History of the Firm

On November 5th, 1980, J. David Cecil, a former law clerk to the late Charles Haden,, II, who had served as Justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and was then Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, Ronald G. Pearson, a former Treasurer of the State of West Virginia and chief of corporate finance, and J. Nicholas Barth, a Charleston lawyer and Certified Public Accountant, opened the offices of Cecil, Pearson & Barth for the practice of law at the corner of the Kanawha Boulevard and Berkeley Street in Charleston’s West Side neighborhood.

In 1985, after Ronald G. Pearson left the firm to become the United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of West Virginia, Stephen L. Thompson, a principal in another Charleston law firm, joined the Firm as a partner and the Firm changed its name to Cecil, Barth & Thompson.

In 1989, seeing the need for additional facilities, the Firm decided to expand the 1930s era building housing its offices in order to better serve its clients. The Firm essentially doubled the size of its offices, adding office space and facilities inside, and a parking area for clients and staff in the rear of the building. The effect of the renovations was that the Firm’s offices now contain 2 soundproof conference rooms for secure client communications, state of the art computer and telecommunications services, and other amenities.

These changes allow us to serve our clients not just more efficiently, but more effectively. We still specialize in business and commercial transactions, real estate, and in resolving disputes through the Courts as well as through mediation and arbitration. We represent and advise both large and small businesses, and individuals, every day.

The Firm continues to serve its clients, including a number of those original clients, from those same offices on Charleston’s convenient West Side. We thought you might be interested to see the transformation of our offices from a small brick house converted into offices, into a modern brick office building, during that 25 years.