Firm History
Armstrong Teasdale has a rich history with more than 120 years of experience counseling clients through their most complex legal challenges. Over the past century, the firm has grown tremendously and now boasts more than 800 lawyers and staff members in 18 offices internationally.
Business lawyers Thomas Harper Cobbs (pictured) and John E. Bishop form a law partnership, Bishop and Cobbs, in St. Louis on January 1, 1901.
New partners are added regularly in the early years. In 1927, William Armstrong joins as an associate. He becomes a partner in 1931 and Armstrong is added to the firm name in 1939.
Kenneth Teasdale, a good friend of William Armstrong and well-known St. Louis-based trial lawyer, joins the firm and in 1949 Teasdale is added to the firm name.
William H. Webster joins the firm. After leaving in 1970, he goes on to serve as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and is to date the only person to have served as director of both the FBI and the CIA.
Kenneth Teasdale’s son, Kenneth S.F. Teasdale, joins the firm after a distinguished career in Washington, D.C. with the U.S. Department of Justice.
The firm reorganizes, creating the positions of Managing Partner and Chairman, and Executive and Compensation committees. Thomas Remington (pictured) is designated the first chairman and Kenneth S. F. Teasdale as managing partner of the firm.
Steve Cousins named the first African-American partner at the firm. In 2018, Steve retired from AT and now serves as president and CEO of affiliate Cousins Allied Strategic Advisors, LLC.
The firm merges with the St. Louis firm Schlafly, Griesedieck, Toft & Virtel, becoming Armstrong, Teasdale, Kramer, Vaughan & Schlafly. The firm grows to 83 lawyers. By end of the following year, Armstrong Teasdale is the third-largest law firm in the St. Louis area based on the number of lawyers.
The firm becomes the first law firm tenant of the Metropolitan Square building in downtown St. Louis, which was built on the same site as the firm’s first office in 1901.
The firm merges with Kansas City firm Dietrich, Davis, Dicus, Rowlands, Schmitt & Gorman, with the new firm name being Armstrong, Teasdale, Schlafly, Davis & Dicus.
Edwin Noel (pictured) is elected managing partner. Kenneth S.F. Teasdale is elected chairman.
The Jefferson City, Missouri, office opens.
The firm’s Professional Advancement of Women program is established; today called the Women’s Inclusion Network. The program is one of the first of its type at a private firm in the St. Louis region.
Richard Scherrer is elected managing partner.
Partner Kathi Schoene elected as the first woman to sit on the firm’s Executive Committee.
The firm establishes the Michael C. Tramble Memorial Scholarship Fund at the University of Missouri School of Law, in memory of a promising young African-American associate at the firm who tragically lost his life.
Las Vegas office opens.
Michael Chivell is elected managing partner.
The St. Louis office moves into new, state-of-the-art space in Centene Plaza, a LEED-certified Gold building located in the business suburb of Clayton, Missouri. Centene Corporation is a client of the firm.
The firm is named to the Am Law 200, a list of the 200 largest law firms in the U.S. as ranked by The American Lawyer magazine.
Denver office opens, with the acquisition of Denver-based Steese Evans & Frankel P.C.
John Beulick (pictured) is elected to the role of managing partner. After almost a decade as managing partner, Michael Chivell is elected chairman.
Karrie Clinkinbeard appointed as the first woman to serve in the role of Office Managing Attorney – Kansas City, Missouri.
AT’s Professional Advancement of Women (PAW) resource group is rebranded as the Women’s Inclusion Network (WIN).
Armstrong Teasdale expands to the East Coast with the opening of its Philadelphia office.
David Braswell is elected managing partner of the firm.
New York office opens with one of the largest real estate practices focusing on cooperative/condominium law in the city. Since 2019, the office has grown to include prominent lawyers in the corporate, white-collar criminal defense, commercial finance and bankruptcy, and intellectual property areas, among others.
Diverse Professionals and Parent Resource Groups established.
Offices open in Boston, Salt Lake City (pictured), and Edwardsville, Illinois.
The firm establishes a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department.
The firm expands its East Coast presence by opening an office in Wilmington, Delaware.
The firm establishes a presence in Europe with the addition of London-based law firm Kerman & Co. The group of over 50 lawyers and staff bolsters Armstrong Teasdale’s roster to over 340 lawyers and over 300 staff professionals around the world.
David Braswell is elected chairman of the firm and Patrick Rasche is elected managing partner. Michael Chivell, who has spent the majority of his career at the firm and served for five years as chairman, assumes the role of chairman emeritus.
Veterans and Military Service Group established.
The firm establishes a presence in Florida with the addition of 12 lawyers and staff professionals from Waldman Barnett in Miami. The addition bolsters Armstrong Teasdale’s firmwide roster to over 370 lawyers and 300 staff professionals worldwide.
The firm establishes a presence in the EU with the opening of an office in Dublin, Ireland.
The firm further expands its East Coast presence by opening an office in Washington, D.C.
The firm expands its western U.S. presence with the establishment of an office in Orange County, California.
Nearly 50 lawyers and staff join Armstrong Teasdale from the boutique litigation firm Novack & Macey, establishing an office in Chicago.
