It is with extreme sadness that we announce the passing of Palmer C. Hamilton who, at the time of his death, was head of the firm’s Washington, DC office. Palmer died on Friday, October 15, 2021.

Palmer was a partner in the firm’s Government Relations Practice Group who actively represented clients in Congress and advised numerous elected and appointed officials across the country. His governmental experience led him to hold senior posts within several administrations. He was an assistant to the Comptroller of the Currency and as chief of new bank chartering of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Palmer also served on various federal, state, and city boards. Active in the political realm in support of various candidacies, Palmer served as chairman of the Reelection Committee for US Senator Richard Shelby, former chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Palmer, a native of Mobile, Alabama, was deeply committed to preserving historic Mobile architecture and headed revolving funds that successfully restored dozens of historic properties with a value in the tens of millions of dollars. In 2019, he received the Preservationist of Distinction Award from the Historic Mobile Preservation Society recognizing his outstanding work in historic preservation.

With family roots in South Carolina starting as early as the 1680s, Palmer was a member of the South Carolina Society of the Cincinnati and authored several papers for the South Carolina Huguenot Society. Palmer also spent a decade writing a book, The Threads of Liberty, The Pursuit of The Society of the Cincinnati of the State of South Carolina, that was published in 2020. Palmer was adamant that the purpose of this book was to “bring alive again these men as three-dimensional people, not just names and dates.” 

A highlight of Palmer’s many achievements was in 2014, when Queen Elizabeth II of England named him a Knight of the Order of St. John and he became the Prior for the Order in the United States. Recently, he was named to the Board of the Turquoise Mountain Foundation. This is a group originally created by the Prince of Wales and Rory Stewart, the British MP, member of the British Cabinet, and best-selling author. The Foundation has done incredible work in Afghanistan, Jordan, Myanmar, and Saudi Arabia.

While practicing law, Palmer was a regular newspaper columnist reporting on public affairs and financial issues. He served as a reporter for Business Alabama and as a regular weekly columnist for The Mobile Press-Register from 1979 to 2005.

To read Palmer’s obituary, please click here. Our deepest condolences go out to Palmer’s entire family.