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Longmont's Oldest Profession
Contributed by: Alan Pare on 3/10/2008


Fistfights at the irrigation ditch, mediation over a few brews around the kitchen table, debating the opposing positions of a case around a card table-not quite Boston Legal, but neither is it what you might expect from a respectable law firm. Nevertheless, these are stories from the not-so-distant past of the law firm of Flanders & Elsberg, the longest lived business in Longmont. Not only is the firm the oldest in town, F&E could ably defend the claim (they are attorneys, after all) that they are the oldest continuously active law firm in all of Colorado.

Established as the Carr & Day firm in 1871, the same year that the Chicago-Colorado Colony charter was granted, it has evolved through several changes of partners and locations in over a century of practicing law. Col. Byron Carr (who lost a thumb and an arm in the Civil War) and Charles Day formed the initial partnership and set up practice in the St. Vrain Hotel on Longmont's Main Street. In 1882, the firm became Carr & Secor after the arrival of Franklin Secor from Wisconsin. Secor's descendents became partners in turn, and John C. Flanders is the current reigning Flanders of the firm, the great-grandson of Franklin Secor and himself a fourth generation attorney. He and Lee Elsberg helm the current incarnation of the firm.

Today the firm specializes in complex tax issues, real estate transactions, and estate planning. Old newspaper articles and advertisements attest that the various embodiments of the firm have been involved in real estate since the earliest days of the Chicago colony. An ad in the October 2, 1872 Longmont Press proclaims: "Carr & Day, sole agents for the sale of Colony lands", selling colony memberships at $155 each.

After the Great Fire of 1879 rendered the St. Vrain Hotel a heap of smoldering bedsteads and ruined furniture and sent charred legal documents adrift in the streets, the firm's offices wandered up and down Main Street until settling in at 401 Main where it has been comfortable since 1964.

I had the chance to sit down with the partners, John Flanders and Lee Elsberg, to discuss the changes in Longmont over the years-business in general and law practice in particular. Elsberg arrived in Longmont in 1978 and hooked up with team Flanders in 1997; Flanders is a Longmont native. From his father and his grandfather, Flanders learned an awareness of historicity, of knowing that he walks in the footsteps of his forebears. Unlike recent transplants into the area, he is keenly aware that life in Longmont is a continuum that did not start with the influx of high-tech industry or the FAA flight control center or even Great Western's sugar mill. Stories told him by his dad and grandpa inform John's world view and his ethical sense, and these he in turn infuses into the firm.

The way that law is practiced has evolved since the 1870s, due to societal progress and technological changes, and not necessarily for the better. Flanders tells of typical handling of cases in his father's day. Laurence Flanders and Ted Schey, a partner of the other major law firm in town, used to meet at Longmont Drug for coffee every day to discuss the cases that they were representing for opposing clients. In this informal atmosphere they would debate the right and wrong of things and how best to serve their clients. According to Flanders' father, for twenty to thirty years no lawsuits went to trial out of Longmont. "That level of civility and collegiality is not always present in today's legal world", says Flanders. "Everybody knew everybody, and there wasn't the competitive edge."

Back in the day of Flanders' grand-uncle Gray Secor, there was a traveling whist game in Longmont and Hygiene, the players including attorneys, farmers, and veterinarians. Rumor has it that it was out of the back of the vet's clinic on Main Street that illicit booze filtered its way into the community during the 30s. Whereas it was pinochle and whist that served in the 30s as a backdrop for out-of-court and off-the-record legal discussions, it's golf today, and clubs like the Rotary Club and Odd Fellows.

Flanders relates stories of more recent successful dispute resolution outside the normal channels. On one occasion, he met with feuding farmers in a kitchen with a six-pack, and before parting, the farmers had decided that they didn't really have a dispute after all. Not until they received billing from Flanders, at any rate.

According to Elsberg, "That's how we guide our clients. Try to work it out, try to avoid disputes and lawsuits if possible. Lawsuits are only a last resort." Flanders agrees: "If people end up in the legal system, they've lost. The lawyers win. You can win your case, but you've lost sleep, years on your life, emotions, and a lot of money."

In Flanders' view, a good lawyer manages the client rather than the client using the attorney as a mechanism for filing motions and restraining orders and creating a lot of fees. Good lawyers can resolve an issue in twenty minutes and spend two hours with their client to bring the matter to a close; the wrong lawyer can take two years and cost everyone thousands of dollars due to not doing things face to face. "The human element is big in how fast things get resolved."

Elsberg stresses that they do everything they can to keep people out of court. With some pride Flanders concurs: "That's been the culture from my family."

An on-location meeting of the minds doesn't always work out as well as the example of the two farmers, however. Flanders also recalls that on one occasion early in his practice, he set up a meeting between attorneys at a disputed water headgate. This summit started out amicably enough, but soon deteriorated into a fistfight.

The firm's partners have always been immersed in the community - churches, schools, fraternal organizations, hospital board. Flanders has coached little league basketball for twenty years and has served on the hospital board off and on for thirty; Elsberg is active in Odd Fellows. "We like doing those things, helping the town out." However, does community involvement enhance the firm's stature in a world that increasingly conducts their business remotely without ever seeing the people they're trading with?

"Does a person that moves to Longmont care that we're the ones that have been here 135 years?" asks Elsberg. "Convenience downtown doesn't matter, bricks and mortar don't matter."

Today it's easy for people to try to take care of legal things themselves, matters such as wills, trusts, and powers of attorney. The partners caution against this since as some of the firm's casework involves cleaning up people's messes.

"There are more laws than ever, but less certainty. It's a big paradox," says Flanders. When he grew up, the whole of the Longmont city code filled about 30 pages. In the 1950s, with a rule like "no nuisances", everybody knew what that was. If you had a loud party, if your dog barked all night, if you rode around in a loud car, those were nuisances. There was no need for mind-numbing levels of minute details.

Today the code is enormous-far too voluminous for one man or law firm to keep in his head, and perhaps too massive not to contain contradictions. There are height restrictions, regulations about what kind of grass, what color tulips, what kind of bricks can be used. An exaggeration? Maybe, but the point is made: today's proliferation of rules and regulations renders complex what used to be straightforward. People will come to the firm with questions about starting a business...can I do this, can I do that? "My dad or great-uncle could tell you," says John, "but we can't. We don't always know. There's always a degree of ambiguity."

If the lawyers themselves live with this level of uncertainty and recognize that very few things in the law are strictly black and white, how can the average guy with his laptop and wireless connection and freebie will-making software have a hope of producing a legitimate document? The partners caution against do-it-yourselfers. Elsberg says, "It's more dangerous if you do it yourself".

When asked about significant differences between the practice today versus the good ol' days, Elsberg responds, "Today it's anonymous. The emails and process where people don't make any attempt to resolve anything without a lot of work and a lot of process and expensive legal efforts. And then sometimes they must meet face to face only when it's mandated by the court."

Flanders expands on this idea of technology changing the face of business-all business, including the legal trade. "There are fewer jobs than ever, so you have to be more skilled or trained to make money. Any job that can be done overseas is going over there. The world is one big place." Ten years ago, the firm's operation required the dedicated activity of 19 people, each with their own set of skills; today have same volume of work is done with eight people due to technology.

Not so very long ago, every real estate transaction required lawyers to ensure that all the documents were properly prepared, but no more. Flanders' great grandfather would go to courthouse and physically examine the deeds. Today that process has been replaced by title companies and is almost to the point of being able to do it all online. These days the firm deals with complex things like shopping centers or where there are mineral or water issues. There are fewer transactions for the firm, but they are far more complicated. "Intellectually," says Flanders, "it's more fun work than ever."

If anything ties together 1870s and 2000s Longmont, it's concern for water and water rights. The very first newspaper that still exists from the early Burlington days raises concerns on page one over the availability of water: "Will there be water enough for us all is the question some of the new settlers are inclined to ask. We say...go ahead with your ditches." Flanders points out that during a recent Longmont city council meeting the subject of water came up again. "It could have been the same set of speeches you would have heard in 1872."

Water rights have always been a big deal around here. Every cubic inch of water in the six water systems is allocated - an amazingly efficient, well-run system. The firm has always dealt with land, water, and mineral rights because that's what generates wealth; they are the constants that serve as the economic basis across changing times. The firm, specifically Flanders's great-grandfather, Frank Secor, was instrumental in the very first water rights case which now appears in every textbook dealing with the subject.

The partners describe an ironic turn of circumstances that has played out all over the Longmont area. This area is not a good area to farm, particularly the farther West you go. Back in the early Longmont days, everyone, especially the farmers, had little money. It was a hard life trying to grow crops on rock, and survival in this near-desert area was not a given. When Flanders was a boy, his grandfather L. B. Flanders, a banker, told him that someday there would be houses from Cheyenne to Colorado Springs. Why? Because of the climate. According to the elder Flanders, "This is the best climate in the world, and it's going to get found out". He wasn't too far from wrong; people have been relocating here ever since the Chicago colonists planted themselves on the bluff overlooking the St. Vrain. Today the descendants of those hard-bitten, dirt-poor, tough-spirited farmers are becoming wealthy. They're selling their farms to big real estate developers, and Flanders & Elsberg are doing their estate planning and managing their assets. And it could well have been Carr & Day that handled the purchase of the land back in Colony days.

Anyone who's driven in Longmont for more than ten minutes has noted the peculiar way that many of the north-south streets don't meet up at intersections, for instance, all those crazy dog-legs at 9th Avenue. John explained this to me, and it boils down to real estate law and respect for survey marks established many years ago. Those early marks were based on instruments that are crude compared to today's satellite imaging, and often set by men who may not have been entirely sober, and perhaps based on changing land formations. Seldom did any two surveys duplicate each other. Current technology can pinpoint where boundaries "should" be, but, says Flanders, "what matters is the guy in 1870 and where he put the pin. It doesn't matter if it's right any more. We can't have chaos; we have to recognize that old pin."

Flanders has no plans to leave the firm (he and Elsberg both very much love their work), but there is no fifth generation Flanders in the wings to carry on the family's name in the firm. Yet, the firm will continue much as it has for 136 years, transforming itself, in form if not in nature, to meet the demands of changing times. An outfit with this sort of longevity has a lot going for it: reliability, endurance, entrenchment, and a reputation for ethical behavior

Flanders & Elsberg conducts business at 401 Main Street and maintains a web presence at FlandersLaw.com. You can contact their offices at 303-776-5380 or via email at info@flanderslaw.com.




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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
Submitted By: Alan Pare
posted on 3/14/2008 @ 8:13:42 AM
(Not Rated)
Thanks for the positive comments, Richard. Messrs. Flanders and Elsberg were great guys to chat with. Mr. Flanders told many interesting anecdotes passed along from his grandfather, too many to include in my piece, about early Longmont days.
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Submitted By: Richard Yale
posted on 3/13/2008 @ 9:49:23 AM
Rated Story
An excellent article on the practice of practical law in Longmont over the last 135 action packed years. The community is thankful for a Mayor Flanders whose election in 1927 blessed the entire community with the expulsion of the KKK cancer that plagued Boulder and Longmont at the time.
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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Alan Pare

Longmont , CO

Alan Pare has posted 1 story and 1 comment since joining on 1/2/2008. Alan Pare 's average story rating is 5.
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