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 The Green Bag Volume XXIV

March, 1912

Number 3

William Nottingham THE portrait facing this page sug gests a man of well-rounded and attractive character, and the record of William Nottingham of Syracuse, who has been elected president of the New York State Bar Association, bears out the impression of many solid virtues. Mr. Nottingham was born and bred on a farm, and the substantial success he has earned at the bar is rooted in the self-reliance which procured him a broad education entirely through his own labors. He walked to and from the farm near De Witt, where he was born Nov. 2, 1853, to attend the Syracuse' public schools, and later, having earned the money for necessary expenses, he continued his studies in Syracuse Uni versity, from which he was graduated in 1876. He determined upon the prac tice of law as a life work and studied as a law student in Syracuse from October, 1876, until June, 1879, when he was ad mitted to the bar in Buffalo. Locating for practice in Syracuse, he has remained there continuously ever since; and in 1881 became junior partner of the law firm of Goodelle & Nottingham, which in course of years gained wide fame. The partnership was maintained until 1900 and many of the younger members of the bar now prominent in legal circles prepared for the profession in his office.

In 1900 the firm of Goodelle, Notting ham Brothers & Andrews was organized, maintaining a continuous existence until April, 1907, when William and Edwin Nottingham withdrew to form the present firm of Nottingham & Notting ham. Almost by leaps and bounds this firm has sprung into national promi nence. It makes a specialty of corpora tion and banking law, yet combines it with general practice. Their clientage is now very extensive and of a most important character. Mr. Nottingham, who is pre-eminently a man of business sense, has organized upon a safe and substantial basis more than fifty gigantic concerns. Examples of his powers of organization are the Commercial National Bank of Syra cuse and the Syracuse Trust Company, dating from 1891 and 1903, respectively He has organized thirty-five or forty industrial and transportation companies, including six interurban railway com panies and two great steamship compan ies, one of which is the Great Lakes Steamship Company, operating on the Great Lakes and owning and controlling a large fleet of immense vessels. Mr. Nottingham is also a director in this company and is its general counsel. He likewise organized the Globe Navi gation Company, with headquarters at Seattle, Wash., owning and operating