RSS Feed Serving Carroll County, Indiana since 1974 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||
|
Bishop law firm serves community for 75 years
A . D . B i s h o p opened his law office in 1931 in a room above the Bright N a t i o n a l Bank. His son, Dick N. B i s h o p , joined him in a new office on South Center Street (present location) in 1956. Dick N.'s son, Dick T. Bishop, joined the practice in 1977. Since then, the firm has been known as Bishop, Bishop & Bishop. Dick N., who marked 50 years in his profession last year, said the Bishop law firm goes back yet another generation, to his grandfather, Grover Bishop. He started the family practice in Portland, Ind. When his son, A.D., passed the bar and was ready to join his father, it was the time of the Great Depression, and there was not enough work for both of them in the same office. A.D. looked for a nearby town where he could open a "branch" office. Dick N. said his father chose Flora because there was no attorney in the town at that time. A.D. hung out his shingle the same year that Dick N. was born.
They had their own house trailer at Earlham and moved it to Indianapolis where Dick attended the Indiana University School of Law. "I attended night school, and both Jane and I worked full-time," Dick said. "I was librarian for the Indianapolis Bar Association - a great job," he said. "It didn't pay much, but I could study while I was there." The Indianapolis Bar started the Lawyers' Referral Service in 1954, and Dick N. was its first referral officer. He said his law firm in Flora later received many referrals as a result of contacts he had made in Indianapolis. "Law school tuition was never more than $150 a semester," Dick N. recalls. Today, tuition at the I.U. School of Law in Indianapolis is almost $13,000 a year, not counting books, class materials, and additional fees.
"The downtown streets were still brick, and parking was all angle," Jane said. Dick commented that there were more Flora businesses then than now. Some of the establishments at that time were Julius Clothing Store, D.E. Cripe & Co., OK Barber Shop, Dale's Café, the Silver Grill, Flora Cigar Store, and Flora Theatre and Theatre Coffee Shop. The Bishop law firm was called Bishop and Bishop, Attorneys, from 1956 to 1977. "I got to practice with my dad for 22 years before he died in 1978," Dick N. said. Dick T. has p r a c t i c e d with his father for 30 years. "All three of us got our law degrees from the I.U. School of Law at India n a p o l i s , Dick N. said. His grandfather learned the law profession by studying with another lawyer, which was customary at the time. Grover Bishop moved his practice from Portland to Kokomo and later became Judge of the Howard Circuit Court. At that time, some of his law practice clients came over to Flora to become clients of A.D. Bishop. "We still serve some families who were originally clients of my great-grandfather," Dick T. said. "Families are pretty loyal," Dick N. said. "We have lots of third generation clients." Practicing in a small town for 50 years, Dick N. said his clients are friends. He has a strong sense of community and says it has been very satisfying to do pro bono work for community endeavors such as the Carroll County YMCA, Flora Apartments, Flora Community Club, and Carroll County at the Crossroads/ Focus on the Future Inc. Three generations of Bishop attorneys in Flora may be as far as it goes. Dick T. and Melissa Bishop have two grown sons, but they are pursuing their own interests, unrelated to the law profession. Dick N. says he isn't considering retirement anytime soon because he still enjoys what he's doing. "I just like being here," he said. "I'm going to keep coming in, as long as my health holds up." |
for larger version       |
|||||||||
)
