Blades & Rosenfeld began its existence in 1921 under the name of Blades, Rosenfeld & Frederick when Webster S. Blades, Moses W. Rosenfeld and Eugene Frederick left the law firm of Harry B. Wolf, where all three had been young associates, to establish their own firm.

Webster S. Blades came from a small town on the eastern shore of Maryland near Denton. He graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis, which at that time was a military school. He then obtained his law degree from Harvard Law School.

Moses W. Rosenfeld graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1912 at the age of 19 years, and he graduated from University of Maryland Law School two years later. He was admitted to the Maryland Bar that same year.

After law school, Webster Blades, Moses Rosenfeld and Eugene Frederick started their legal careers at the law firm of Harry B. Wolf, who was an outstanding criminal and civil trial lawyer. Mr. Wolf represented many large corporations as a trial lawyer, including the Baltimore Gas & Electric Company and the B & O Railroad. Mr. Wolf's seven-person law office was considered a moderately large law office in the early part of this century, and working for Mr. Wolf (who had no partners) was an excellent opportunity to learn the art of lawyering from one of the best in the City.

In 1921, Blades, Rosenfeld and Frederick decided to strike out on their own and rented an office in the Fidelity Building at Charles and Lexington Streets. One of the reasons that the new firm had selected the Fidelity Building for its office was that the building served as headquarters for the U.S. Fidelity & Guaranty Company which maintained a complete law library in the building and made it available to its lawyer-tenants at no charge.

The three young partners opened their office on a Monday morning without a secretary, and with a few files of matters they were handling for their own clients. The story goes that by noon of the first day, after having to type for themselves for a few hours, they reconsidered and hired a secretary. That first secretary was Margaret Thron, who worked in their office for many years and eventually married an associate of the firm.

Mr. Frederick, who specialized in divorce law, left the firm shortly after it opened and the name became Blades & Rosenfeld. Mr. Blades specialized in corporate matters and litigation. Indeed, Mr. Blades became such an expert in litigation that he wrote the at-the-time definitive law book on pleading causes of action in Maryland, which reference book was a staple in every law library in the State for many years.

Mr. Rosenfeld chose to immerse himself in business law of every description, as well as in tax and estate planning when both of those specialties were relatively new. To this day, Blades & Rosenfeld is known for its expertise in tax, business law and estate planning.

When the concept of Private Family Foundations first developed, Mr. Rosenfeld became an expert in their promotion, formation and operation. He considered them an important charitable vehicle. In fact, he became such a successful advocate for Private Family Foundations that Congress called Mr. Rosenfeld to testify about them. Mr. Rosenfeld was so experienced that he became the attorney of record for over sixty Foundations.

Julius Novey became the first associate of Blades & Rosenfeld. Mr. Novey, while attending high school, searched real estate titles for a living. After high school, his collegiate studies were interrupted when he went directly from City College to the University of Maryland Law School, which was permissible at that time, since admission to law school did not then require an undergraduate degree. Mr. Novey worked his way through law school by continuing to search titles and he eventually became a real estate expert. At Blades & Rosenfeld he specialized in business law, corporate law, and of course, real estate.

For many years Blades & Rosenfeld remained a small law firm of three or four attorneys. The firm eventually started to expand its hiring in 1952, when Charles M. Cahn, Jr., an honors graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School joined the firm after service as an Army Officer in World War II and the Korean Conflict. Two years later, Paul C. Wolman, Jr., a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and another Harvard Law School graduate, joined the firm. In 1960 Eugene H. Schreiber, a C.P.A., was engaged by Blades & Rosenfeld after graduating from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland Law School, having practiced accounting and having served for several years as comptroller of Schreiber Brothers, Inc., a family-owned food store chain. In 1965, Theodore C. Mitchell, a University of Maryland Law School graduate with substantial trial experience, joined the firm and established its litigation department.

Originally a partnership, Blades & Rosenfeld became the first law firm in the State of Maryland to become a Professional Corporation on July 1, 1969 at which time it added the letters "P.A." to its name.

The pace of hiring new associates who became partners accelerated. Sanford D. Schreiber, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Franklin and Marshall College and an Honors graduate and Law Review Editor at the University of Maryland Law School joined the firm in 1972, followed by Jerome G. Geraghty, a business and tax specialist, who received an LLM degree from Georgetown University in 1976. Charles H. Palmer, III, an estate and trust specialist, joined the firm in 1982, followed in 1983 by David L. Jacobson, a litigator, and a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University Law School, who became head of litigation in 1997. Charles J. Siegel came to the firm in 1986 to practice corporate, taxation and real estate law. Mr. Siegel was both an undergraduate and a law school honors graduate of the University of Maryland. Jennifer Conron Jackson, an honors graduate of Loyola College of Maryland for both her undergraduate and MBA degrees, as well as a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law, joined the litigation department in 1994, after having served as a summer associate with the firm in 1991.

The firm left the Fidelity Building in 1976 after 55 years at that location and moved one block south to One Charles Center where it remained for 10 years until the Chessie System occupied that entire building. In 1986 Blades & Rosenfeld, P.A. moved to its present offices further south on Charles Street in the Sun Life Building.

Blades & Rosenfeld, P.A.
20 South Charles Street
1200 Sun Life Building
Baltimore, Maryland 21201

Phone: 410.539.7558
Fax: 410.539.7524

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