Los Angeles County
Biographies
WILLIAM ELLSWORTH DUNN
DUNN, WILLIAM ELLSWORTH,
Attorney at Law, Los Angeles, California, was born at Douglas, Michigan,
August 2, 1861, the son of George E. Dunn and Ellen V.
(Dickinson) Dunn. He married Nellie M. Briggs, January 3, 1883, at Grand
Rapids, Michigan.
Mr. Dunn received his preliminary education in the
Allegan High School at Allegan, Michigan, and later attended a preparatory
school, following this with one year in the Law Department of the University of
Michigan at Ann Arbor. In 1885 he moved to Los Angeles, where he continued his
law studies, and was admitted to the Bar of California in 1887. He has been
active in the practice of Law in Los Angeles since that time and has attained a
substantial position among the leading attorneys of the West.
In 1890 Mr. Dunn was appointed Assistant City Attorney of
Los Angeles and served in that capacity for four years, at the end of which
time he was elected City Attorney, serving for four years more. During this
period he represented the city in various important litigations, chief among
the cases being the so-called “water suits.” These were the outgrowth of a
dispute between the city and the Los Angeles Water Co. over the amount to be
paid by the city for the company’s property. The controversy was submitted to
arbitration, but the company refused to accept the decision of the arbitrators,
enjoined the city from issuing bonds and filed various other actions.
Mr. Dunn handled the city’s side in all these suits and, after the
expiration of his term in office was retained as Special Counsel for the city.
Finally, after much bitter fighting, he came out victorious.
As a member of the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, one of the most important on the Pacific Coast,
Mr. Dunn has confined himself entirely to corporation law, a great deal of
his work being done in connection with Hon. James A. Gibson, former Judge
of the Superior Court of San Bernardino County, California. For many years
Mr. Dunn served as legal adviser to the Pacific Electric Railway Company,
the Los Angeles Railway Company, the Los Angeles-Redondo Railway Company, the
Huntington Land Company and other of the gigantic enterprises in Southern
California, of which Henry E. Huntington is or has been the head.
In 1909 Mr. Huntington disposed of the Pacific Electric
Railway and the Redondo road, together with all his other interurban lines
connecting Los Angeles with contiguous territory, to the Southern Pacific
Railroad Company, but retained for himself the Los Angeles local lines. This
was one of the largest transactions, railway or otherwise, ever consummated in
the West and Mr. Dunn prepared and handled for Mr. Huntington most of
the details connected with the enormous transfer. The successful outcome of
these negotiations, which were perfected down to the minutest detail, justified
fully the confidence which the Huntington interests had placed in
Mr. Dunn.
After Mr. Huntington sold the Pacific Electric Railway he
entered more actively than ever into the development of the Los Angeles Railway
Company’s lines and the Huntington Land Co., and Mr. Dunn, while
continuing in his legal capacity, has kept a supervisory eye over all the vast
Huntington interests in the Southwest.
Mr. Dunn is a man of great force and strength of
character, and deals constantly with questions of the most vital nature in the
legal world. As the one man most intimately acquainted with the inner details
of Mr. Huntington’s plans, he has been compelled to look after the
relations existing between Los Angeles City and County and the enterprises of
his chief. Though anything of a political character in connection with his
professional work has always been very distasteful to Mr. Dunn, it falls
to him, in his legal capacity, to direct all proposals, applications and
defenses for or affecting the Huntington interests, before the City Council and
County Supervisors; and in this way he has been of monumental service to the
city and county, as well as to the direct interests which he represents, and
his achievements are distinctly apparent in much of the great development that
has taken place in Southern California in recent years.
During his years of activity in California, Mr. Dunn has
been a staunch supporter of the Republican party and
one of its strongest and ablest members.
In his business and professional work he is conservative,
with the faculty of being able to look into the future without over-estimating,
and it is to this attribute, added to his native ability and aggressiveness,
that his success is largely due.
He is a member of the California Club, Jonathan Club, Los
Angeles Country Club and the Bolsa Chica Gun Club, and is prominent in the affairs of the Los
Angeles Bar Association.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
31 August 2010.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 501, International
News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2010 Marie Hassard .
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