Sprenger and Lang closes local office
Nov 22nd, 2009 by Mark Cohen
In yet another sign of the times, Washington, D.C.-based Sprenger and Lang has closed its five-attorney Minneapolis office. (Click here for the Star Tribune story.)
The firm decided the Minneapolis office was too costly to operate.
I thought this was a pretty interesting tidbit from the article. Partner-in-charge Steve Sprenger:
.. wanted some of the Minneapolis attorneys in the firm to buy ownership stakes, or as Sprenger described it, “to share in the risk and reward.” But none of the five attorneys chose to invest.
I have not heard before of a firm trying to tap the attorneys at one of its branch offices for capital in exchange for keeping that office open. It used to be that making partner at a well-known firm meant finally getting to buy the yacht or get membership in that country club. In the new economy, is it going to start meaning that you have to open your checkbook? It gives new meaning to the phrase “I gave at the office.”
While I am sure this has been rare in legal firms, tapping partners in an LLC or shareholders in a closely-held company for capital infusion certainly isn’t that unusual. I guess this is a sign that we are moving inexorably closer to the full realization that law = business.
“Partners” at Sprenger & Lang was a position name, not necessarily equity partners. They were paid well, but weren’t necessarily owners. Paul Sprenger owned it, and nobody who worked there ever forgot it. This is more of a story about the drying up of the class action employment litigation market — or there being too many competitors — than a story about the current economy.
this is really a validation that karma is alive & well. those fiends deserve to take the hit.