Partners

By: Tim Matz

So after occupying for several years a town house on Capitol Hill as our law offices I was able to convince my partners, Frank Gailor and Jack Elias that we should move downtown. We found the ideal office space on the 12th floor of 734 15th Street and immediately moved even though the lease was not quite finished.

Within a day or so after the move things became real interesting for what was then the firm of Gailor, Elias and Matz. I asked Ray to come over to my office for a chat. We sat down together at which point I told him I had some good news and a little bad news. Ray being the optimist wanted to start with the good so I congratulated him and said that he had being unanimously elected to the partnership. He was really pleased with the news and then inquired of the other little matter. I said Oh we have a bit of a problem, to wit, Frank our Senior and Managing Partner, and the biggest business producer was leaving the firm immediately and Jack said he was too old to sign a 10 year lease. I will never forget Ray’s reply which was “WOW I get to assume a huge liability by guaranteeing the lease in return for becoming a partner in a firm, whose major source of income has just walked out the door. Those are my kind of odds, love it, I’m all in with you. Let’s get to work.”

The rest is history. The firm name changed to Elias, Matz Tiernan & Herrick, with the addition of Mike Herrick a few months latter, and Ray was my partner for the next forty something years.