Harris Beach law firm looks for historical anecdotes to celebrate

To celebrate the firm's 150th anniversary, Harris Beach PLLC, originally known as Ives & Harris, is asking permission to borrow and reproduce any photographs and learn of any anecdotes or stories members of the community might possess about the law firm, its lawyers or administrative staff.

We are putting together a commemorative DVD to capture how the firm's long tenure fits into our regional and state history, said Hilary Guthrie, director of Planning and Business Development. We are looking for stories and memorabilia about the lawyers who worked with or argued against the various iterations of the firm going back to the day when Edward Harris joined Henry Ives to hang out the firm's first shingle.

Edward Harris emigrated from England in 1850 at the age of 15. He worked on the family farm in the Town of Gates. The following year he was hired by lawyer Henry Ives as a law clerk. In 1856, Harris was admitted to practice law and became a named partner in the firm of Ives & Harris. The firm began representing the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Co. in 1868, a relationship that lasted well into the 20th century, and gave the firm its start in representing several of the area's start-up companies and banks.

We started comparing the history of our region with the history of the firm and noticed several interesting parallels, said Guthrie.

Several name changes followed the original Ives & Harris as the firm grew to prominence. Subsequent firm names were:

1884-1907 Harris & Harris

1907-1912 Harris, Havens, Beach

& Harris

1912-1930 Harris, Beach, Harris

and Matson

1930-1931 Harris, Beach, Folger,

Remington, Bacon

and Keating

1931-1941 Harris, Beach, Folger,

Bacon and Keating

1941-1943 Harris, Beach, Folger,

Keating and Wilcox

1943-1958 Harris, Beach, Keating,

Wilcox and Dale

1958-1963 Harris, Beach, Keating,

Wilcox, Dale and

Linowitz

1963-1968 Harris, Beach, Wilcox,

Dale and Linowitz

1968-1977 Harris, Beach and

Wilcox

1977-1989 Harris, Beach, Wilcox,

Rubin and Levey

1989-1994 Harris Beach & Wilcox

1995-2001 Harris Beach &

Wilcox, LLP

2001-2005 Harris Beach LLP

2005-Present Harris Beach PLLC

Over the years, some of the attorneys with the firm have achieved special professional and political prominence, perhaps most notably Kenneth B. Keating and Sol Linowitz. Keating, a former U.S. senator who later served as Ambassador to India and then Israel, spent the early years of his legal career at Harris Beach. Linowitz, who went on to join Xerox Corp. spent a good part of his legal career with the firm. In January 1998, President Bill Clinton awarded Linowitz the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Maybe your great aunt was a secretary at the firm in the 1920s or your grandfather told of legal battles that involved the firm. Whatever information you might have that could add to the retrospective being put together, we'd like your input, said Bill Albert, the firm's Public Relations Manager.

We've been hard at work gathering archival information from within the firm, but we look to the community to augment what we've found, said Albert. For example, among our old newspaper clippings is a story from 1928 that describes the firm's role in the largest bank merger in Rochester's history at the time - the merger of Union Trust Company and the National Bank of Rochester. We welcome this kind of historical record.

Nov. 4 is the current deadline for work on the DVD, so your submissions are requested as soon as possible. Items will gladly be returned to their respective owners if indicated. Submissions not included during the final editing of the DVD will be considered as possible newspaper articles placed throughout the firm's anniversary year in 2006 or just shared internally with firm employees.

Contact: Bill Albert, Harris Beach PLLC, 99 Garnsey Rd., Pittsford 14534. Phone: (585) 419-8908; fax: (585) 419-8818 or e- mail: walbert@harrisbeach.com.

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