Michael Best & Friedrich plans Waukesha County office

Michael Best & Friedrich will open the largest law office in Waukesha County next spring in Pewaukee. The firm has signed a five-year lease for 20,600 square feet in the new Two Riverwood Place office building, N19 W24133 Riverwood Dr.
Scheduled to open March 1, the full-service practice will offer a broad range of personal and commercial legal services and will initially include 20 attorneys.
The move is the third in recent years by a major downtown Milwaukee law firm to Waukesha County. In October 2000, Godfrey & Kahn established a Waukesha office at N21 W23350 Ridgeview Pkwy., and in January of this year, Davis & Kuelthau established an office in Elm Grove as part of an acquisition. Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek has had an office in Menomonee Falls for more than four years. Two other Milwaukee-based law firms have also explored opening offices in Waukesha County, according to Waukesha Economic Development Corp. executive director Bill Mitchell.
“I think it’s a competitive issue,” Mitchell said.
The Waukesha office announcement marks Michael Best & Friedrich’s third major expansion in eight months. Since May, the firm has acquired two practices in Chicago, increasing its staff there to more than 100 attorneys. Overall, the firm now has more than 340 attorneys.
“We have remained in expansion mode because we believe in the underlying resilience of the economy,” said John Sapp, managing partner.
Sapp outlined several reasons for opening an office in Waukesha County. “We have a growing clientele in the area, and this will enable us to provide more convenient service. By establishing our attorneys as good citizens of the community they serve, we hope to strengthen client relations.”
The office will be staffed by new hires and by current members of the firm who live in Waukesha County and have volunteered to relocate their practices from downtown Milwaukee. That group includes management committee member Chuck Graupner.
Sapp said the market for legal services in Waukesha County is still expanding and is nowhere near saturated. “The region continues to grow economically and in population. For firms such as ours, which are strong in both business and personal finance, this creates new service opportunities.”
The Waukesha County office will be organized into seven practice areas: corporate and business; estate and financial planning; intellectual property; labor, employment law and employee benefits; land and resources (environmental/real estate); litigation; and taxation.
Michael Best & Friedrich also has offices in Milwaukee, Madison, Manitowoc, Chicago and Lehigh Valley, Pa.
Dec. 21, 2001 Small Business Times, Milwaukee