Arter & Hadden LLP was a Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

-based law firm that traced its founding to 1843 and ceased operations on July 15, 2003. When the firm closed, it was one of the oldest continuing operating law firms in the country. The firm had engaged in an ambitious expansion throughout the 1990s, peaking in 1999 with a total of 425 attorneys employed by the firm. Additionally, Arter and Hadden had opened offices in Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

, Dayton, Ohio

Dayton, Ohio

Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...

, Washington, DC, Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

, Irvine, California

Irvine, California

Irvine is a suburban incorporated city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28, 1971, the city has a population of 212,375 as of the 2010 census. However, the California...

 and through acquisitions and mergers opened offices in San Francisco and San Diego, California

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

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Financial Woes

By the year 2000, the firm had begun to lose senior partners. In Arter & Hadden's DC office, for instance, the number of attorneys on staff had steadily declined from 87 in 1998 down to only 15 attorneys in 2003. And with the sharp declines in staff, Arter and Hadden was still locked into leasing enough office space to accommodate the 425 attorneys the firm once had in 1999. Overhead costs began to soak up the firm's liquidity, and by the beginning of July 2003, it was revealed to the press that Arter and Hadden only had enough capital left to continue operations until July 15, 2003.

Closure

In a statement to all employees of Arter & Hadden just weeks before its ultimate demise, the firm announced all employment would be terminated July 15, 2003 and the firm would cease all operations. Senior partners and the firm's executive committee attempted to find ways to keep the firm afloat but all ideas eventually failed.

Bankruptcy Settlement

After the firm closed its doors in July 2003, the estate of the firm appointed Marc Gertz as its trustee. Gertz conducted an independent investigation into the closing of the firm. Gertz found in the final years of Arter and Hadden, partners had acted inappropriately by conspiring together to form a new legal partnership while still being employed by Arter & Hadden, and deciding to give themselves year-end bonuses (despite knowing the firm's uncertain financial standing). The firm's estate reached a settlement with more than 80 former partners of Arter and Hadden, who agreed to pay the estate nearly $11 million. The firm's estate

Estate (law)

An estate is the net worth of a person at any point in time. It is the sum of a person's assets - legal rights, interests and entitlements to property of any kind - less all liabilities at that time. The issue is of special legal significance on a question of bankruptcy and death of the person...

 also reached settlements with many of Arter and Hadden's creditors—including JP Morgan, Huntington Bank, and Compass Bank

Compass Bank

Compass Bank is a name of a bank. It may refer to:#Compass Bank of New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA, acquired by Sovereign Bank in 2004#BBVA Compass, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, USA...

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Successor Law Firms

Many of the former Arter & Hadden partners went on to form their own law firms after Arter & Hadden's closure. The Cleveland, Ohio-based Tucker, Ellis & West LLP was formed by many former partners in Arter and Hadden's Cleveland office. Also, the Columbus, Ohio-based Bailey Cavalieri LLC was formed by former Arter & Hadden partners.

Notable people

Kingsley A. Taft

Kingsley A. Taft

Kingsley Arter Taft was an American politician and distant relative of Ohio's more famous Taft family. He served as chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court and also served briefly as a United States Senator. Kingsley's father, Frederick Lovett Taft, II was also a noted figure in the Ohio legal...

, former Arter & Hadden partner, U.S. Senator and Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court

Ann Womer Benjamin

Ann Womer Benjamin

Ann Womer Benjamin is an American politician of the Republican Party in Ohio and current director of the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education. Benjamin served in the cabinet of the former Governor of Ohio Bob Taft, as director of the Ohio Department of Insurance, before which she was a member...

, former Director of the Ohio Insurance Department, former member of the Ohio House of Representatives

Ohio House of Representatives

The Ohio House of Representatives is the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio; the other house of the bicameral legislature being the Ohio Senate....

, and 2002 Congressional candidate

Mark McCormack

Mark McCormack

Mark Hume McCormack was an American lawyer, sports agent for professional athletes and a prolific writer...

, former attorney at Arter & Hadden's Cleveland office, Founder and Chairman of International Management Group