Midsize Firms / Regional Firms, Old People

A 107-Year-Old Attorney Is Still Working At This Prominent Firm

Which major regional firm is keeping this extremely senior partner on its payroll?

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We’ve written from time to time about senior judges, the most senior of whom was Wesley E. Brown of the District of Kansas, who remained on the bench until his death at age 104. We’ve even written about lateral moves made by nonagenarians to highly esteemed Biglaw firms and centenarian Biglaw attorneys who really put the “senior” in senior counsel. We’ve never written about centenarian attorneys at major midsize firms, presumably because there are very few of them, but that’s about to change.

Which prominent regional powerhouse is keeping this extremely senior partner on its payroll?

That would be Bass Berry & Sims, a firm that James O. Bass Sr. calls home. Born in 1910, Bass still goes to the office every day. He’s 107 years old, and he was recently profiled in a feature by Harvard Law Today as the elite law school’s oldest living alumnus. Here’s a brief snippet from the article:

If you’ve been alive for … 107 years, you’ve probably seen more than most people. You lived through the Great Depression and two World Wars, witnessed civil unrest in the United States swell into a wave of protest and change, watched in astonishment as man landed on the moon — and, if you’re a lawyer, you remember a time when the discovery phase didn’t yet exist.

… James O. Bass ’34, by all accounts, has always been an impressive man. Large in stature and even more so in spirit, he was widely known from a young age for his commanding charm and quiet intelligence.“Mr. Bass’ demeanor and politeness to everybody was an example to all of us of how we should deal with adversaries, judges, and clients,” says William Ozier, a longtime lawyer in Bass’ Nashville firm Bass, Berry & Sims. He credits “Chief,” as Bass is often called around the office, for making him the lawyer he is today.

James O. Bass Sr.

Bass Berry & Sims was founded in 1922 (by Bass’s father), making Bass 12 years older than the firm itself. Bass guided the firm through many stages of growth and expansion, and though it was once full of simple country lawyers, it now employs more than 270 attorneys and 200 staff across its four offices. His sons drive him to work all week long, and he shows no signs of slowing down.

Bass Berry & Sims doesn’t seem to have a mandatory retirement age for partners, and Bass Sr. has no plans to retire. He’s mentored hundreds of lawyers in his lifetime, and he’s “never seriously entertained the idea of not practicing law.” The man loves his job and his firm so much that when asked whether he’ll ever retire, he said, “What else would I do? This is my family.”

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Congratulations to James O. Bass Sr. on a life well lived and a career he loves.

The full life of a larger-than-life lawyer [Harvard Law Today]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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