1951

Howard Wilson and Joe W. Worley founded the firm of Wilson & Worley in 1951.

Howard E. Wilson, a native of Elizabethton, served in World War II with the Office of Strategic Services. Upon graduating from the Washington and Lee University School of Law, he began practicing in Kingsport and forged a sterling reputation in the community.

Joe W. Worley attended East Tennessee State College before graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as the chancellor in the First Chancery District in Tennessee before forming the Firm with Howard Wilson.

William T. (Bill) Gamble was a recognized trial and real estate lawyer who graduated from Vanderbilt Law School. He joined Howard Wilson and Joe Worley to form Wilson Worley & Gamble, P.C., and ultimately practiced in Kingsport for 65 years. He served on the rules advisory committee for the Tennessee Supreme Court was instrumental in the adoption of the Tennessee Rules of Evidence. In the same breath as discussing his accomplishments, his colleagues always remember Mr. Gamble’s love of music and talent playing the flute and the saxophone.

In 2005, Wilson Worley & Gamble, P.C. merged with Moore, Stout, Ledford, and Waddell, P.C.

Frank K. Moore graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy at King’s Point, New York. After graduation, he served as a ship’s officer on various merchant vessels travelling around the world. He left the fleet to enroll in law school at Vanderbilt but was recalled to active duty in the United States Navy during the Korean War. He completed law school after being honorably discharged and moved to Kingsport to begin practicing law.

Dorman L. Stout, a graduate of Dobyns-Bennet High School, earned both his undergraduate and juris doctor degrees at the University of Tennessee. Dorman practiced in Kingsport for over 50 years. A noted real estate attorney, there was hardly a piece of Kingsport that had not been touched by his work. He was a teacher of the law, devoted to his wife, family, faith, and country, and poured his life into his community. To him, Kingsport was truly the Model City.

W. Gorman Waddell was a native of Johnson City. He graduated from East Tennessee State University and the Vanderbilt School of Law. After briefly practicing in Chattanooga, he joined Sanders Moore & Stout in 1965. In 1966, when Moore and Stout left the Sanders firm, Waddell left with them to form Moore, Stout & Waddell P.C.

J. Patrick Ledford, honorably discharged from the U.S. Army and armed with a J.D. from Vanderbilt Law School, started practice in Kingsport in 1970 with Moore, Stout & Waddell. In 1972, he became a partner, and the firm took the name of Moore, Stout, Waddell and Ledford, a name it kept until the merger with Wilson, Worley & Gamble, P.C. to form Wilson Worley Moore Gamble & Stout, P.C. in 2005. Ledford was a talented and successful trial lawyer.

A clipping of the 1952 Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory entry for the newly-minted Wilson & Worley law firm.