Historic Philadelphia

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Philadelphia City Hall (foreground) turns one
hundred in 2001. Wolf, Block came into
existence two years after the building was
finished. Liberty Place (background) is part of
the revitalization of center city Philadelphia.
COURTESY OF TOP KAT PHOTOGRAPHY, INC.
WOLF, BLOCK, SCHORR AND
SOLIS-COHEN LLP
In October 1903 University of
Pennsylvania Professor Horace Stern teamed
with young attorney Morris Wolf and formed
a partnership, which, with various name
changes, has evolved into Wolf, Block, Schorr
and Solis-Cohen LLP.
The partnership between Stern and Wolf
was based upon the idea that opposites
attract. Wolf was the outgoing, charismatic
rainmaker who made deals and tried cases.
Stern, on the other hand, was a shy, modest
man who was more comfortable with books
than people. It was Stern’s academic expertise
(he later became Chief Justice of the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court) that helped the
firm build its reputation, and it was Wolf’s
personal style and courtroom savvy that
attracted new clients.
Horace Stern and Morris Wolf set out to
start a small law practice and ended up
fulfilling a previously unmet need, providing
legal counsel to both small and large Jewish
businesses. As the size and influence of these
businesses grew throughout the twentieth
century, so did Wolf, Block. Soon the firm’s
practice expanded far from its ethnic roots
and throughout the area. It represented then,
and does today, the entire spectrum of the
business community.
As Wolf, Block’s reputation grew, so did the
firm. Through the first half of the century, the
firm had no formal departments. It was
assumed that a good attorney would be able
to take care of his client’s needs whether it was
a tax matter, corporate need or a personal
estate. Every lawyer was a generalist whose
purpose was to serve his clients. Wolf, Block’s
original departments were formalized in the
late 1960s as a result of the increasing
complexity of the practice of law, and the
resulting client needs. For example, the firm’s
reputation in real estate was a result of
representing almost all of Philadelphia’s top
real estate firms in the 1920s; and the firm
developed for them innovative lease
contracts, financing arrangements, and tax
structures that ultimately attracted clients
throughout the nation.
Wolf, Block now has 265 lawyers. The
headquarters are still located in Philadelphia,
with a large branch office in New York, and
other branch offices in Cherry Hill and
Newark, New Jersey; Harrisburg and
Norristown, Pennsylvania; and Wilmington,
Delaware. Attorneys practice in one or more
of the firm’s eighteen practice groups:
• Business: Corporate/Securities, Real Estate,
Intellectual Property and Information
Technology, Communications, Financial
HISTORIC PHILADELPHIA
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