Our History

MacDonald Illig is proud of our 125+ year history and is committed to serving the businesses and people of Pennsylvania. Dedicated to helping to shape and grow the community of Erie, our 45+ attorneys and 60+ support staff are actively involved in the business, development, and charitable communities.

As manufacturing jobs have declined, Erie has become a more diversified city with more jobs in insurance, healthcare, education, and tourism. Recent developments have included the Bayfront Convention Center complex, of which we were honored to play a part in.

The firm outgrew the Masonic Building after more than 60 years and moved to the sixth floor of the newly constructed First National Bank Building at 717 State Street, across the street from where it had first operated 75 years earlier. At this time, the firm changed its name to MacDonald, Illig, Jones & Britton, LLP the name it continues to hold to this day.

Also in 1972, Erie proudly won the All-America City Award which recognizes communities “whose citizens work together to identifyand tackle community-wide challenges and achieve uncommon results.” The city has been a finalist on four other occasions.

Economic expansion following World War II heavily influenced the firm during the 1960's when several new lawyers joined including John J. Potter, John D. Wilson, John J. Stroh, Norman H. Stark, T. Warren Jones, and Edward G. Goebel.

Erie reached its peak population in this decade when the 1960 census recorded 138,440 residents. This number declined over subsequent decades as manufacturing jobs left and more and more residents moved to the suburbs.

Henry MacDonald, Orson Graham, his younger brother Mortimer Graham, Frederick Jones, and William Illig joined the firm. The partnership became known as Gifford, Graham, MacDonald & Illig.

World War II led to an influx of lucrative defense contracts to Erie companies including Hammermill, General Electric (GE), and Lord Corporation.

Shortly after the move to the Masonic Building, John S. Rilling was appointed to the Pennsylvania Public Service Commission and moved to Harrisburg. A.O. Chapin and W. Pitt Gifford joined the firm which renamed to become Gunnison, Fish, Gifford & Chapin. Its clients included Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad, Nickel Plate Railroad, United States Steel, Second National Bank, and the William Scott Estate. Henry Fish became a leading corporate attorney, representing Hammermill, American Sterilizer and First National Bank.

During Prohibition, Erie was a wet city with speakeasies opening up across the city. The city was an important transportation hub for rum-running. Prohibition ended when the Twenty-first Amendment was adopted in 1933.

Erie Insurance was founded in 1925, and it has since become a Fortune 500 company and one of Erie’s largest employers.

Presque Isle State Park was established in 1921 and remains a popular tourist destination to this day.

To celebrate the centennial of the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812, Oliver Hazard Perry's flagship Niagara was raised from the bottom of Misery Bay where it had sat for 93 years. Also known as the U.S. Brig Niagara, the ship was returned to Erie where it underwent a major restoration over the following decades. The ship contributed to Erie becoming known as the “Flagship City.”

Gunnison, Rilling, and Fish became the first tenant to occupy part of the top floor of the new Masonic Building at West 8th Street & Peach Street. The Masonic Building was the first building in Erie to have a passenger elevator and the top floor was designed with a library in the center for the common use of several law firms located in the building.

The Erie Public Library was dedicated on February 16, 1899 in a building at 27 South Park Row that also housed the Erie School District’s administrative offices, the Public Museum, and the Art Club of Erie. It was Pennsylvania’s first public library established under the state’s Free Library Act.