Freeland & Freeland

Freeland & Freeland and its predecessor firms, particularly James Stone & Sons, have been located at 1013 Jackson Avenue in Oxford since 1905. Throughout its history the firm's main work has been civil litigation, particularly complex litigation in federal and state court. The firm has had a long tradition of outstanding appellate advocates, including Phil Stone, Taylor McElroy, a former justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court, James L. Robertson, also a former justice of the Supreme Court, and currently, T. H. Freeland, III. Among important appellate cases argued by T. H. Freeland, III are Papasan v. Allain, 478 U.S. 265 (1986), which involved equal protection and school finance, Reaves v. Foster, 191 So. 2d 423 (Miss. 1966), and 200 So. 2d 453 (Miss. 1967), the first Mississippi libel case applying the Sullivan doctrine, and Ellzey v. Fyr-Pruf Inc., 376 So. 2d 453 (Miss. 1979), a leading case in the area of corporate governance and the doctrine of corporate opportunity.

In Papasan, the Firm successfully represented schools and schoolchildren in twenty-three counties of North Mississippi. This case resulted in substantial additional funding for the schools in the counties involved.

The firm is located in a Victorian building that has been a law office for over a hundred years. William Faulkner's early novels were typed by the secretaries there, as a result of Faulkner's friendship with Phil Stone, with whom T. H. Freeland, III, began practice in 1958.

The firm has long practiced railroad and insurance defense and corporate litigation. Both T. H. Freeland, III and T. H. Freeland, IV became early experts in Mississippi law involving defense of bad faith insurance claims, publishing a leading article and lecturing on the subject. Additionally important areas of practice have been banking law, both in litigation on behalf of banks and in litigation involving failed banks, real estate practice, civil rights litigation, and employer/employee litigation. The firm has a long tradition of bar service and pro bono work, particularly in the area of capital defense.