and losses to come to the aid
of the firm. Chaffe ultimately reoccupied its New Orleans
offices in mid-October, 2005, although several attorneys
remained in the outlying offices due to home losses and the
lingering effects of Katrina. Chaffe McCall lost virtually no
time to Katrina in servicing the needs of its clients, and has
since developed a very strong disaster program in preparation
for any similar event in the future.
Click here to read
Chaffe's "Katrina Chronicles,"
a detail of the firm's events related to Katrina.
To this day, just as the Slidell brothers
did at the firm’s inception, as so many others also did over the
180+ years of the firm’s history, Chaffe McCall’s attorneys
continue in their service to their clients and to the bar and
the community by actively participating in a variety of civic,
business, political, and professional boards and committees.
For the year 2007, Chaffe McCall was recognized by the New
Orleans Pro Bono Project as a Pro Bono Law Firm of the year.
Chaffe McCall is more, however, than just
a tradition-based law firm: it is a progressive, full-service,
cohesive law firm of hard working, talented, effective,
client-focused professionals with shared values who provide
clients added legal services of outstanding quality. Its main
office is situated on two floors of The Energy Centre in
downtown New Orleans, with branch offices in Baton Rouge,
Houston, Texas, and Caracas, Venezuela. Our attorneys are
organized into working groups, or practice areas, by experience
and orientation. A client with complex representational needs
has access to attorneys from as many practice areas as the
engagement requires.
Chaffe McCall’s mission is to provide the
highest quality legal services in a timely and cost-effective
manner throughout Louisiana, the southeastern United States,
Mexico, Latin and South America. The firm’s record of success
in landmark litigation, transactions large and small, complex
negotiations, emerging and dynamic practice areas, as well as in
political and civic endeavors, sets it apart as the exceptional
New Orleans law firm – a position the firm has continually
earned since its inception in 1826. |
