CHICAGO – Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan LLP, a national minority‐owned law firm based in Milwaukee, will shut down at the end of this month.
The 27-year-old firm, which lists 11 public finance attorneys on its staff, made the abrupt announcement this week.
"After considerable analysis and deliberation, the equity partners of Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan have voted to discontinue the operation of the firm effective Feb. 29, 2016. Our immediate concern is to our clients and working with our lawyers and employees to transition the legal services we have been providing to other firms or lawyers," the firm said in a statement.
"We remain proud of our ability to demonstrate that a law firm which truly values diversity and inclusion can compete with the largest firms in the country," the statement continued.
On its website, the firm lists as members of its public finance group include Stephen Adnopoz, Victoria Byerly, Edward Coaxum, Michael Jackson, Susan Pease Langford, Debra Miller, Jennifer Pflug Murphy, Robert Pearman, R. Delacy Peters, Gregory Taylor, and Andrew Thebaud.
The firm employs about 120 attorneys and operates fifteen offices nationally with a handful located in Midwestern states, and others in Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, Nashville, New York City, New Jersey, Phoenix, and Washington D.C.
Public finance sources who spoke with attorneys there after the announcement said general partners in the public finance group were stunned by the news. Future plans were discussed at a meeting of lawyers last month during which there was no sign of financial or other troubles, a source said. The source said attorneys there were told that the firm simply couldn't make it any longer.
The public finance practice offered bond counsel, underwriters' counsel, tax, and disclosure counsel services and represented creditor providers, and trustees, and private beneficiaries in addition to issuers and underwriters across most sectors.
The firm reported advising on nearly $34 billion in municipal finance transactions over the past five years working on deals for big borrowers like Chicago and the Chicago Board of Education, Illinois, Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee sewer district, Wisconsin and its housing agency, Connecticut, Ohio, several Indiana borrowers, the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York, Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.
The firm ranked 39th last year among bond counsel in the Midwest with seven deals and 87th nationally with 15 deals, according to data from Thomson Reuters.
