Miller & Martin, Chattanooga's biggest law firm, celebrated its 150th anniversary Thursday night with a gala reception in its hometown at the Hunter Museum of American Art.
"This sort of culminates our year-long festivities and celebration of our 150 years in business," said Jim Haley, the managing chairman for Miller & Martin who joined the law firm in 1975. "Now, we're going to turn all eyes forward and move into the next 150 years."
Haley said the law firm, already one of the biggest independent firms in Tennessee, wants to expand its presence in all four of its markets and is looking especially to grow in both Nashville and Charlotte, N.C., where the firm's offices are the smallest.
Miller & Martin has grown to include 130 attorneys and about 150 other support staff in its four offices across the Southeast.
But the Chattanooga- based law firm continues to have its biggest footprint in downtown Chattanooga where the firm occupies nearly half of the Volunteer Building at Georgia Avenue and M.L. King Boulevard.
Miller & Martin has helped fund Miller Park, Miller Plaza, Coolidge Park and Renaissance Park in its hometown, as well as being a major donor to academic programs at the University of Virginia's Miller Center.
Company at a glance
* Founded: 1867 in Athens, Tenn., by Col. T.M. Burkett* Staff: About 130 attorneys and 150 other support-staff workers* Offices: Chattanooga, Atlanta, Nashville and Charlotte, N.C.* Chairman: Jim Haley* Company type: Professional limited liability company owned by about 70 members of the firm* Founder: Col. T.M. Burkett* Namesakes: Burkett Miller (1890 to 1977) and F. Linton Martin (1891 to 1979)* Headquarters: Volunteer Bank Building, constructed in 1917* Web site: www.millermartin.com
Haley said the firm enjoyed much of its growth over the past generation from its hometown ties to Coca-Cola bottling and its early owners and its work for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., after the 1976 collapse of what was then Chattanooga's biggest bank, Hamilton National Bank.
Miller & Martin represented many of the Coke bottlers owned by Chattanoogans in the past. Although Coca-Cola Co., ultimately purchased most of those bottling operations, Miller & Martin handled much of the legal work for those sales and continues to do labor and personnel work for Coke.
The company also grew in the 1970s after the failure of Hamilton National Bank and the firm's subsequent work for the FDIC. The government regulators later hired Miller & Martin to help with legal work on a number of other bank failures.
Even without most of that work any longer, Haley said he expects business to grow in Chattanooga.
"We feel like Chattanooga is really on the uptick so there is a lot of opportunity for more growth in this city," he said.