User:JoeE PPC PubAssist/sandbox

Steptoe & Johnson PLLC, a West Virginia-based law firm, traces its history to the 1913 founding of the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson in the city of Clarksburg. In 1980, Steptoe & Johnson separated amicably into two independent law firms: Steptoe & Johnson, Chartered (since renamed Steptoe & Johnson LLP) would operate from the original firm’s Washington, DC, office (opened in 1945), while the general partnership of Steptoe & Johnson (now Steptoe & Johnson PLLC) would continue to operate from its two offices in West Virginia, maintaining its headquarters in Clarksburg. From the founding of Steptoe & Johnson in 1913 to the separation in 1980, the two firms shared a common history and corporate culture.

In the years since separation, both firms have expanded significantly. Steptoe & Johnson LLP, situated in the nation’s capital, has opened offices in several foreign nations. Among the practice areas that distinguish it from Steptoe & Johnson PLLC are international arbitration, regulation, and trade. Although lacking an international presence, Steptoe & Johnson PLLC has had an active energy practice from its 1913 founding, owing to its location in the heart of the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations. Other practice areas include banking, infrastructure finance, employment and labor, environment, health care, litigation in multiple areas, professional liability, and workers’ compensation.

Formation of Steptoe & Johnson (1913)
Philip Pendleton Steptoe (b. 1877, d. 1944), having just graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1902, settled in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and was admitted to the practice of law in Harrison County on November 21 of that year. The city was experiencing a period of rapid growth at the time, powered by a boom in production of coal, oil, and natural gas in north central West Virginia, and Steptoe was intent on practicing mineral law. After some ten years of partnering with other attorneys and concentrating on oil and gas title searches and chancery work, Steptoe was listed in 1913 as a sole practitioner in the newly constructed Union National Bank Building.

Louis Arthur Johnson (b. 1891, d. 1966) has been described as “an uncharacteristically large and athletic young man with a high level of aggressiveness and competitiveness.” A 1912 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, he arrived in Clarksburg on September 15, 1912, accompanied by classmate and good friend John S. Rixey. The twenty-one-year-old Johnson had been told by an uncle that Clarksburg was a “young man’s town.” Upon observing the booming fossil fuel industries sprouting up in the area, as well as related industries that relied on plentiful energy, Johnson and Rixey abandoned plans to investigate Birmingham, Alabama, and established the firm Rixey & Johnson with an office on Clarksburg’s Main Street.

The partnership of Steptoe and Johnson came about partly by chance. In 1913, having been recently appointed as an assistant prosecutor in Harrison County, Johnson found himself having to appeal a verdict to the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. Lacking appellant experience, Johnson sought the assistance of a more seasoned practitioner. He selected Philip Steptoe based on the latter’s reputation as “low key, methodical, and scholarly.” The two men, both graduates of the University of Virginia School of Law and natives of the same region of Virginia, liked each other immediately and discussed the possibility of forming a joint practice. On September 13, 1913, the law firm of Steptoe, Rixey, & Johnson was established, with its offices in the Union National Bank Building. Rixey returned to Virginia the following year and the firm became Steptoe & Johnson.

The 1921 Edition of Polk's City Directory for Clarksburg lists "Steptoe & Johnson, Lawyers" in Rooms 705–707 in the Union National Bank Building; their telephone numbers were 994 and 995. Their home addresses were 258 East Main Street and 529 West Pike Street, respectively. The Directory lists Mrs. Delta Barbe and one Marguerite Carney, stenographers, and attorney Leo P. Caulfield, who was hired in 1913 after graduating from the West Virginia University College of Law and would remain with the firm until 1970. Caulfield would be the first of many Steptoe & Johnson hires from the law schools of West Virginia University and the University of Virginia.

The Steptoe Gas Bill
In April 1917, while Louis Johnson was serving in World War I, Philip Steptoe and fellow Clarksburg lawyer George M. Hoffheimer wrote to West Virginia governor John J. Cornwell supporting proposed legislative regulation of gas supplies in West Virginia. Concerned by the loss of industrial plants and factories in Clarksburg and elsewhere, Steptoe cited as a primary cause the virtual monopoly of a very few large corporations who, in his view, subordinated the performance of their duty to serve the public in West Virginia to the more profitable supply of gas to consumers elsewhere.

Steptoe’s name became national news in association with the Hoffheimer–Steptoe Gas Bill (more commonly called the Steptoe Gas Bill in the press). Steptoe had drafted the West Virginia statute, which would prevent natural gas from leaving the state before the demands of West Virginia’s residents and businesses were satisfied. The draft was subsequently enacted by the West Virginia Legislature on 10 February 1919, with an effective date of 11 May 1919. The states of Pennsylvania and Ohio responded some eight weeks later, alleging that the West Virginia statute violated the US Constitution's Commerce Clause and that their states would suffer irreparable harm if the statute were enforced. On 19 April 1920, the Court consolidated the Pennsylvania and Ohio suits and gave the opposing parties twelve months (1 May 1920 through 1 May 1921) to solicit testimony "at such place or places as they may indicate" before Commissioner Levi Cooke of Washington, DC. Cooke was empowered "to take and return the testimony in these causes," but not to "make any findings of fact or state any conclusions of law." In the meanwhile, the State of West Virginia was enjoined from enforcing the provisions of the Act.

Opponents argued that declining well production and increasing drilling costs were already stressing natural gas supplies from northern West Virginia and that demand from West Virginia consumers could exhaust those supplies, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers in Pennsylvania and Ohio without fuel, especially during winter months. J. K. Anderson, a consulting engineer from Clarksburg, while testifying in hearings conducted in Pittsburgh, pointed to the many homes, hospitals, schools, and other buildings that would have to be retrofitted at great expense to burn alternative fuels.

Steptoe represented West Virginia (twice) in front of the United States Supreme Court. On 11 June 1923, the case was decided for the plaintiff states on a 5-to-3 vote (Chief Justice William Howard Taft did not participate). Justice Willis Van Devanter authored the majority opinion, with Justices Louis Brandeis, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Clark McReynolds dissenting.

In spite of the loss, Steptoe & Johnson had gained a measure of national recognition. The firm at the time consisted of three lawyers: Steptoe, Johnson, and Caulfield.

End of preliminary draft for "quality assurance."
At a minimum, the article should continue with developments at the united firm until separation of the Washington office from the two West Virginia offices in 1980, after which notable developments subsequent to 1980 should be added.

Points to add:


 * Opening of the Charleston, West Virginia office to capitalize on its proximity to state regulators and lawmakers.
 * Opening the Washington, DC office. Readers will be directed to the Steptoe & Johnson LLP article for details on the Washington firm's history since 1945, so as to avoid duplication. The discussion here can focus on how the three offices operated more or less autonomously and how their respective major practice areas diverged over time.
 * Steptoe & Johnson involvement in significant litigation prior to 1980 (e.g, the Buffalo Creek, WV, flood; the scaffolding collapse at Willow Island, WV).
 * Developments inspiring the 1980 separation of Steptoe & Johnson LLP from the two West Virginia offices.
 * Steptoe & Johnson PLLC's involvement in matters of national significance (e.g., the immediate aftermath of the the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in southern West Virginia) in the years subsequent to 1980.
 * Expansion of the firm as driven by expansion of its energy practice.
 * A list of current and former attorneys whose reputations extend at least regionally, if not nationally.
 * Recognition and awards to the firm and/or to its attorneys from Chambers USA and publications of similar rank.