Our Firm

 

Join our successful clients, many of whom have been with us for more than 40 years.  We are honored by our client's trust and our shared responsibilities.

 

As a representative of our clients, we are energetically engaged and reverent, as advisor, advocate, and active feet on the ground.

 

As your advisor, we aim to provide you with an informed understanding of your legal rights and obligations and explain their practical implications.

 

As your advocate, we assert your position in our adversary system of law, in and out of the courtroom.

 

As your active feet on the ground, we seek results advantageous to you, by being assertive, polite, and kind, consistent with honest dealings with others.

 

As an intermediary between you and others, we seek to reconcile divergent interests as an advisor and as a spokesperson.

 

You can count on us to be confidential, diligent, and prompt.  We strive to attain the highest level of skill in our areas of practice.

 

History of the Firm

The firm was started in 1885 in Plymouth Indiana by Smith Ney Stevens who formed a partnership with Dave Snyder and Samuel Parker (former secretary of US Congressman Barnhart) with an office on the Opera Block on LaPorte Street in Downtown Plymouth.

 

Stevens was elected county prosecutor in 1890.  During this time Snyder and Parker maintained the law office and founded the Plymouth State Bank.  In 1904 Stevens returned to private practice now on the second floor of his partners’ bank building and added Ilijah Martindale as a partner.  They enjoyed a substantial law practice, a good deal of it in criminal law.

 

In 1927, Steven’s son, George F Stevens, graduated from Harvard Law School and returned immediately to Plymouth to join his dad’s firm.  George focused on an area of law that was considered technology at the time, drainage, and made quite a name for himself, earning $10 his first month, and increasing that to $50/month at the end of his first year.  George was pleased with his pay, as other young lawyers were paying firms $25/month for the privilege of learning and picking up spare business.  George F Stevens, became the head of the law firm and remained in that position until the 1980’s, one hundred years after his father founded the firm.

 

In 1970, George F Stevens recruited a young trial lawyer from the Indiana Attorney General’s office, William Fortin, to join the firm and eventually take over.

 

For a detailed history of the firm see this 22 page compilation by George F Stevens that includes a good bit of history of Marshall County (pdf, 13MB).