Most businesses struggle to cope with competition and conflict. Lawyers thrive on such differences.
As the size and complexity of commerce has grown, so has the number of lawsuits filed each year and the number of attorneys employed to fight for and ultimately resolve such disputes.
Although the legal profession shared in the costly cuts of the Great Recession five years ago, the number of active lawyers in Tennessee still jumped by more than two and a half times in a generation from 8,267 active lawyers in 1979 to 21,537 active attorneys last year. In the same period, the number of lawyers in Hamilton County also more than doubled to reach an active population of 1,334 lawyers.
Fast facts
* The average lawyer in Chattanooga was paid $117,540 in 2013, compared with the U.S. average of $131,990, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics * About 800 lawyers are members of the Chattanooga Bar Association. which was created in 1897 to help local law firms share in a common law library and access to legal materials. * Despite funding cutbacks since 2010, Legal Aid of East Tennessee completed 7,047 cases in 2013, benefiting 12,173 a year, many with the help of pro bono work donated by attorneys across 26 counties in East Tennessee * There were 1,281,432 active lawyers in the United States in 2014, up 13,419 from the previous year, according to the American Bar Association.
Active lawyers by county in Southeast Tennessee
* Hamilton County, 1,334 * Bradley, 128 * Marion, 93 * Franklin, 52 * Rhea, 16 * Sequatchie, 12 * Bledsoe, 7 * Grundy, 5 Source: Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility
"It's probably as competitive a business as it has ever been, but there is a great camaraderie and collegiality among those in the local bar," says Lynda Hood, executive director for the Chattanooga Bar Association, which includes 800 active local attorneys. "I think the legal profession here has always worked together well."
The local bar association itself was born in 1897 from the need for lawyers to work together.
A disastrous fire in April 1897 destroyed the downtown Richardson Building where many lawyers then had their offices. The six-story building was said at the time to be one of the largest in the South and its architect falsely bragged that was fireproof. The blaze not only displaced many attorneys, it also destroyed thousands of volumes of valuable law books which had been shared among the lawyers in the building.
After the fire, the lawyers again pooled their resources to establish a joint library and began the Chattanooga Bar Association to organize their efforts.
Nearly a century and a half later, Chattanooga's bar has turned from books to electronic files and from a few dozen attorneys to more than 1,000 at dozens of area law firms. Law firms today are more specialized, more high-tech and more mobile.
But while local lawyers may fight for clients and debate in the courtroom, they insist the local bar is actually quite respectful and supportive of one another.
"It's a contentious process and a competitive field, but there has always been a cordiality and respect among lawyers in Chattanooga and a willingness to work together and support the local bar," said Michael Alston, Chattanooga's managing partner for Husch Blakewell and the 2005 president of the Chattanooga Bar Association.
As the legal profession has grown, regional and national law firms such as Husch Blakewell and Baker Donelson have entered the Chattanooga market. But most of the growth has come from home grown firms.
"It's a relationship business built on serving the client, and I think that client focus is what has helped us to grow," said Dana Perry, a former managing partner at the Chambliss law firm, one of the city's oldest firms which has grown to include 62 attorneys. "We've recognized that as the business of our clients has changed, we have had to change as well."
The Chambliss firm dates back to 1886 and has remained a single office firm in Chattanooga - now the city's biggest such firm. But atop the Liberty Tower where the firm operates, the office layout, decor and dress is far from the wooden paneled, corner offices of the past. In fact, the corner offices are reserved for meeting spaces.
"It's a dynamic culture here that I knew I wanted to be a part of from when I first interned here," said Justin Furrow, one of the firm's newest shareholders.
Chattanooga also is home to one of the oldest law firms in the South, Miller and Martin, which began in 1869 and has grown into Chattanooga's biggest law firm with 130 lawyers in three cities. Most of that growth has come in the past generation.
Jim Haley, the chairman of Miller & Martin, joined the law firm in 1975 as one of 17 lawyers. The law firm has been in the same location in the Volunteer building since the building was erected in 1917.
"We've grown along with our clients and the economy of this region, and I think because nobody considers this their firm that's helped maintain our longevity," Haley said. Miller & Martin expanded to Atlanta to help serve its Coca-Cola bottling clients in 1999 and later added an office in Nashville to serve its clients in Tennessee's capital.
One growth component for Chattanooga's biggest law firm came from the failure of a bank nearly 40 years ago. When the former Hamilton National Bank in Chattanooga collapsed in 1976, Miller & Martin was hired to help the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. handle was then one of the biggest bank failures in U.S. history. Through that work, the FDIC has continues to use Miller & Martin for bank failures and loan problems across the Southeast.
Like most firms, Miller & Martin also has become more specialized. For instance, the firm created a Crisis Management practice last year to help businesses prepare and handle corporate crises, from a legal, business and public relations standpoint.
"In an era of instant communication and social media, it is critical that businesses have a plan and be able to respond quickly to emergencies and major problems," said Zac Greene, the head of the firm's Crisis Management practice. "We wanted to establish a practice within our firm to meet that need."
This article appears in the April issue of Edge, which may be read online at www.meetsforbusiness.com.