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Our History Our firm was founded in 1899. Thomas Raeburn White was a legend in the Philadelphia bar almost from his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. A "lawyer's lawyer," universally respected among bench and bar alike, Mr. White carefully built a firm in his image with lawyers of rare accomplishment and uncompromising integrity. Mr. White's interests and skills reached beyond the courtrooms and board rooms of Philadelphia, and into education, scholarship and public service. He authored the seminal text on Pennsylvania constitutional law and edited The Legal Intelligencer, the nation's oldest legal journal. Our historical commitment to public service has taken many forms over the decades. Our attorneys have risen to prominence as judges in the state and federal courts. Those judges have included Francis Shunk Brown, Jr., Albert B. Maris, Charles Guerin, George G. Parry, John W. Lord and Jan E. Dubois. Two of our partners were elected to the United States Senate, Boies Penrose and Hugh Scott, who served as the United States Senate Minority Leader. Our attorneys have secured numerous presidential appointments to serve in positions of authority in various federal agencies. Over the years, our attorneys have assumed leadership positions in local, statewide and national bar organizations. Two were elected Chancellors of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Others have served as presidents of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Defense Institute, and as chairs of important committees of the American Bar Association, Defense Research Institute and Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel. We are proud of our tradition of doing the right thing before it became fashionable. We were instrumental in enforcing the desegregation of public schools in the south in the 1950's when W. Wilson White (Thomas Raeburn White's son) was called upon by President Eisenhower to author legal opinions supporting the extraordinary use of federal troops in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1961, White and Williams became one of the first Philadelphia law firms to elect a woman, Virginia Barton Wallace, into partnership. Wilson White and Virginia Wallace, although now deceased, continue to serve as models for our firm's unstinting commitment to reward merit, encourage diversity, and serve the interests of justice.
Read about our tradition of excellence. |
Thomas Raeburn White was a legend in the Philadelphia bar almost from his graduation from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
