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In 1926, Austin was a city of roughly 40,000 people, the University of Texas was still concentrated around its original Forty Acres, and the transformation of the Texas capital into the sprawling metropolitan area it is today remained decades away.
That same year, Jerome Sneed Jr. began practicing law in Austin, establishing what would become one of the city’s enduring law firms.
Now known as Sneed, Vine & Perry, the firm marks its 100th anniversary in 2026. Its history is not simply one of changing names and generations of lawyers, however. Its beginnings tell the story of a family practice that grew alongside Austin itself.
Sneed, who had attended Trinity University and later the University of Texas, worked in Texas government before establishing his private practice. His work would eventually be joined by that of his children and their spouses, making the early firm very much a family enterprise.
After World War II, Sneed’s son, Robert C. Sneed, followed him into the profession. Robert returned from service in the Army Air Corps, completed his legal education at the University of Texas and formally joined the family practice in 1947.
Another important addition came through Sneed’s daughter, Louise.
Louise Sneed had met Harry Vine III while the two attended Austin High School. They married in 1945, shortly after Vine returned from military service. Vine subsequently joined Jerome and Robert Sneed in the practice that became known as Sneed & Vine.
Louise also played a significant role in the business. A University of Texas graduate who had worked as an accountant for Lady Bird Johnson’s KTBC radio station, she spent 40 years as the firm’s office manager and head of accounting.
By the time Jerome Sneed died in 1967, the practice he had begun alone four decades earlier had grown into Sneed & Vine, a firm of 10 attorneys.
Its work also reflected the changing city around it. As Austin expanded during the postwar decades, Sneed & Vine attorneys regularly appeared before city officials representing landowners in zoning, development and real estate matters. Banking, business and government work likewise became important parts of the firm’s practice.
The name continued to evolve as new generations of attorneys became partners. By the early 1970s, it was Sneed, Vine, Wilkerson & Selman. With the addition of Sam R. Perry, the firm became Sneed, Vine, Wilkerson, Selman & Perry before eventually adopting its present name, Sneed, Vine & Perry.
For years, the firm maintained offices on Congress Avenue, placing its attorneys just blocks from the Capitol and Austin City Hall. Its geographic reach eventually expanded as well. Today, the firm maintains offices in both Austin and Georgetown, with approximately 20 attorneys practicing in areas including business law, litigation, real estate, construction, land use, estate planning, taxation and government affairs.
A century separates Jerome Sneed’s original practice from the firm that bears the Sneed and Vine names today. During that time, Austin has grown from a relatively small capital city into one of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas.
The firm that began there in 1926 grew with it.
