HR0769 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0769 LRB101 20766 LAW 70455 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives wish to congratulate the Rammelkamp Bradney, P.C. law firm as they celebrate the 125th anniversary of their founding; and

WHEREAS, The firm now known as Rammelkamp Bradney was founded in Jacksonville in 1895 by L.O. Vaught, a former schoolteacher turned lawyer who graduated from Illinois College and the University of Illinois College of Law; and

WHEREAS, In the late 1920s, L.O. Vaught added his nephews Orville Foreman and Ed Cleary as his first law partners, with the firm then becoming Vaught, Cleary, and Foreman; with the onset of World War II in 1941, Foreman and Cleary temporarily suspended their law practices to serve their country; Foreman returned to the firm in 1945, while Cleary opted to become a law professor at the University of Illinois upon his return in 1946; Cleary later became one of the authors of the original Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; and

WHEREAS, Theodore "Ted" Rammelkamp Sr. joined the firm in 1948 after his distinguished military service saw him flying over 30 missions in the European and North African theaters in World War II; together, Foreman and Rammelkamp Sr. spearheaded the firm's municipal law practice and formed an industrial corporation that secured over 1,000 jobs for returning veterans; and

WHEREAS, Robert Bradney, a Jacksonville native and alumnus of Illinois College and Harvard Law School, joined the firm in 1950; he later became the first recipient of the Illinois State Bar Association's Board of Governors Award in 1981 and a member of the first class of Illinois Lawyer Laureates of the Illinois Bar Association in 2000; and

WHEREAS, Barbara Fritsche joined the firm in 1982, the first female attorney to practice law in Morgan County; Rammelkamp Bradney remained the only law firm in Jacksonville to employ women as lawyers until 2015; H. Allen Yow joined the firm in 1989, and he further served the legal profession as the Chairman of the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Character and Fitness for the Fourth Judicial District; and

WHEREAS, Rammelkamp Bradney was recognized as a Centennial Business by the Illinois State Historical Society in 1995 as it celebrated its 100th anniversary; in the same year, the firm hosted its first employment law seminar to educate local businesses on the laws that affect their relationships with employees; today, the firm hosts several employment law seminars per year; and

WHEREAS, The firm expanded its operations by opening a satellite office in Springfield in 2000 and established an office in Winchester in 2003; the Springfield office relocated to a larger building at 741 South Grand Avenue in 2008, where it remains to this day; and

WHEREAS, For a majority of its existence, the law firm's name changed to reflect its then current partners; that practice ended in 2005 when the firm permanently fixed its name as Rammelkamp Bradney to honor two of its most prominent attorneys, Theodore "Ted" Rammelkamp and Robert Bradney; and

WHEREAS, Today, Rammelkamp Bradney consists of six partners, three associate attorneys, and one "of counsel" attorney working out of offices in Jacksonville and Springfield; and

WHEREAS, Rammelkamp Bradney continues to build upon its foundation of professionalism and to work to adapt to meet the needs of its clients, which are ever-evolving; it is recognized as one of the most respected law firms in Illinois; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate the Rammelkamp Bradney, P.C. law firm as they celebrate the 125th anniversary of their founding, and we wish them many more successful years; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the Rammelkamp Bradney law firm as an expression of our respect and esteem.