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100% Club Spotlight Greene Espel has been called “a different kind of law firm.” It’s a label that the firm is proud to wear. With a diverse client list ranging from the Fortune 500 to the public sector, the firm’s 17 attorneys maintain the kind of sophisticated business and governmental litigation practice typically associated with larger, more traditional firms. Founded in 1993, the Minneapolis firm quickly gained notoriety for its progressive organizational model. The firm avoids terms like “partner” and “associate” – and the hierarchy that those terms imply. Instead, all attorneys are considered “members” of the firm who may attain equity membership status. Regardless of their equity status, however, each attorney is entitled to vote on all firm decisions including hiring and compensation. Some of those decisions are made at annual retreats where attorneys ratify their individual and collective goals for the coming year. The firm’s seven paralegals also conduct their own goals and objectives process and hold their own separate planning retreat. For a firm of its size, Greene Espel has attracted attorneys with a remarkable range of experience and skills. Many of the firm’s attorneys come from prestigious national and international law firms, while others have served in the offices of state attorneys general. Some bring with them backgrounds in other disciplines such as accounting, law enforcement, and graphic arts. And the firm is proud to have former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice John E. Simonett leading the firm’s alternative dispute resolution practice. Perhaps more than any other distinguishing feature, Greene Espel prides itself as being a true community of colleagues and friends – something that is especially evident among the firm’s women lawyers and paralegals. “The women of Greene Espel have a real sense of esprit de corps,” says Nancy Brasel, recipient of the 1996 MWL Equal Justice Award and a member of Greene Espel since 1999. According to Brasel, this also explains why all of the firm’s women attorneys and paralegals are MWL members. “We see the same qualities in MWL that we see in ourselves – camaraderie, reinforcing our mutual strengths, supporting each other in our challenges.” Paralegal Laura O’Donnell agrees. “I think that when MWL brings together women in the legal community, it benefits women in all walks of life throughout Minnesota. That’s why I’m a member.” Greene Espel’s unique firm culture helped it earn the 1999 MWL Leadership Award and the 2000 Hennepin County Bar Association Diversity Award. This spring the firm sent a contingent to work on the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Habitat for Humanity project, and it is participating in the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers Mentorship Program this summer. For more information about Greene Espel, click on www.greene‑espel.com or call 612.373.0830.
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