A History of the Firm

							                           A History of the Firm

1889      Peter O. Knight moved from Fort Myers and established his practice in
          Tampa where he was active in law, politics and industry, including the
          founding of Exchange National Bank of Tampa (currently Bank of
          America) and Tampa Electric Company.

1915      Knight, Thompson & Turner partnership was formed by Peter O.
          Knight, C. Fred Thompson and Alonzo G. Turner.

1919      Spessard Holland established his law practice in his hometown of
          Bartow, after completing World War I service in the Army Air Corps.
          Soon thereafter he began eight years of service as county judge.

1925      Peter O. Knight, Jr., and John Bell joined the Knight, Thompson &
          Turner firm in Tampa. W. F. Bevis joined Spessard Holland in
          practice in Bartow.

1929      Holland & Bevis partnership formed.

1933-39   Spessard Holland served in the Florida Senate.

1940-44   Spessard Holland served as Governor of Florida.

1946      William A. McRae, Jr., a Rhodes scholar, former professor of law, and
          colonel in the Army Air Force during World War II, joined Holland &
          Bevis. The firm name was changed to Holland, Bevis & McRae.

          Peter O. Knight, Sr., died.

1946-70   Spessard Holland served as United States Senator from Florida.

1949      John Arthur Jones joined the Knight firm in Tampa. Several years
          later the name changed to Knight, Bell & Jones.

1950      Chesterfield Smith joined the Holland firm in Bartow, following two
          years of practice in Arcadia.

1953      Henry Kittleson, followed shortly by Bill Henry, joined the firm of
          Holland, Bevis & McRae in Bartow. Later the same year the firm
          name changed to Holland, Bevis, McRae & Smith.

1954      Stephen Grimes (who later became a Justice of the Florida Supreme
          Court) joined the Holland firm in Bartow.

1961      William A. McRae was appointed U.S. District Judge by President
          Kennedy, as his first judicial appointment. Warren Hall, a seasoned
          litigator, joined the Holland firm as a partner.
1963      Holland, Bevis & Smith established an office in Lakeland.

1964      Burke Kibler joined the Holland firm, and the name changed to
          Holland, Bevis, Smith & Kibler.

1964-65   Chesterfield Smith served as President of The Florida Bar.

1965      The name of the firm changed to Holland, Bevis, Smith, Kibler & Hall.

          After John Bell’s death in 1964, Charles C. Whitaker, II, joined the
          Knight firm, and the name changed to Knight, Jones & Whitaker.

1966      John Germany, then serving as Chief Judge of the Circuit Court for
          Hillsborough County, resigned from the bench and joined the Knight
          firm. The name changed to Knight, Jones, Whitaker & Germany.

1968      Knight, Jones, Whitaker & Germany combined with Holland, Bevis,
          Smith, Kibler & Hall to form Holland & Knight. With that, the firm
          became one of the largest law firms in Florida.

1971      Spessard Holland retired from the U.S. Senate and rejoined the
          merged firm. Before the year was out, he died unexpectedly.

1972      The Tallahassee, Florida, office opened.

1973-74   Chesterfield Smith served as President of the American Bar
          Association.

1979      A Miami, Florida, office opened.

1980      Glass, Schultz, Weinstein & Moss, with offices in Fort Lauderdale with
          Holland & Knight.

1982      Pope, Ballard & Loos, with an office in Washington, D.C., combined
          with Holland & Knight.

1983      The Orlando, Florida, office opened. Chesterfield Smith resigned as
          Chairman of the firm and resumed the full-time practice of law.

1985      The Directors Committee adopted the Holland & Knight Commitment
          to summarize the values by which we practice together as a firm and
          serve our clients and the legal profession.

1986      The firm changed its governance system to create a three-person
          Management Committee to exercise all executive responsibilities.
1990   Gallagher, Mikals & Cannon, with an office in Jacksonville, combined
       with Holland & Knight.

       Holland & Knight established its Community Services Department
       and Attorney Development Program.

1992   The firm changed its form of governance to a single managing partner
       with a 15-member Board of Directors.

1993   The firm opened an office in West Palm Beach, Florida.

1994   The 40-lawyer Washington, D.C., law firm, Dunnells & Duvall,
       combined with Holland & Knight’s Washington, D.C., office. Formerly
       one of the firm’s smaller offices, the Washington, D.C., location became
       one of the largest.

       July, seven shareholders and two associates of the Miami law firm,
       Fine Jacobson Schwartz Nash & Block joined Holland & Knight.

       July 1, Holland & Knight opened its Atlanta, Georgia, office. Through
       a combination with the 4-lawyer Atlanta firm of Webb & Daniel,
       Holland & Knight’s presence in the southeast corridor increased.
       Former State Bar of Georgia president, Harold T. Daniel, Jr., and
       Laurie Webb Daniel, first woman president of the Atlanta Lawyers
       Club, were among the new partners of the Atlanta office.

1995   November 16, the 43-lawyer Atlanta law firm, Branch, Pike & Ganz,
       combined with Holland & Knight. The Atlanta office then numbered
       more than 50 lawyers.

1996   Effective January 1, 1996, the shareholders of the Fort Lauderdale,
       Florida, law firm, Gustafson, Stephens, Ferris, & Knight, P.A. joined
       Holland & Knight’s Fort Lauderdale office.

       Holland & Knight instituted a same-sex, domestic-partner insurance
       policy for lawyers and staff.

1997   January 1, the firm became a registered limited liability partnership,
       adding this to its logo and “LLP” to the firm’s legal name.

       The firm’s Washington, D.C., office became the first Holland & Knight
       office to number more than 100 lawyers, starting the year with 106.

       August, Holland & Knight expanded into New York and San Francisco
       by combining practices with Haight, Gardner, Poor & Havens, an
       international aviation, maritime and transportation law firm. Holland
       & Knight became the 12th largest law firm in the U.S.
1998   January, the New York firm, Smith, Steibel, Alexander & Saskor, P.C.,
       combined with Holland & Knight.

       January, Holland & Knight opened an office in Northern Virginia.

       January, the Jacksonville office expanded to 66 lawyers through
       combinations with two Jacksonville law firms, Gabel & Hair and
       Kirschner, Main, Graham, Tanner & Dermont.

       February, Holland & Knight became an international law firm through
       a joint venture with the Mexico City law firm, Gallástegui y Lozano,
       creating the firm’s 16th office.

       July, the Orlando office grew to more than 100 lawyers when the oldest
       law firm in Orlando, Maguire, Voorhis & Wells, P.A., joined Holland &
       Knight. The combination formed the largest law firm in Central
       Florida.

       July, Holland & Knight opened an office in Boston, Massachusetts.

       November, Sherburne, Powers & Needham, P.C., an 80-lawyer, 80-
       year-old law firm, with a significant presence in Boston combined with
       Holland & Knight.

1999   May, Holland & Knight entered into a strategic affiliation with the Tel
       Aviv law firm of Haim Samet, Steinmetz, Haring, & Co, marking the
       first time a foreign law firm entered the Israeli legal marketplace.

2000   February, Holland & Knight opened its Chicago office through a
       combination with the law firm of Burke, Weaver & Prell.

       March, Koteen & Naftalin, noted District of Columbia
       telecommunications law firm, joined Holland & Knight LLP.

       April, Holland & Knight was awarded the Summit Award by the
       United Way of America (UWA) for corporate community involvement.
       This was the first time a law firm was presented with the award.

       July, Levine & Associates, noted Indian law firm in Los Angeles
       combined with Holland & Knight LLP.

       July, Holland & Knight Partner Martha Barnett was sworn in as ABA
       President.

       July, the Los Angeles and Tokyo offices of Whitman, Breed, Abbot &
       Morgan LLP combined with Holland & Knight.
       September, Holland & Knight formed a strategic alliance with the law
       firm of Tinoco, Travieso, Planchart & Núñez, with representative
       offices in Caracas and Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela.

2001   February, 12 partners and five associates from Wilkes Artis joined the
       Washington, D.C., office. The team included the land use, zoning and
       real estate transaction practice, and members of the corporate and
       public law departments. The addition of these lawyers made Holland &
       Knight the dominant real estate law firm in the Washington area.

       April, five labor and employment law partners and one corporate
       partner from Fox and Grove joined the Chicago office. The addition of
       these lawyers made the National Labor and Employment group nearly
       100 strong.

       May, for the second year in a row, Holland & Knight was awarded the
       Summit Award by United Way of America (UWA) for corporate
       community involvement. Holland & Knight is the first and only law
       firm to win National Summit Awards. In addition, Holland & Knight is
       the only organization with less than 10,000 employees that has won
       National Summit Awards. One of the standard minimum requirements
       to be accepted as a National Corporate Leadership Company is to have
       10,000+ employees. That requirement was waived for us because of
       our exceptional support to the United Way.

       June, Gilbert, Segall and Young LLP combined its practice with
       Holland & Knight, adding 28 attorneys in New York and an affiliate
       office in Helsinki, Finland. Gilbert, Segall and Young brought
       significant real estate, not-for-profit, corporate and M&A, litigation,
       tax and trusts and estates experience. The firm was internationally
       recognized for its representation of foreign clients with business
       interests in the United States.

       October, Weiss Jensen Ellis & Howard, with offices in Portland,
       Oregon combined with Holland & Knight. Weiss Jensen Ellis &
       Howard had 22 attorneys.

2002   August, the Chicago law firm of McBride Baker & Coles combined its
       85-lawyer practice with Holland & Knight. The addition significantly
       enhanced the firm's real estate/financial services, labor and
       employment, and corporate and securities practice in Chicago.

2004   April, the Chinese Ministry of Justice granted the firm a license to
       open an office in Beijing, China. This office is the Firm’s second in Asia
       (in addition to Tokyo) and its eighth overseas location.
2006           June, Holland & Knight joined former New York City Mayor Rudolf W.
               Giuliani, U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler and Fire Commissioner
               Nichols Scoppetta in a dedication ceremony unveiling the 9-11
               Memorial Wall, a bas-relief sculpture depicting FDNY members
               responding to the scene on September 11, 2001. It was dedicated to the
               343 members of the NYC Fire Department as well as Glenn J. Winuk,
               a Holland & Knight partner and volunteer firefighter and EMT, who
               lost their lives on September 11.

               September, The Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom at the
               University of Florida's Levin College of Law was formally dedicated by
               U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It is the
               largest classroom at the law school and also serves as a main location
               for conferences and workshops.


Founding Partners

               Of the 23 partners at the time of the 1968 merger (see list below), six
               remain today as partners, 10 have passed away (William Bevis, Robert
               Butler, Warren Hall, William Henry, Spessard Holland, Peter Knight,
               John Lawson, Robert Murray, John Purcell, and Chesterfield Smith),
               four are retired and three resigned to join other firms. One, Stephen
               Grimes, is a retired Florida Supreme Court Justice who rejoined the
               firm in our Tallahassee office.

                      Original 23 Partners From 1968 Merger:
       Thomas R. Bayless           William F. Bevis        Robert N. Butler

          John Germany             Stephen H. Grimes            Warren E. Hall, Jr.

      William O. E. Henry           Spessard Holland            John Arthur Jones

      D. Burke Kibler, III         Henry M. Kittleson            Peter O. Knight

      John R. Lawson, Jr.          Wm. Bruce Louden            C. Parkhill Mays, Jr.

        Robert P. Murray            Jack S. Newsome             John R. Purcell, Jr.

      Harry M. Sawyer, Jr.         Chesterfield Smith           C. Lawrence Stagg

      Wofford H. Stidham          Charles C. Whitaker II


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