Rose Law Firm is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock, Arkansas

Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...

. It is the oldest law firm

Law firm

A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other...

 in the United States west of the Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

 and the third oldest in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

It traces its origin to November 1, 1820, sixteen years before Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

 statehood, when Robert Crittenden

Robert Crittenden

Robert Crittenden was Governor of Arkansas Territory and co-founder of Rose Law Firm. Robert Crittenden was born near Versailles, Kentucky....

, born 1797, and Chester Ashley

Chester Ashley

Chester Ashley was an American politician who represented Arkansas in the U.S. Senate from 1844 until his death....

, born 1791, entered into an agreement for a "Partnership in the Practice of Law." The firm's name changed over the years as partners were added. "Rose" was added to the firm's name in 1865 when Uriah Milton Rose joined the firm. A statue of Rose stands in Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol

United States Capitol

The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...

.

By the late 1970s, the firm had nine partners and a long name — Rose, Nash, Williamson, Carroll, Clay, & Giroir. The firm simplified its name to Rose Law Firm in 1980.

Rose Law Firm members have historically been active in politics and civic affairs. Robert Crittenden

Robert Crittenden

Robert Crittenden was Governor of Arkansas Territory and co-founder of Rose Law Firm. Robert Crittenden was born near Versailles, Kentucky....

 served as Arkansas' territorial governor and negotiated Arkansas' admission to the United States as the 25th state in 1836. Chester Ashley

Chester Ashley

Chester Ashley was an American politician who represented Arkansas in the U.S. Senate from 1844 until his death....

 served as a United States Senator from Arkansas. U.M. Rose co-founded the American Bar Association

American Bar Association

The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...

 and served as its president in 1901–1902. Rose was later appointed the American representative to the Second Hague Peace Conference and was instrumental in drafting the Hague Convention

Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)

The Hague Conventions were two international treaties negotiated at international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands: The First Hague Conference in 1899 and the Second Hague Conference in 1907...

. Six of the firm's members have served on the Arkansas Supreme Court

Arkansas Supreme Court

The Arkansas Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Since 1925, it has consisted of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices, and at times Special Justices are called upon in the absence of a regular justice...

 (three as Chief Justice), and six members have also served as President of the Arkansas Bar Association

State bar association

A state bar association is a bar association that represents or seeks to represent all of the attorneys in a specific U.S. state. Membership in such an association may be voluntary or mandatory for practitioners in that state. State bar associations may be tasked with the administration of the...

.

In the economic realm, Rose has been termed "the ultimate establishment law firm" in the state and "the legal arm of the powerful". During the 1970s, for example, its clients included Tyson Foods

Tyson Foods

Tyson Foods, Inc. is a multinational corporation based in Springdale, Arkansas, that operates in the food industry. The company is the world's second largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork only behind Brazilian JBS S.A., and annually exports the largest percentage of beef out of...

, Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...

, large brokerage Stephens Inc.

Stephens Inc.

Stephens Inc. is a full service, privately owned investment bank based in Little Rock, Arkansas.-History:Stephens Inc. was founded in 1933 by W.R. Witt Stephens. His brother, Jackson T. Stephens joined the firm in 1946 and served as Chairman of the Board and CEO of Stephens Inc. from 1956 to 1986....

, Worthen Bank

Bank of America

Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...

, and the Arkansas Democrat

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell...

and other Hussman family media holdings. Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...

 became the firm's first female associate, and soon its first female partner, during her husband Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

's tenure as Arkansas Attorney General

Arkansas Attorney General

The Arkansas Attorney General is an executive position and constitutional officer within the Arkansas government. The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement/legal officer and lawyer for Arkansas. The position is elected every four years, e.g...

 and Governor of Arkansas. Webster Hubbell

Webster Hubbell

Webster Lee "Web" Hubbell , is a former Arkansas lawyer and politician. He was a lawyer in Pulaski County before serving as Mayor of Little Rock from 1979 until he resigned in 1981. He was appointed by Bill Clinton as chief justice of Arkansas State Supreme Court in 1983...

 and Vince Foster

Vince Foster

Vincent Walker Foster, Jr. was a Deputy White House Counsel during the first few months of President Bill Clinton's administration, and also a law partner and friend of Hillary Rodham Clinton...

 were also partners, before becoming Assistant Attorney General and deputy White House counsel

White House Counsel

The White House Counsel is a staff appointee of the President of the United States.-Role:The Counsel's role is to advise the President on all legal issues concerning the President and the White House...

 in the Clinton administration, respectively. Rose Law Firm entered the national news during the 1990s as part of the Whitewater controversy

Whitewater (controversy)

The Whitewater controversy was an American politics controversy that began with the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s.A New York...

, as investigators sought to determine how much work Clinton had done for the firm while representing Jim McDougal

Jim McDougal

James B. "Jim" McDougal , a native of White County, Arkansas, and his wife, Susan McDougal , were financial partners with Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton in the real estate venture that led to the Whitewater political scandal of the 1990s...

 in cases involving the latter's Madison Guaranty

Madison Guaranty

Madison Guaranty was a Little Rock, Arkansas financial trust company.Starting in 1982 and operated by Jim McDougal-Susan McDougal Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan failed in the late 1980s. On April 14, 1997, Jim McDougal was convicted of 18 felony counts of fraud conspiracy charges...

 and Castle Grande

Castle Grande

Castle Grande was a real estate development in Arkansas about 10 minutes south of Little Rock. It came into National news as a result of the Whitewater investigations. The project was a lot where Jim McDougal hoped to build a microbrewery, shopping center, a trailer park and other future projects...

 enterprises.

The firm's Little Rock building consists of both an old red brick structure, which was converted from a YMCA

YMCA

The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...

 facility and has hardwood floors and an indoor swimming pool, and a connected newer structure.

External links

• Official site
• Rose Law Firm at NameBase
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  NameBase is a web-based cross-indexed database of names that focuses on individuals involved in the international intelligence community, U.S. foreign policy, crime, and business...