Husch Blackwell is pleased to announce that the firm will open an office in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the beginning of the second quarter. The firm is currently in negotiations for office space in Central Minneapolis that can accommodate up to approximately 15 lawyers as firm leadership expects to grow the office rapidly during its first year of operation.
The move to launch a brick-and-mortar office in Minneapolis follows an active year of recruiting talented attorneys in the area. Since May 2022, the firm has added five attorneys—two of whom are partners—across multiple practice areas. The latest addition, partner Rob Kukuljan, arrived at Husch Blackwell on January 13. He joined partner Greg Fontaine, Maureen Clark, Emily Chad, and Andrew Landsman as Minneapolis-based lawyers who have arrived at Husch Blackwell in the last eight months.
“We’ve long had an eye on Minneapolis/St. Paul as an attractive market,” said Husch Blackwell Chief Executive Paul Eberle. “It is adjacent to our existing footprint and has a mix of innovative businesses that slot well into our industry structure, particularly in the areas of healthcare and life sciences, natural resources, manufacturing, and financial services. We are excited at the prospect of adding talented lawyers in key practice areas who share our cultural values around client service, collaboration and teamwork, and diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Minneapolis will become Husch Blackwell’s 22nd office, including The Link, the firm’s virtual office. It is the firm’s first new office launch since 2021, when it opened offices in Boston, Providence, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
“Growth is a key component of our strategic plan,” said Catherine Hanaway, Husch Blackwell’s Chair. “Launching an office in Minneapolis is a natural extension of what we’ve been doing and what we have accomplished over the past few years. We have a great team in the Twin Cities, and it felt like the right time to signal our commitment to the region. We are here to stay and will look to continue growing the team there with excellent lawyers.”
Husch Blackwell has aggressively expanded its attorney ranks during the first two weeks of 2023, adding 13 new attorneys—four at the partner level. The 2023 joinders include multiple fast-growing practice areas, including healthcare, M&A, commercial litigation, and white collar, government investigations and corporate compliance. The latest joinders follow a particularly active 2022 during which the firm attracted a total of 191 lateral attorneys to its network of physical offices and The Link.