During World War II, Mr. C worked for the War Labor Board and the Oak Ridge Project, in addition to carrying on the private practice of law. After the war, he was offered the opportunity to become President of Miami University (Florida) but turned that down to work with the Georgia Textile Manufacturers Association, an employers’ group. He established in 1946 the firm that would later become known as Constangy, Brooks & Smith, LLC. Mr. C’s first partners were Legree Davis and Mildred McClelland, one of the few female attorneys in Atlanta at the time.

In 1950, they were joined by Bill Prowell, formerly an attorney with the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB"). In 1961, the firm became Constangy & Prowell and was considered one of the premier management labor-law firms in the nation. At that time, the primary areas of practice were the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA"), the Taft-Hartley Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA").

Mr. C died in 1971, and several attorneys left the firm over the next two years. Meanwhile, employment law was emerging as a hot new area of litigation, as Title VII was enacted in 1964 (prohibiting discrimination based on race, sex, national origin, religion, and color), followed by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Equal Pay Act, and the Rehabilitation Act. In 1973, Lovic Brooks, who had been hired as an associate in the 1960s, rallied the remaining troops and the firm became known as Constangy, Brooks & Smith. (Jim Smith still practices out of the Atlanta Office, representing clients in the area of labor relations.)

In 1974, the firm opened its first satellite office, in Birmingham, Alabama. The firm continued to expand, opening an office in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1975; an office in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1977; an office in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1991. Similarly, the law continued to expand, with the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 (to take effect in 1992), the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (allowing discrimination plaintiffs to recover compensatory and punitive damages), and the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. In addition to these federal laws, the states were enacting their own individual statutes protecting individual rights and against discrimination. The firm opened its Metro D.C., office in Arlington, Virginia, in 1996. (The office relocated to Fairfax, Virginia, in 2003.)

From 1996-2005, Lee E. Boeke served as the firm’s Managing Chairman.

Beginning in 1999, the firm experienced unprecedented growth. Offices were opened in Macon, Georgia; Tampa, Jacksonville, and Lakeland, Florida; and Kansas City, Missouri in 1999-2000. In 2004, Constangy expanded to Asheville, North Carolina and Austin, Texas. The firm now has 13 offices and more than 100 attorneys, and practices in all areas of labor and employment law. We are still considered one of the premier management labor and employment firms in the nation.

Neil H. Wasser was named Managing Chairman in 2006. Neil is the grandson of the firm’s founder, Frank Constangy.