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BarJournal FEATuRE

JULY/AUGUST 2015
extrA Legal Legacy

McDonald Hopkins

BY SHAWN M. RILEY

cDonald Hopkins may be making a difference in the educational system attended one-room country schoolhouses,
preparing to celebrate its 90th of its home city. In 2018, the firm announced enjoyed the practice of law, brought high
year in 2020, but the firm’s its participation in the Cleveland Indians standards to their practices, and participated
deep ties to the Cleveland Community Partners program, the baseball club’s in community affairs.
Mcommunity actually date back effort to strengthen youth in Greater Cleveland The McDonald family was well served by its
more than a century to 1918 when founder through service initiatives focusing on education, dedication to education and hard work. Tim
Thomas Frasier “Tim” McDonald joined the health and fitness. Under the leadership of was the fifth of 12 children. Born in 1890 on
Navy during World War I and found himself President Shawn Riley and Cleveland Managing the family farm, he earned his undergraduate
stationed on the Lake Erie shore. Member David Kall, McDonald Hopkins degree in 1913 and graduated from the
The 28-year-old farm boy from Iowa fell in doubled down on its community outreach effort University of Iowa Law School in 1918 before
love with Northeast Ohio. After the war ended, in 2019, adding partnerships with Say Yes to immediately enlisting in the Navy and settling
McDonald decided to settle in Cleveland. He Education and College Now of Greater Cleveland in Cleveland. One of his brothers, Bert, also
spent a few years working for a brokerage firm to help recruit mentors for low-income, first- found his way to Cleveland, where he founded
before passing the bar in 1922. In 1930, he generation college students. the brokerage firm of McDonald & Company.
founded the firm that would eventually become McDonald Hopkins also started a Leaders in Another brother, Harry, was appointed by
McDonald Hopkins. Education Lunch Series to highlight the work President Harry S. Truman to the SEC in 1947
Even as the firm has grown over the years being done in the community to prioritize and later became its chairman.
into a home for more than 140 attorneys education under the theory that educating and Hopkins was born in 1909 on his family’s
practicing in six cities, McDonald Hopkins can training the workforce will help to end poverty. 80-acre farm near Savannah, Ohio. After
still trace its passion for making a difference in These efforts would have made founder graduating from the College of Wooster and
the community, its commitment to education McDonald and his partners W. Dean spending a summer selling atlases door-to-
and its entrepreneurial spirit to those early Hopkins and H. Guy Hardy proud. Known door, the 21-year-old Hopkins hitchhiked
days in Cleveland. as McDonald, Hopkins & Hardy from 1952- to Massachusetts and enrolled at Harvard
1990, the three men, although each separated Law School. As soon as he passed the bar
From One-Room Schoolhouses To Firm in age by 28 years, all had matching values examination in June 1932, he accepted a job
Founders formed from similar backgrounds. McDonald, with a firm in Cleveland for $50 a month.
Today’s McDonald Hopkins is committed to Hopkins, and Hardy all were born on farms, He was so admired that the monthly salary
was quickly upped to $75. By 1943 he had his
name on the door of the firm Fackler, Dye &
IMMIGRATION LAW Hopkins. Early in his career he performed
legal work for community leaders such as Dr.
Knowledge. George Crile, the founder of Cleveland Clinic,
Experience.Confidence. and for O.P. and M.J. Van Sweringen, the
Comprehensive immigration legal services developers of the Terminal Tower complex.
for employers, individuals and families. In 1946, Hopkins became McDonald’s first
official partner in the firm McDonald, Hopkins
& Hood. (While William D. Hood’s name was
on the letterhead, he was not a partner.)
Like McDonald, Hardy was also born on
Cleveland | Columbus | Orlando | Raleigh-Durham
his family’s Iowa farm and was a graduate of
1468 West 9th Street, Suite 705
Cleveland, Ohio 44113 the University of Iowa and its law school. He
216.861.4414 | 888.861.4414 joined the firm in 1947 after serving in the U.S.
www.rbrownllc.com
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