Balch & Bingham
Balch & Bingham LLP (founded in 1922 as Martin, Thompson & Turner) is a major law firm headquartered in the Regions-Harbert Plaza at 1901 6th Avenue North with additional offices in Montgomery; Atlanta, Georgia; Washington D. C.; and Jackson and Gulfport, Mississippi. The firm includes more than 250 attorneys, headed by managing partner Alan Rogers.
The firm's founder was Logan Martin, a former corporate attorney, Circuit Court judge and Alabama Attorney General. He partnered with Fritz Thompson and Perry Turner, and later added Hobart McWhorter, Chester Bingham, Walter Bouldin, James Blakey and Edwin Hatch as partners during the company's first decade. Alvin Vogtle, Eason Balch, John Bingham and Frank Hawthorne joined in the 1940s. Martin remained head of the firm until his death in 1959.
A primary client was the Alabama Power Company, which had been headed by Martin's brother, Tom. Many of the firms attorneys started in Alabama Power's legal department, and some, like Walter Bouldin, Edwin Hatch, Alvin Vogtle and Joe Farley, returned to the utility as executives.
The departure of Vogtle opened the way for Eason Balch to assume leadership of the firm, then known as Balch, Bingham, Baker, Hawthorne, Williams & Ward. It was simplified to "Balch & Bingham" in 1985.
The firm opened a Montgomery office after World War II and a Washington outpost in 1991. It merged with the Mississippi-based firm of Eaton and Cottrell in 2001 and with the Atlanta firm of Meadows, Icther & Bowers in 2003. In 2012 it merged with Presley Burton & Collier of Birmingham to enhance its market share in public finance law and the health care sector.
References
- Rumore, Pat Boyd (2000) Lawyers in a New South City: A History of the Legal Profession in Birmingham. Birmingham: Association Publishing Company ISBN 0966838017
- Swant, Martin (April 10, 2012) "Law firm combination will enhance public finance practice, partners say." Birmingham News
External links
- Balch & Bingham website