FIRM HISTORY

Law firms, like people, have unique personalities. Each is a blend of the characteristics of its predecessors and those of new generations of lawyers which combine to create an entity with familiar yet new characteristics of its own. The predecessors of Wright, Constable & Skeen, L.L.P. were John D. Wright, whose estate, tax and corporate expertise attracted many of Baltimore's successful businesses; the Constable family, whose lawyer members have been a force in Maryland politics and law since the Eighteenth Century; and the Skeens, whose admiralty expertise has been recognized in the Port of Baltimore for over eighty years. These three traditions were joined together in the 1980's to form what is now Wright, Constable & Skeen, L.L.P.

We are pleased to be the Presenting Sponsor of

Maryland Veterans of World War II - "Our Arsenal of Democracy"
at the Maryland Historical Society opened on Veteran's Day 2008 and runs through December 31, 2009.

Francis N. "Ike" Iglehart (1925-2007)

We honor and acknowledge with deep gratitude the great veterans from Maryland who served in every theater of the war. The history of our Firm includes many veterans, two of whom we mention here.

Of Counsel to the Firm at the time of his death, Ike fought in the Battle of the Bulge, wherein 10 soldiers in his squad of 12 were killed. In a memoir of his military experience, Ike recounted, "Two eighteen year old replacements in a hole ten yards to the left were killed instantly by direct hit, and we struggled to the company command post after nightfall with a party of four dragging their bodies in blankets." Ike was awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Combat Infantry Badge, and three campaign stars.

Click here to read Mr. Iglehart's World War II memoir, The Short Life of the ASTP, published by American Literary Press (1997), permission for which was graciously provided by Mr. Iglehart's family.

John Henry "Jack" Skeen, Jr. (1915-1987)

Major Jack Skeen was a young lawyer with little experience in December 1945 when General Douglas MacArthur appointed him as chief defense counsel in the war crimes trial of Japanese General Homma Masaharu, "the Beast of Bataan". Although Homma was convicted, his sentence of facing a firing squad as opposed to hanging was considered a victory -- a more honorable death for a soldier. Pictured: Major Skeen and General Homma at war crimes trial in Manila, Philippines, 1946.

Click here to read the article and view photographs, including courtroom scenes, from "The Trial of General Homma", American Heritage magazine (February/March 2007).