Rushton Stakely has been a respected leader in the Alabama legal community for over a century. Ray Rushton founded our firm in 1890. Mr. Rushton was joined by William Martin Williams in 1903 and they practiced together for a short time before Williams left the partnership. In 1920, Mr. Rushton’s son, Marion, joined the firm and it thereafter became known as Rushton, Crenshaw and Rushton. Watkins C. Johnston joined the firm in 1940.

For the first several years, the firm was located in the Pollak Building, which was on the corner of Dexter Avenue and Perry Street in Montgomery. In 1908 or 1909, the firm relocated to the Bell Building on Montgomery Street.

Around the time that Mr. Johnston joined the firm, Jesse M. Williams, Jr., who had practiced law in New Orleans and Montgomery, joined and the firm name became Rushton, Johnston & Williams. Another local firm known as Weil and Stakely was comprised of Lee H. Weil and Davis F. Stakely, who practiced in an office in the First National Bank Building. The elder Weil was joined by his son, Roman L. Weil, and Davis F. Stakely was joined by his brother Charles A. Stakely, Sr.

In the early 1940s, the two firms merged and opened an office in the Bell Building under the name of Rushton, Weil, Stakely, Johnston and Williams. Thereafter, James W. Garrett joined the firm. At the end of Second World War, several of the  firm’s lawyers resumed their practice upon leaving the armed forces. Davis F. Stakely became a justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama in 1943, where he served until 1962. Eventually, James W. Garrett’s name was added and the firm adopted its present name of Rushton, Stakely, Johnston and Garrett. Charles A. Stakely, Jr. joined the firm in 1960.

In 1978 the firm purchased the Steiner-Lobman building and, after two years of renovations, moved into its current offices in 1980. The firm later purchased the adjacent Teague Hardware building and restored it as well. Today, in its third century, our law firm continues to thrive from this location.