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The first
known attorney to settle in the area which is now
Minneapolis, was
Ellis G. Whitall who braved the frontier in 1849. Such
is the information provided by Edward C. Vavreck in a
special 50th Anniversary issue of The Hennepin Lawyer
published in May 1969. In his article Vavreck
detailed the beginnings of lawyering in Minneapolis,
examining the beginnings of both the Minneapolis Bar
Association and the Hennepin County Bar Association.
This short history is largely condensed from his
article.
In 1850 John W. North began his law
practice in the Village of St. Anthony. He would
establish the first "law firm" when joined
later that year by Isaac Atwater. From his log house on
Nicollet Island, Mr. North would eventually rise to the
rank of Chief Justice for the Territory of Nevada,
appointed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.
The first term of district court in
Hennepin County found nine attorneys in attendance on
April 4, 1853, with the Honorable Bradley B. Meeker
sitting as presiding judge. The first non-lawyer
admitted to the practice of law in Hennepin County was
admitted in 1855. Rapid growth, the expansion of the
settlement and the mushrooming of trade and commerce led
to the incorporation of the City of Minneapolis in 1867.
The generation that followed the first lawyer to the
area offered increasing opportunities for the practice
of law and the number of practitioners who would seek
out those opportunities.
On February 20, 1883 the Minneapolis
Bar Association was incorporated, declaring its purposes
as: "To establish and conduct a legal society, to
maintain the honor and integrity of the legal profession
and to create and maintain a law library in the City of
Minneapolis, in the County of Hennepin, State of
Minnesota." Two attempts to create and maintain a
law library met with disaster when the fledgling
libraries were destroyed by fire. Vavreck offers for
consideration: "It would appear that the law books
of those days had an incendiary quality about them; or
could it be that unlike the legal tome of today those of
that era were quite dry and thus, tinder-like?" The
third attempt was more successful. Originally
established in Old Temple Court, the library was later
transferred to "the new courthouse and city
hall."
An original Hennepin County Bar
Association was organized "in recognition of a
demand for an association which shall include all
reputable members of the profession in Hennepin County,
and for the purpose of advancing the science of
jurisprudence, promoting the administration of justice
and upholding the honor of the law." Vavreck notes
that the association had "no regular time and place
of holding meetings" but was "called together
from time to time as occasion may require." He
states, that since "their purposes were limited,
their functions and activities were likewise not
grandiose" and the Minneapolis and Hennepin County
bar associations could exist "side by side from the
birth of the latter to and through World War I."
Vavreck suggests that following World
War I, attorneys returning to their practices felt
disgruntled with what they found, and this led to a
second beginning for the Hennepin County Bar
Association, "to supplement the work of the
Minneapolis Bar Association." On May 16, 1919,
twenty five younger members of the local bar
incorporated the Hennepin County Bar Association.
The creation of the Hennepin County
Bar Association apparently had the support of the
majority of the Minneapolis Bar Association’s
executive committee. The
articles of incorporation and by-laws adopted were based
upon similar documents of the Chicago Bar Association
from whom advice had been sought. Vavreck reports that
40 members were present at the first meeting of the
association, out of a total membership of about 150. At
the time of the next annual meeting the membership had
increased to 350. Monthly meetings were held, usually as
dinner meetings, with topics chosen which were
controversial enough to draw 40-50% of the membership.
Through its long and distinguished
history, the Hennepin County Bar Association has
continued to focus its activities on its original
purpose — to maintain the honor and integrity of the
legal profession and to serve and educate its members.
While much has changed since 1919, our commitment to
serve all our members has remained constant. Of
those who brought our association into being, probably
none could have imagined today’s diversity of
membership or types of practice. Monthly meetings of the
total membership have given way to a wide variety of
activities and programs that attempt to match the
interests and practices of this diverse membership and
address current issues of concern to both bench and bar.
Members can look back with pride on
over 80 years of service while they look forward with
enthusiasm. A vibrant association stands ready to take
on the challenges of a new millennium.
HCBA
Facilities: Office and Conference Center
Prior
to 1956:
Kay Runyon, Administrative Assistant, hired in 1954 as
the first employee of the Association, had an office at
1960 Northwestern Bank Building.
1956:
New "permanent
headquarters" of the HCBA were opened at 942
McKinight Building to provide a "convenient and
efficient place for carrying on all the work of the
Association under one roof and at a central and
permanent location." In addition to the business
office for the administrative assistant (hired two years
earlier), the space included a committee meeting room
"designed to accommodate the largest committee of
the Association." The Hennepin Lawyer announced
this "most desirable improvement over the previous
catch-as-catch-can method" of arranging space.
1963:
President
Feinberg’s message in the April 1963 issue of The
Hennepin Lawyer began "In the beginning John
said unto Sidney: ‘Let there be here a gathering place
for our brethren in this building yet unformed and void
which shall be known as the Northstar Center.’"
The bar center included the "office, storage and
conference area through which members will pass to the
lounge area, and off the lounge area, the refreshment
and the dining areas." Members would also have
access to other facilities of the "city’s newest
and possibly most handsome structure," including
swimming pool and car parking garage.
After 15 years of heavy use by
members, the law center was refurbished in 1977 and 1978
at a cost of $20,000 given in donations by the members.
1982:
Citing the "need
to control rental costs, to obtain more space, and to
arrange cost-saving measures through the sharing of
facilities and expensive office equipment," Helen
Kelly announced the move of association offices to the
fourth floor of the Powers building at 4th Street and
Marquette Avenue. The new shared location housed the
offices of the HCBA and the MSBA in addition to the
Minnesota CLE conference space. Other law-related
organizations that took office space in the bar center
include Legal Advice Clinics, Ltd., MN Lawyers Committee
on International Human Rights, and Minnesota Women
Lawyers.
1991:
The HCBA built out
and moved into space on the 3rd floor at 514 Nicollet
Mall. Renamed the Minnesota Law Center, this building
became home of the offices of the HCBA, the Minnesota
State Bar Association, Legal Advice Clinics and
Minnesota Women Lawyers on the third floor and the
conference center of Minnesota CLE (including conference
rooms for both HCBA & MSBA) in the lower level.
These large conference rooms and two smaller ones were
immediately and effectively put to use hosting the
expanding programming of the association.
1999:
The HCBA, along with
all of its partners at the MN Law Center, moved across
6th Street to the third floor of City Center in April,
clearing the way for the 514 building to be razed. The
move allowed the Law Center associations to make some
significant facility and technology upgrades for better
service to our members; accomplished, in part, by
incentives provided by the developers of 514. The most
appealing and versatile of HCBA’s homes, the
association offices and conference facilities remain
easily accessible through the skyway system, at least
for the next 10 years. |
