Page 132 - Cityview_July_Aug_2015

55 YEARS OF INTEGRITY
LEWIS THOMASON
CELEBRATING 55 YEARS
In 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird was published, Cassius Clay won his first professional fight, John F. Kennedy was elected president, and the firm Morton & Morton, now known as Lewis Thomason, was founded in Knoxville by brothers George W. Morton, Jr. and L. Clure Morton.
Much has happened since 1960. Go Set a Watchman,
the prequel to Harper Lee’s literary masterpiece, will
be published this summer. Clay changed his name
to Muhammad Ali and became one of the greatest heavyweights in boxing history. The words of Kennedy still resonate: “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”
Over five decades, Morton & Morton grew steadily and changed its name to Lewis, King, Krieg & Waldrop, P.C. Then in 2014, Lewis Thomason was established when two leading law firms – Lewis King and Thomason, Hendrix, Harvey, Johnson & Mitchell, PLLC – merged.
This year, the firm marks 55 years with a salute to its roots and a nod to the future.
SOLID FOUNDATION
Morton & Morton was founded in 1960 with a primary focus on insurance defense. Charles B. “Charlie” Lewis joined in 1963, and the firm grew quickly. John K. King came aboard in 1965, followed by Richard W. “Dick” Krieg in 1972, and R. Loy Waldrop, Jr. in 1973.
With strong leadership in place, the firm’s growth
and prominence picked up steam. In 1983, to expand representation of its clients to the middle part of the state, the firm opened a Nashville office, which has grown exponentially.
In the same year, following the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, the Butcher banking empire collapsed. The firm was hired as primary counsel for a federal government- funded insurance corporation and took the lead in all associated litigation, including a successful case against the bank’s officers and directors and related bond claim.
Then, Lewis was hired as counsel in 1984 for a major recreational vehicle manufacturer. The firm became Southeast counsel for the company and handled product liability claims against ATV vehicles throughout
the region.
Over these years, the firm name changed to Morton, Morton & Lewis; Morton, Lewis & King; and then Morton, Lewis, King and Krieg.
With a longstanding tradition of excellence, Lewis Thomason covers the state from Knoxville to Nashville to Memphis. We are Tennessee.
And our greatest strength is our people.
Congratulations to the Lewis Thomason attorneys voted by their peers as Cityview Magazine’s 2015 Top Attorneys in Knoxville:
Robyn JARVIS Askew
Leslie F. Bishop Mark Castleberry David A. Draper Rodney A. Fields Lawrence F.
Giordano Preston A. Hawkins Janet S. Hayes Benjamin W. Jones
Richard W. Krieg
Chris W. McCarty
Lynn C. Peterson
Lars E. Schuller
Sarah Y. Sheppeard
Mary Ann Stackhouse
R. Loy Waldrop, Jr. Glenn R. Walter W. Paul Whitt
www.lewisthomason.com