In 1851, Evarts began his partnership with Charles F. Southmayd (the firm was then named Butler, Evarts & Southmayd), a partnership that would last for the rest of his professional career in one form or the other. In 1859 Evarts invited Joseph Hodges Choate to join the firm (which then became Evarts, Southmayd & Choate), and the firm then had a trial litigator in many ways as talented as Evarts. But it was Southmayd that Evarts depended on to prepare the case, because Southmayd, it was said, "was a lawyer of remarkable knowledge and capacity and dexterity in working up a case." In court, "especially before a jury," however, it was Evarts who shined.