2017 – Our 93rd Anniversary

Voorhies & Labbé is well-established in Lafayette. This year, 2015, we celebrate 91 years of client service. We thank our clients and appreciate the opportunity to serve them. We will strive to provide exceptional service to our clients for the next 91 years and beyond.

In 1924, two Lafayette businessmen, Mr. Bennett J. Voorhies and Mr. Donald Labbé, formed the partnership of Voorhies and Labbé. They began with only two secretaries on staff. Coolidge was President and Prohibition was in effect.

The firm was first located on the corner of Main and Buchanan in a small wooden structure across from the Parish courthouse (shown here). The office moved to its current location at 700 St. John Street in the mid-1980s.

In 1924, there were approximately 12 lawyers in Lafayette, all of whom would take any kind of legal work available. It was a struggle to survive through 1929 and then the Depression hit and business was slow through the late 1930s and early 1940s. The firm grew tremendously with the concurrent growth of Lafayette and the oil center in the 1950s.

Many of the firm’s first clients were pillars of the local economy during the early years – Lafayette Lumber Company, Billeaud Sugar Factory and Broussard Feed and Seed. Others, like Home Bank (formerly Home Savings and Loan and Home Savings Bank) laid the foundation for growth and prosperity and continue to do so today.

It is important to remember where we came from and we remind ourselves that “The heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future” – Anonymous