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A Law Firm
Rooted in the
Earliest Days
of Arizona Statehood
The late U.S. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and many other distinguished lawyers have been a part of Carson Messinger's rich history.
Carson
Messinger is one of Arizona's oldest law firms, founded in
1924 by Gene S. Cunningham and Charles A. Carson, Jr. Both
lawyers were distinguished and active leaders in the early
history of Arizona's legal community.
Mr.
Cunningham, a University of Illinois law school alumnus, was
admitted to practice in Arizona in 1913, one year after
statehood, and served as Maricopa County Attorney prior to
founding the firm.
Mr.
Carson was admitted
to practice in Arizona in 1922, after studying and
"reading the law." He was the first president of the State Bar of
Arizona (1933-35) and is the only two-term
president in the bar's history. His
son, C.A. Carson III, a former senior member of this firm,
also served as State Bar president (its 25th, 1958-59) and for many years was one of two Arizona delegates to the American Bar
Association. The firm's current members continue this
tradition of active involvement in bar activities.
A
number of distinguished Arizona lawyers have been members of
the firm, including the
late William
H. Rehnquist (1924-2005), appointed as Associate
Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court by President Nixon in 1972
and elevated to Chief Justice of the United States by
President Reagan in 1986.
Rehnquist
moved to Phoenix in 1953 after attending Stanford University and
Harvard University and working as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme
Court Justice Robert Jackson. In 1957, he joined the law firm
then known as Cunningham, Carson & Messinger.
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