By Sophia Root

Commerce Chenango

NORWICH - After more than 117 years of legal service to the people of Central New York and the Southern Tier, Lee, Emerson & Palmer, LLP located at 35 West Main Street, Norwich has closed its doors.

Attorney Thomas C. Emerson has dissolved the practice and is heading for retirement. Over the years the firm produced a notable number of attorneys who went on to serve the region in both private and public roles. 

Emerson, a native of Oxford, joined the firm in 1974 after earning his undergraduate degree from Allegheny College and his juris doctor degree from Syracuse University College of Law. While in law school he interned for the US Attorney’s Office for the Norther District of NY. After law school he moved back home to Oxford with his wife Bonnie and was hired by Edward J. Lee.

He said, “I knew I wanted to come back and I have no regrets. I never wanted to be in a large practice, just one big enough to have someone else to bounce ideas off but not so big as to be pigeonholed into a specialty.” 

Emerson is grateful for the diverse areas of law he has been able to practice, including most areas other than criminal law. He and Bonnie continue to live in Oxford and have four children and ten grandchildren.

Emerson has served President of the Chenango County Bar, a delegate to the New York State Bar Association and was appointed to and ultimately served as Chair of the Committee on Professional Standards of the Appellate Division, Third Department for the 28 counties bounded by the Canadian border on the north, the lower Catskills on the south and from the western Vermont/Massachusetts borders to the finger Lakes on the west.

Beyond service to the legal profession, Emerson has been a fixture in the civic life of Chenango County for decades. He has served in the following organizations in various offices, directorships and trusteeships: Chenango Memorial Hospital, UHS, United Way, Vestry of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Oxford, Norwich Family YMCA (past President and current Chair of the Board of Trustees), Past Chairman Oxford Village Zoning Board of Appeals, Oxford Lions Club (Past President), Director of the RC Smith and Roger W. Follett Foundations, Trustee of the Rex & Edna Irene Mickle and the Mary Elizabeth Macksy Charitable Trusts, among others.

Together with Tom’s brother David Emerson and his wife MaryEl, and Neil and Linda Bartle, Tom and Bonnie established the Greater Oxford Community Fund as part of the Community Foundation for South Central New York, hoping it will grow in value and provide funding for local non-profit organizations for years to come. 

When asked how many foundations and charitable trusts the firm has helped foster, Emerson said dozens. He thanked everyone involved for considering charitable gifts like these and said he is always impressed with the generosity of people in our communities.

That spirit of community investment traces back to the beginning, with the Lee family. The firm was founded July 1, 1907 by David F. Lee Sr., who went on to serve as both Chenango County District Attorney and New York State Supreme Court Judge and was recognized as one of the outstanding lawyers in upstate New York. Beyond his legal career, Lee Sr. was deeply involved in the community, serving on the local school board and helping found the United Way, formerly known as the Community Chest.  He maintained personal friendships with President Franklin Roosevelt, Governor Alfred Smith, Governor Herbert Lehman and Postmaster General James Farley, among other prominent figures of the era. Several attorneys who trained under Lee Sr. went on to notable careers of their own.

The firm operated from offices in both Norwich and Binghamton from 1927 to 1938, when Lee Sr. decided to focus his efforts on the Norwich office. His son, David F. Lee, Jr., joined the firm after having served in the Air Force in World War II, where he rose from private to Lt. Colonel. He later served as Chenango County District Attorney and then as a New York State Supreme Court Judge from 1963 to 1987. The two were the only father and son to have both served as Supreme Court Judges in the State of New York.

Edward J Lee, son of Lee Sr. and brother of Lee, Jr. joined the firm in 1946 after serving as a bomber pilot and gunnery officer in the Air Force, rising from private to Major. He was a fellow of both the New York State and American Bar Foundations, and the American College of Trust &  Estate Counsel. He was also a former Vice President of the New York State Bar Association. He was also a nationally known skeet shooter, winning state, sectional, national, international and world championships. He was inducted into the New York State Skeet Hall of Fame in 1985 and the National Skeet Shooting Association Hall of Fame in 1986.

Edward J. Lee retired from the firm in 1999, capping a partnership with Emerson that spanned more than two decades. When reflecting on his career and the careers of the partners before him, Emerson says, “For the most part, attorneys are very generous to their communities. It’s not always with money, but in-kind services and volunteerism.” For Emerson, it wasn’t all necessarily tied to the law. “It was the culture Bonnie and I grew up in. Looking back, all I can say is thank God we were brought up with a small-town mindset.”

Tom and his wife Bonnie, who recently retired from a successful career in Teaching, are planning a joint retirement celebration, more details to follow.