Archives West Finding Aid

Corette and Corette was a Butte, Montana, law firm founded in 1934 by John E. Corette and his son, Robert D. Corette. Another son, John E. Corette, Jr., joined the firm at a later date. In addition to the firm, with its largely corporate clientele (including the Anaconda Copper Mining Company and Montana Power Company), the Corettes were involved in a number of other enterprises; these included the Metals Bank and Trust Company, Butte; the Mayflower Mining Company; the West Mayflower Mining Company; the Capital Laundry Company, Helena; the New Method Laundry Company, Butte; and the C. and F. Teaming and Trucking Company. Corette and Corette was later renamed Corette, Smith and Dean. John Earl Corette was admitted to the Montana Bar on December 5, 1903, and was first associated with the Butte law firm of Forbis and Evans. When John Forbis retired and L.O. Evans became chief counsel for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company in 1914, Corette carried on the practice under his own name. In the early 1900s, Corette was active in the important mining litigation of the region and was considered a specialist in mining law. As the mining litigation decreased, he developed a general business law practice, and he became a successful corporate lawyer. From 1920 until his death, Corette was general counsel in Montana for the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and beginning in 1940, he served as counsel for the Northern Pacific Railway Company in charge of all legal work for that company in western Montana. John E. Corette died on March 19, 1949.