Lloyd Lochridge died at 103 on April 13, 2021, in Austin. His obituary can be read online here. He served as State Bar of Texas president from 1974 to 1975. In recognition of Lochridge, we are reprinting this “Legal Legends” article that was printed in the June 2018 Texas Bar Journal.

By Mitchell C. Chaney

Lloyd Lochridge turned 100 in February and still goes to the office most workdays. For Lochridge, the law profession has been interesting enough that he still likes to practice.

Lloyd Lochridge’s State Bar of Texas presidential portrait.

Born in Austin in 1918, Lochridge and his family moved to New York in the early 1920s. In 1938, he graduated with honors with a degree in economics from Princeton University. Lochridge received an acceptance letter from Harvard Medical School on the same day. He decided to become a lawyer, and in 1941, he graduated from Harvard Law School. Lochridge entered the U.S. Navy as an ensign that same year and served through 1945 (he was released on inactive duty in 1946 as a lieutenant commander).

In November 1945, Lochridge and the love of his life, Frances “Francie” Potter, whom he married in 1943, moved to Mission, where he began to practice law with an uncle, Vernon B. Hill, for $250 a month. While living in the Rio Grande Valley, he served as vice president and president of the Hidalgo County Bar Association and was on the State Bar of Texas Grievance Committee in Hidalgo County, eventually serving as its chair.

In 1959, the couple moved their family from Mission to Austin, where Lochridge joined a childhood friend, Bob McGinnis, at the firm of Powell, Rauhut, McGinnis, Reavley & Lochridge. His practice was varied, trying both sides of the docket and representing clients in appellate cases. He continued volunteering after moving to Austin, working on various Travis County Bar Association committees, serving on the board of directors and as its president from 1970 to 1971, and on numerous State Bar of Texas committees, serving as president of the State Bar from 1974 to 1975.

His bar work continued on the national level. Lochridge was a State Bar of Texas delegate to the American Bar Association House of Delegates and served on various ABA committees and as a member of the Executive Council of the National Conference of Bar Presidents. He is a life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and American Bar Foundation. In 2000, Lochridge was awarded the American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Fifth Circuit. Ten years later, the second Central Texas American Inn of Court was named the Lloyd Lochridge American Inn of Court.

Lochridge has been a voracious advocate for pro bono work, both by devoting hundreds of hours on an annual basis to pro bono clients and by encouraging service by members of his firm. Lochridge was quoted as advising his law firm, “You’ve got to make enough money to where you can attract the people that you want to have here, and yet it seems to me we ought to somehow be able to have some compassion and ought to be able to do our bit for legal aid, for the indigent and the underprivileged … and to encourage it with everyone.”

In addition to serving the profession, Lochridge also has been involved in many local civic organizations. In the Rio Grande Valley, he served on the boards of many educational and charitable organizations, including the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. In fact, in 2014, he was awarded the National Eagle Scout Association Outstanding Eagle Scout Award for his longstanding support and affiliation with scouting—so long, that while an Eagle Scout, he was an honor guard in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inaugural parade. In Austin, he has been a member of the Salvation Army Advisory Board for 50 years and served as its chairman and president. He has been involved with many other organizations.

And he has been a mentor to the younger lawyers who came through his firm. One of those attorneys was his son, Patton “Pat” Lochridge, who had offers from many outstanding firms in Austin and Texas but couldn’t get an interview with the firm he wanted to work for most, his dad’s. Firm members tell the story that Lochridge was concerned about the challenges faced by the “son of the boss” joining the firm. Without telling Lochridge, several of the partners interviewed Pat and said they wanted to hire him notwithstanding how Lloyd felt about it. The partners won—Pat was hired and practiced with the firm his entire career, managing the firm for 10 years.

In May 2017, Lochridge and Pat were both inducted as Texas Legal Legends by the State Bar of Texas Litigation Section. To this day, Lochridge continues to serve the profession as a role model.

Mitchell C. Chaney is a partner in McGinnis Lochridge in Austin, where he focuses on civil and commercial litigation.