Bose McKinney & Evans: a half century of serving the legal needs of clients.

• Author: Beck, Bill
• Position: MILESTONES

MORE THAN A HALF-century ago, a local attorney named Lewis C. Bose left a successful Indianapolis law firm to found what he called "a different kind of law firm." Bose, a World War II veteran, envisioned a law firm that stressed cooperation, mutual respect and excellence. He partnered with other local visionaries to start a firm which would be a leader in the local legal community.

Lew Bose died in 2001 at the age of 83, but five decades after Bose founded the firm, his successors continue to embrace the founding principles. In the spirit of its founder, Bose McKinney & Evans remains dedicated to responsiveness, innovation and excellence.

Firm beginnings. An Indianapolis native, Lew Bose graduated with the Yale Law School class of 1942 that included future U.S. Supreme Court Justices Potter Stewart and Byron "Whizzer" White. After U.S. Navy service during World War II, Bose returned to Indianapolis and began a career in law. Bose, Charlie Cook and Paul Buchanan in 1955 formed the nucleus of the firm that practiced law "from A to Z: adoption to zoning," as one of the partners recalled.

What was then known as Cook Bose & Buchanan added the current firm's second namesake in 1957. Bill Evans was an Indianapolis native who had graduated from Princeton University, earned his law degree at Harvard Law School and obtained a master's degree in law at George Washington University. During World War II, Evans fought with the legendary 10th Mountain Division.

Evans returned to Indianapolis, was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1957 and joined Cook Bose Buchanan & Evans that year. Colleagues remember Evans as a lawyer's lawyer, and he remains one of the few local attorneys to argue and win a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The candidate Evans defeated in that 1957 House race was Bob McKinney, who would become the firm's third namesake. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, McKinney joined Lew Bose, Bill Evans and Paul Buchanan in Bose Buchanan McKinney & Evans in 1963. When he joined the firm, McKinney was already chairman of the city's First Federal Savings and Loan Association, as well as president of four other companies. McKinney's business experience and contacts would be invaluable to the Indianapolis law firm.

Paul Buchanan left the firm in 1971, when he was elected to the Indiana Appellate Court. With his move to the bench, the firm became Bose McKinney & Evans.

Landmark legislation and a new football team. Lew Bose and the...