Good choices

Attorneys at Perry & Williams, one of the first law firms in the Sarasota-Bradenton region, were at a business crossroads in the decade after World War II: They could go after high-volume work, including insurance defense and criminal cases. Or they could stick to core practice areas such as banking and real estate.

One half of the firm, Sydney Perry, left and went high-volume. But J.J. Williams and several partners, including W. Davis Parker and young attorney William Harrison, stuck to the original mission of the firm. That strategy was a slow struggle, at first. “When we separated from high-volume litigation business it restricted the clients we had” or could get, says Harrison, still practicing 60 years later.

That firm, with a client list that included circus icon John Ringling, became Williams Parker Harrison Dietz, for fellow partner George Dietz. William Getzen joined the team a few years later and became the fifth named partner. Known locally as Williams Parker, the firm celebrates its 90th anniversary in 2015 — a feat of stability exceedingly rare for mid-size, independently run law firms.