Rose Law Firm is an American

law firm A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to ...

headquartered in

Little Rock, Arkansas ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

. It dates its origins to November 1, 1820, sixteen years before

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

statehood, when Robert Crittenden, born 1797, and

Chester Ashley Chester Ashley (June 1, 1790 – April 29, 1848) was an American politician who represented Arkansas in the U.S. Senate from 1844 until his death. Early life Ashley was born in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1790; while a child he moved with his ...

, born 1791, entered into an agreement for a "Partnership in the Practice of Law". As such, it is the third oldest law firm in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and the oldest west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

. It is also the oldest company of any kind in Arkansas. In 2018, the firm elected its first female managing member. In 2020, the firm celebrated its 200th birthday.

History

Early history – 1820–1865

The Rose Law Firm dates its formation to the 1820 partnership of Crittenden and Ashley, whose handwritten law partnership agreement hangs in the Rose boardroom. Robert Crittenden served as Arkansas' territorial governor and negotiated Arkansas' admission to the United States as the 25th state in 1836.

served as a United States Senator from Arkansas. Between 1837 and 1844, when Ashley was elected to the U.S. Senate, Ashley was Watkins' law partner. Ashley's "original partnership with the well-connected Robert Crittenden had dissolved over political differences." Watkins' previous partnership, with James Curran, begun in 1844, had ended with Curran's death in 1854 (Watkins, a widower, married Curran's widow). Watkins was

Arkansas Attorney General The Attorney General of Arkansas, usually known simply as the Attorney General (AG), is one of Arkansas's seven constitutional officers. The officeholder serves as the state's top law enforcement officer and consumer advocate. Since January 13, ...

from 1848 to 1851; "however, his primary focus continued to be his private practice." From 1853 to 1854 Watkins was Chief Justice of the

Arkansas Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Arkansas is the highest court in the state judiciary of Arkansas. It has ultimate and largely discretionary appellate jurisdiction over all state court cases that involve a point of state law, and original jurisdiction o ...

and did not practice law. Curran's death led him to resign from his position, to take care of his law practice.

Rose years – 1865–1905

Although the firm has changed its name a number of times, the first Rose family member to be associated with the firm occurred in 1865, when newly-arrived

U. M. Rose Uriah Milton Rose (March 5, 1834 – August 12, 1913) was an American lawyer and Confederate sympathizer. "Approachable, affable, and kind," graceful and courteous, he was called "the most scholarly lawyer in America" and "one of the leading ...

formed a law partnership with George Claiborne Watkins. In 1881 the firm name became U.M. Rose and Geo. B. Rose, George being Uriah's son. In 1893 W.E. Hemingway joined the firm, which became Rose, Hemingway & Rose. In 1905 the firm merged with Cantrell and Loughborough. Rose Law Firm members have historically been active in politics and civic affairs. U.M. Rose co-founded the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...

and served as its president in 1901–1902. Rose was later appointed the American representative to the

Second Hague Peace Conference The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were amon ...

and was instrumental in drafting the Hague Convention. Six of the firm's members have served on the

(three as Chief Justice), and six members have also served as President of the

Arkansas Bar Association The Arkansas Bar Association is the voluntary (non-mandatory) bar association of the U.S. state of Arkansas. History As early as 1837, there were efforts to organize association of lawyers in Arkansas, but it was not until 1898 that the Arkan ...

. Rose Law Firm members have served as Commissioner of the Uniform Commission on State Laws, President of the National Association of Bond Lawyers and President of the Arkansas Bar Association.

Modern history – 1905–present

By the late 1970s, the firm had nine partners and a long name – Rose, Nash, Williamson, Carroll, Clay, & Giroir.

Carl Bernstein Carl Milton Bernstein ( ; born February 14, 1944) is an American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for ''The Washington Post'' in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward, and the two did much of the original n ...

, '' A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton'', Knopf, . pp. 128–29 The firm simplified its name to Rose Law Firm in 1980. In the economic realm, Rose has been termed "the ultimate establishment law firm" in the state and "the legal arm of the powerful". During the 1970s, for example, its clients included

Tyson Foods Tyson Foods, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, based in Springdale, Arkansas, that operates in the food industry. The company is the world's second-largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork after JBS S.A. It annually ...

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

, large brokerage

Stephens Inc. Stephens Inc. is a privately held, independent financial services firm headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. As one of the largest privately owned investment banks in the United States, Stephens has 28 offices worldwide and employs more than 1, ...

, and Worthen Bank, as well as the ''

Arkansas Democrat The ''Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'' is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell. It is distributed for sale in all 75 of Arkansas' counties. By virtue of one of i ...

'' and other Hussman family media holdings. Hillary Rodham became the firm's first female associate, and soon its first female partner, during her husband

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

's tenure as

and

Governor of Arkansas A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Webster Hubbell Webster Lee "Webb" Hubbell (born January 18, 1948) is a former United States Associate Attorney General from 1993 to 1994 who as part of the Whitewater controversy pled guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of failing to disclose a conf ...

Vince Foster Vincent Walker Foster Jr. (January 15, 1945 – July 20, 1993) was an American attorney who served as deputy White House counsel during the first six months of the Clinton administration. Foster had been a partner at Rose Law Firm in Litt ...

, and William H. Kennedy, III were also partners, before becoming

Assistant Attorney General Many of the divisions and offices of the United States Department of Justice are headed by an assistant attorney general. The president of the United States appoints individuals to the position of assistant attorney general with the advice and ...

Deputy White House Counsel The White House counsel is a senior staff appointee of the president of the United States whose role is to advise the president on all legal issues concerning the president and their administration. The White House counsel also oversees the Of ...

, and Associate White House Counsel in the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over ...

, respectively. In all, the firm grew five times in size between the early 1970s and early 1990s. According to a 1994 article, "Among Arkansas firms, Rose is viewed as the whitest of the white shoes. It is dominated by white men, most of whom came from privileged families in the state and graduated from one of the two accredited law schools in the state. Only a handful of women, and no blacks, have been made partners." Rose Law Firm entered the national news during the 1990s as part of the

Whitewater controversy The Whitewater controversy, Whitewater scandal, Whitewatergate, or simply Whitewater, was an American political controversy during the 1990s. It began with an investigation into the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their as ...

, as investigators sought to determine how much work Clinton had done for the firm while representing

Jim McDougal James B. McDougal (August 25, 1940 – March 8, 1998) was a native of White County, Arkansas, and his wife, Susan McDougal (the former Susan Carol Henley), were financial partners with Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton in the real estate venture ...

in cases involving the latter's Madison Guaranty and

Castle Grande Castle Grande was a real estate development in Arkansas about 10 miles south of Little Rock. It came into National news as a result of the Whitewater investigations. The project was a lot where Jim McDougal hoped to build a microbrewery, shopping c ...

enterprises. The firm's Little Rock building consists of both an old red brick structure, which was converted from a

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

facility and has hardwood floors and an indoor swimming pool, and a connected newer structure. A second office in

Fayetteville, Arkansas Fayetteville () is the second-largest city in Arkansas, the county seat of Washington County, and the biggest city in Northwest Arkansas. The city is on the outskirts of the Boston Mountains, deep within the Ozarks. Known as Washington unt ...

was opened in 2017 when the members of the Henry Law Firm, which specialized in intellectual property law, were absorbed into the firm.

Affiliations

Rose Law Firm is the Arkansas member of two law firm affiliate groups: State Capital Law Group and

Lex Mundi Lex Mundi is a professional services network. It is the oldest and largest law firm network. The network was established in 1989, incorporating in Delaware. The association was founded by Stephen McGarry of Minneapolis to help individuals and b ...

References

External links

Official site
{{Hillary Rodham Clinton Companies based in Little Rock, Arkansas Hillary Clinton Law firms established in 1820 Whitewater controversy American companies established in 1820 1820 establishments in Arkansas Territory Law firms based in Arkansas Law firms established in 1865 1865 establishments in Arkansas American companies established in 1865