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Starting a law firm with a complete blank slate is both a challenge and a great opportunity, Elisabeth Gray says. She and other leaders of newly launched Gray Ice Higdon are tackling those challenges and embracing the benefits of being a brand new, large Louisville firm.
“We’re getting to look at everything we’ve done in the past and how we can improve upon it,” Gray said. “We don’t have to do it the old way. This is our time to do something new and exciting and timely and modern.”
Gray Ice Higdon formed in December 2022, shortly after Middleton Reutlinger officially dissolved. It has 29 attorneys, many of whom came from Middleton Reutlinger, making it the eighth largest law firm in the area.
Middleton Reutlinger was one of Louisville’s oldest law firms, with 168 years in business and 50 attorneys.
“It’s something where recently the partners — who we all know and respect each other at Middleton Reutlinger — [have] been together for a lot of years, just realized that we couldn't reach a consensus on what was best for the future of the firm,” one of Middleton Reutlinger’s former partners, Dennis Murrell, told me at the time of the dissolution.
Murrell is now a principal partner at Gray Ice Higdon.
A long-standing member of the Louisville legal community like Middleton Reutlinger is a business you hate to lose, said Kristen Miller, executive director of the Louisville Bar Association, a voluntary bar association for the Louisville community which acts as a connector for the industry.
But Miller was gratified to see that so many of the attorneys of Middleton Reutlinger had formed another firm, reflecting the overall health of the industry in Louisville.
“It may seem like the legal profession is immune to changes in market conditions, but we’re not,” Miller said. “Running a law firm is a business like any other business. It’s like running an accounting firm, running a plumbing company. It’s a business at the end of the day. We’re constantly evolving and growing, just like any other business would have to.
“… Smart attorneys, smart partners, smart members, smart firms are looking for, not just how you stay relevant today, but how do they stay relevant in the future? When you see changes like this, there’s just an acknowledgment that there is some other need that might not have been being met by Middleton in the status that it was, and now we have an opportunity to grow and evolve in a different way.”
Being a new law firm offers Gray Ice Higdon an opportunity for a fresh start, but it also presents challenges.
“We’re trying to build something here and look forward through the front windshield, and we’re trying to ensure that what we do build is reflective of the goals that we want to achieve and the messages we want to send,” John Salazar, one of Gray Ice Higdon’s managing partners, said.
Focusing on what they know
Gray Ice Higdon created its formal management structure about two months into the firm’s existence. It elected three managing partners —Gray, Salazar and Tom Ice — each of whom represent one of the firm’s focus areas: Litigation, intellectual property and business/transactional.
The leaders think the firm’s ability to go as long as it had without a formal management structure spoke volumes of the team it assembled.
“All of us are very comfortable with each other and trust each other,” Salazar said. “Several people have stepped up during the transition period to make decisions as things have arisen, but we’ve waited until now, when the dust settled, before we decided how we wanted to be structured and who we wanted to lead the firm.”
Being new also creates the advantage of not having old habits, Ice said.
“The amount of people that rowed in the same direction to where we are now — if any one of the partners, plus the staff, plus the associates — if any one of them had not done the things we needed them to do we wouldn’t be here now,” Ice said. “Everyone from top to bottom has learned, given us input, found things we may not have thought of, given us ideas, and we’ve been able to take advantage of it.”
The firm was built around its focal points, Salazar said, and it wants to support those areas and specialize them. It was similarly important to the firm’s leaders to have representatives of all of these specialties, because the practices themselves are so different.
“We know what we do well,” Salazar said. “And we know what we don’t do well.
“… That’s a common fault for some law firms, I think, is that you try to do everything. We really don’t want to do that. What you end up doing is not really providing the best services to your clients in those circumstances, where you only dabble in areas. We’re pretty deeply experienced in all three areas, and that’s been proven in the clientele we represent.”
The firm also gained a big win shortly after forming. After almost seven years of litigation that began with Middleton Reutlinger, it argued a case which received an $11.8 million verdict. It was a patent infringement case involving grain-bin technology in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Gray Ice Higdon does work for clients nationally and internationally, something the partners say makes it unique for its size. It doesn’t have plans to open other offices across the U.S. now, but they wouldn’t rule it out.
Likewise, Gray Ice Higdon is being intentional with its growth strategies.
“I would expect that any growth we have would be slow and with the idea to stay within the lanes we’ve created and trying to build on those things,” Ice said.
He hopes the firm’s growth will be organic within the community.
But recruiting and retaining employees has been an issue across many sectors, and the legal field is no different. Hiring attorneys for patent prosecution has always been a challenge, even so for intellectual property as a whole. The firm is working on building a culture that is inviting for young lawyers.
Another change Salazar noticed in his clients is they were deliberate about the attorneys that handle their work. This includes how much of their matters were handled by a lawyers of underrepresented races and genders. Having to do this kind of check has made the firm more cognizant of its goals. But Salazar admits that sometimes there’s only so much work you can do in this area in Louisville.
“We have a very proactive hiring plan in place to try to recruit people that are young attorneys that are in the underrepresented classes,” Salazar said. “Not only because it’s good for the law firm and good for our clients, but our clients are asking for it.”
Gray Ice Higdon said 13 of its roughly 30 attorneys are from underrepresented races, genders or part of the LGBTQ community.
Miller, with the Bar Association, affirmed that the addition of a new firm with the expertise and client base Gray Ice Higdon has opens up more opportunities for Louisville lawyers, including those stepping into leadership positions.
An office to match
With about 20 other employees besides attorneys, Gray Ice Higdon is using temporary office space subleased from Tops Magazine at 2297 Lexington Road before moving into its permanent home in St. Matthews this summer.
The company will lease the entire second floor of the former Bacon’s department store. The building, 3939 Shelbyville Road, is owned by Burdorf Properties LLC and also houses Drake’s St. Matthews. At about 15,000 square feet, it’s not the size of a traditional law office. But with the hybrid nature of the workforce and a move toward less of a paper-based work system, less space is needed.
“One of the attractive things about the decision we made to move into St. Matthews is our belief that it will be a place that people really want to go,” Ice said. “There's entertainment in the area, parks in the area, a lot of homes in the area. It's a place that people really want to be.”
Middleton Reutlinger was located in Brown & Williamson Tower, also known as the Fifth Third building, at 401 S. Fourth St. The law firm was the anchor tenant, occupying the 24th, 25th and 26th floors of the tower. (A lawsuit between the building owner and the dissolved firm over breach of lease was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can’t be appealed).
In the new space, Gray Ice Higdon expects it will have more flexibility in its layout and design. The leaders hope to design it to be unique for a law office. Each of the internal offices is the same size, which Gray said was important for inclusivity. It also will include collaborative work areas and a work café resembling a coffee shop with booths, further solidifying its hybrid work environment.
Being entirely new also offers the firm the ability to streamline traditional legal services with new technology and infrastructure, which also can present a challenge. The firm built the billing and accounting system from scratch as well as creating a website.
“We’ve had to really take the opportunity that’s been presented and create something that is newer, and that is more reflective of where we are in society today,” Ice said. “Maybe not even as recently as three years ago. The world has changed, and if you don’t change with it, the hiring difficulties that we have would only be harder.”
Beyond Gray Ice Higdon
Outside of Gray Ice Higdon, other local firms have added attorneys from the former Middleton Reutlinger.
“It’s exciting for those firms as well,” said Kristen Miller, executive director of the Louisville Bar Association. “They pick up an attorney with obvious expertise, with obvious knowledge of not only their practice area but the local legal market. It’s a great opportunity for those firms to add to their capabilities and strengths.”
The Louisville Bar Association found it gratifying that the attorneys from dissolved Middleton Reutlinger had chosen to stay in Louisville, Miller said.
“They had opportunities, I’m sure, to work remotely for other regional firms,” Miller said. “I think it says a lot about the Louisville legal community that those folks stay here and are still contributing to our community.”
Eight attorneys joined McBrayer PLLC, a Lexington-based law firm with a large Louisville presence.
“While we are certainly sorry to see such a respected institution as Middleton Reutlinger close, we are thrilled that these talented, experienced attorneys and staff have chosen to write a new chapter with McBrayer,” said Managing Member James Frazier III in a news release. Here’s a rundown of the McBrayer additions:
- Mark Fenzel will work with the firm’s professional liability, school law, and commercial litigation groups as a member.
- Blaine Lewis will work with the firm’s litigation group as a member, with focuses on transportation, product liability, commercial litigation and insurance defense.
- Kenneth Handmaker joins the firm’s alcoholic beverage regulation, employment law, administrative law and litigation practices as a member.
- Patrick Shane O’Bryan will work with the firm’s litigation group as a member, with focuses on product liability, utility law, transportation law, insurance defense and commercial litigation.
- William Hoback joins as of counsel as a litigator with over 50 trials under his belt.
- Kevin Chlarson joins the firm’s commercial litigation and alcoholic beverage regulation practices as a member.
- David Kellerman joins as a member and will continue his practice as a trial attorney.
- Sherry Hurley joins as a senior associate working with the firm’s litigation group.
- Paralegals Marie Field and Amanda Thompson and legal assistants Marianne LeMastus, Dawn Wilkerson and Laura Strevinsky join as support staff.
Three former Middleton Reutlinger directors joined Dinsmore & Shohl LLP’s Louisville office.
"At Dinsmore, we’re always looking to strategically add top talent in areas where we need it,” Kenyon Meyer, Dinsmore’s Louisville office managing partner, said in a news release at the time of the hires. “While the Middleton news is very unfortunate, we are thrilled to welcome Robert, James and Alex to the firm. Their additions solidify Dinsmore’s IP presence here in Louisville.” They join the local office as partners who will work in its intellectual property practice.
- Alex Brackett
- Robert Eichenberger
- James Cole
Local lawyers: 2023
| Rank | Prior Rank | Name / Prior rank |
|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Frost Brown Todd |
2 | 2 | Stites & Harbison PLLC |
3 | 3 | Wyatt Tarrant & Combs LLP |