As attorneys Andy Jones and James Forrest searched for who they wanted to guide the next chapter of their business law firm, they naturally did their research.
 
“We spoke with dozens and dozens of other law firms, and we chose Michael Best for I’d say three key reasons: No. 1, they have a client base that is similar to what Forrest Firm’s was – they work with middle-market, closely-held businesses and their owners,” Jones said, from the new, 6,400-square-foot Michael Best office on Oleander Drive in Wilmington. “No. 2, they operate in high-growth areas of the country like North Carolina. If you look at our footprint, they’re in areas that are growing and dynamic and full of entrepreneurs.”
 
A third reason, Jones said, is that they found Michael Best & Friedrich, a national firm based in Milwaukee, to be “incredibly innovative in both its legal service offerings and the autonomy it gives as professionals to expand into areas where clients have needs as and when they see them.”
 
The acquisition of Forrest Firm by Michael Best, for which the financial terms were undisclosed, became official Jan. 1.
 
The Wilmington area has lost the presence of some national law firms in recent years, Jones said.
 
“I think it says something about North Carolina and specifically the Wilmington market that a firm like Michael Best is willing to make an investment and come into this community,” he said. “Over the last decade or so, we’ve seen a lot of large law firms leave regionally, and Michael Best coming into the market is a countervailing trend. It’s the first firm of its size that’s come in and planted a flag in Wilmington in a while.”
 
Michael Best, which opened a firm in Raleigh in 2017 with an eye toward expansion, is 175 years old and ranks in the top 200 largest firms in the U.S. With its Forrest Firm acquisition, Michael Best added seven new North Carolina locations.
 
“What Wilmington could see from Michael Best is a couple of things. One is that our commitment will be demonstrated with participation in civic, charitable and business associations that stem from our client base,” said David Krutz, managing partner. “We do have international and national clients, but our core client base are closely-held businesses, family businesses or the managers of people running them, and we want to be known as their trusted adviser.”
 
Forrest said, “They are committed to many of the same things we have been committed to during the history of Forrest Firm, but on a much larger scale.”
 
An atmosphere of rapidly growing companies headquartered in Wilmington was attractive to Michael Best, Jones said, such as fintech firms Live Oak Bank, nCino and Apiture.
 
Such employers are “indicative of the kind of growth we’ve seen that draws the expanded legal demand, and those employers have spawned a lot of investments and startups locally that need sophisticated legal services,” Jones said.
 
The firm’s political ties include high-profile Republicans – Reince Priebus, the firm’s president and chief strategist, was Trump’s first White House chief of staff – and high-profile Democrats – Steve Israel, former U.S. Representative from New York, works with Michael Best Strategies LLC.
 
“We’re a bipartisan firm,” Krutz said.
 
Jones added, “We’re representing clients all across the political spectrum through the work we do in the government relations realm. Regardless of what party is in control, we’ve got connections in D.C.”
 
The Michael Best office in Wilmington, located on the third floor of Bradley Creek Station at 5815 Oleander Drive, has four attorneys and nine staff members.
 
“We love the building,” Jones said in April last year after his firm leased the Bradley Creek Station space. “We think it’s a convenient location, centrally located for our clients and our staff, and we like the class A office space. We’re going to build out the space in a way that is cutting-edge, post-pandemic.”
 
McKinley Building Corp. crews were working to finish upfitting the new office in March as Jones and other employees moved from the former Forrest Firm office in downtown Wilmington to the Oleander Drive space.
 
“It’s going to be a mix of collaborative meeting rooms and conference areas and some dedicated spaces that are sort of flexible in that lawyers may not have the same office every day unless they’re going to be there more frequently,” Jones said in 2021.
 
The Michael Best lawyers in Wilmington focus on corporate work, commercial litigation, employment law, health care and some estate planning administration, said Jones, who was president of Forrest Firm and now leads the Wilmington market for Michael Best.
 
Along with its Raleigh and Wilmington offices, Michael Best now has offices in Asheville, Charlotte, Durham, Greenville and Winston-Salem.
 
According to a news release, the addition of the Forrest Firm, founded in 2011 by James Forrest, “will add legal firepower to its Venture Best division, which helps high-growth businesses with financial, organizational and regulatory needs, as well as investment fund formation, private equity investments, venture capital and growth capital financing and forming and growing startups.”
 
Correspondent Scott Nunn contributed to this report.