Local law firm celebrates 100 years

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Mar 31, 1997 by Fitting, Beth

SYRACUSE -- Bond, Schoeneck & King, LLP celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The law firm was established in 1897. That year, George Hopkins Bond graduated from the Syracuse University College of Law. He set up his law practice in the White Memorial Building in downtown Syracuse.

Joining Bond in his new practice was another young lawyer, Ernest I. White. Their practice grew rapidly. In 1908, Edward Schoeneck, a Syracuse native and also a graduate of the Syracuse University College of Law, joined them.

In 1913 Clarence R. King joined Bond and Schoeneck in their law practice. When King became a partner in 1920, the firm's name was established, and it has remained unchanged to this day.

A tradition of community service began early in the firm. Schoeneck was elected to the Onondaga County Board of Supervisors even before he graduated from law school. He went on to be elected to the New York State Assembly, where he became the Majority Leader, and became Mayor of Syracuse in 1910 In 1915 Schoeneck became Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York. When our country entered World War I, Schoeneck joined the Army; there was debate about whether he could continue to serve as Lieutenant Governor.

Meanwhile, George Bond also was active in community affairs. In 1908, he became district attorney of Onondaga County, and served in that position for six years.

Later, Bond served as a Regent of the University of the State of New York and became president of the New York State Bar Association in 1937. Schoeneck also served for many years as a member of the New York State Liquor Authority.

King also was active in politics, serving as chairman of the Onondaga County Republican Committee and chairman of the Executive Committee of the Republican State Committee. King's life and career were cut short in 1936, when he died at the age of 47.

70 years of expansion

In 1927, Bond, Schoeneck & King began a campaign of expansion that lasted 70 years. Up to that time, there were only four or five lawyers in the firm. Its steady growth in the next seven decades brought it to its present number of 145 attorneys, as well as its geographic expansion to offices in Albany, Oswego, Saratoga Springs, and Buffalo in New York; Boca Raton and Naples in Florida; and Overland Park in Kansas.

Practice areas expanded also. Today, the firm is comprised of 21 practice areas that include, among others, business, education, employee benefits, environmental, estate and financial planning, health care, intellectual property, labor and employment, litigation, and real property.

In the 1920s and 1930s several lawyers joined the firm and became partners, along with the founder's son, George H. Bond, Jr. and Edward Schoeneck's nephew, Charles A. Schoeneck, Jr. They were Howard, H. Cannon. Hubert C. Stratton, William F. FitzPatrick, William D. Johnson, Tracy H. Ferguson, Lyle W. Hornbeck, and Chester H. King, Jr. By 1949, there were 18 lawyers ad the firm occupied upper floors in the Syracuse landmark State Tower Building.

Prominent clients through the years have included General Electric, Marsellus Casket Company, Pass & Seymour, Inc., Syracuse China Company, the Syracuse Newspapers, and Syracuse University. Bond, Schoeneck & King represented large numbers of insurance companies in personal-injury litigation. Beginning in the 1950s, labor-relations work, under the guidance of Tracy Ferguson, began to expand. Legal work for several colleges and universities -- Clarkson, Colgate, Hamilton, Ithaca College, LeMoyne, Middlebury, St. Lawrence, and others -- added to the firm's practice. Healthcare work became a staple, as Bond, Schoeneck & King represented Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Community-General Hospital, and a number of other health-care institutions throughout the state.

Howard Cannon was the first chairman of the firm's Executive Committee. He was succeeded in 1974 by N. Earle Evans, Jr., who was in turn succeeded in 1983 by John A. Beach. Beach was involved in legal work for Syracuse University, and had served a brief term as Interim Dean of the College of Law there. While still chairman of the Executive Committee, he also served as Interim president of the Albany Medical Center.

William L. Bergan, one of the firm's leading lawyers in labor/management relations, succeeded Beach as chair of the Executive Committee in 1991. Bergan serves in that position today.

Public service is prominent in Bond, Schoeneck & King's history, not only in the political offices various partners have filled. In 1962, the firm took on the Oneida Indian cause to pursue land claims in Central New York arising out of 18th-century treaties. In the U.S. Supreme Court, George C. Shattuck won the right for Native Americans to pursue their claims in federal court.

Three of the firm's lawyers have served as corporation counsel to the City of Syracuse. William F. FitzPatrick and M. Catherine Richardson followed George Bond in serving as president of the New York State Bar Association. The firm has supported hospitals, colleges, and other charitable institutions in all of the communities in which it is established.