Asa Rountree

John Asa Rountree III (born c. 1926 in Birmingham – died February 11, 2010) was an attorney and author.

Rountree was the son of John Rountree, Jr and his wife, the former Cherokee Jemison Van de Graaff. He attended public schools in Birmingham and Montgomery and graduated from the Capital Page School in Washington D. C. while serving as a page to the U.S. Supreme Court.

During World War II Rountree served in the ordnance corps and as a military policeman. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1949 and, after serving as an infantry officer in the Korean War, he went to Harvard Law School. When he completed his degree in 1954 he returned to Birmingham and joined the firm of Cabaniss & Johnston, where he was made a partner. He was president of the Birmingham Junior Bar Association and vice-president of the Family Counseling Association.

In 1962 Rountree moved to New York, New York to become a partner in the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton. He was a corporate litigator as well as the firm's chief financial officer. During his time there he was one of the founders of the American Bar Association's litigation section, which he chaired in 1980-81. He left in 1991 and returned to Birmingham as a shareholder in the firm of Maynard, Cooper & Gale. He retired from practice in 2000.

Rountree is the author of three published books: The Roman Republic: An Historical Parallel?, Human Nature, Morality, and the State, and Words, Essays and Other Words, and completed numerous other unpublished manuscripts.

Rountree died in 2010. He was survived by his wife, Helen; two sons, Robert and John IV, and two grandchildren.

References

• "Asa Rountree" obituary (February 14, 2010) Birmingham News