Faegre Baker Daniels

Faegre & Benson

Faegre & Benson was founded in Minneapolis as Cobb & Wheelwright during 1863 by Albert Cobb and John Wheelwright. The two men had studied law together at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. It was not until decades later that John Barthell Faegre and John Benson, who would become namesakes of the firm, joined the practice. John Benson became a partner in 1914, after serving as a clerk. In 1923, George Hoke, Claude Krause and John Barthell Faegre joined the firm, which was renamed Cobb, Wheelwright Hoke & Benson. Following the accidental death of Wheelwright in 1927, the firm became Cobb, Hoke, Benson, Krause & Faegre.

Faegre and Benson, who first met in 1909 as opposing players in a college football game, became up-and-coming leaders of the firm. When Hoke and two associates departed in 1938, the firm was reorganized as Faegre, Benson & Krause. On the death of Krause the following year, it became Faegre & Benson in 1940. The firm grew modestly until 1959, when a reorganization of the firm's management structure and new strategic initiatives put the firm on a growth path. That growth was accompanied by changes in the needs of its clients and the evolution of global business. As a result, new practices emerged in areas such as health care, intellectual property and mass tort. Faegre & Benson opened Colorado offices in Boulder and Denver in 1985. In 1990, Faegre & Benson became the first national law firm to establish an office in Des Moines, Iowa. Then, the firm opened an office in London in 1995 and an office in Shanghai in 2001. By the time it announced its merger with Baker & Daniels, it had already become the largest law firm in Minnesota and had been one of the 100 largest law firms in the United States, with well-known clients such as Target, Pfizer, Wells Fargo and 3M.

Baker & Daniels

Baker & Daniels was founded as Hendricks & Hord in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1863. Then-U.S. Senator Thomas A. Hendricks, who later served as Governor of Indiana and Vice President of the United States under Grover Cleveland, partnered with Oscar Hord, a former Indiana Attorney General, to create the new firm. The first Baker at the firm was Conrad Baker, who also served as Governor of Indiana. Later, Albert Baker, the son of Conrad Baker, and Edward Daniels, the first Daniels at the firm, joined the practice. After going through several name changes, the firm became known as Baker & Daniels in 1888. After that, Joseph Daniels, the son of Edward Daniels, joined the firm.^[4]

Through the years, Baker & Daniels has expanded. In 1976, the firm established an office in Washington, D.C. The Fort Wayne, Indiana, office opened in 1983. In the 1990s, Baker & Daniels continued to expand. The South Bend, Indiana, office opened in 1990, followed by the Elkhart, Indiana, office in 1993. In 1998, the firm’s first overseas office was opened in China. In 2000, Baker & Daniels opened its 96th Street office in Indianapolis. As part of a long-term growth strategy, Baker & Daniels consolidated its practices in North Central Indiana into a regional model in 2007 by transferring operations in Elkhart to the South Bend office. Then in 2008, the firm opened a new South Bend office. Baker & Daniels expanded its presence in Chicago with the opening of a new law office in 2008.

While Baker & Daniels was expanding the reach of its legal practice, it was also extending the scope of its services with various consulting practices, which would eventually become Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting following the combination of the two law firms. Sagamore Associates (also known over time as Gogol & Associates or B&D Sagamore) was formed in Washington, D.C. in 1985 to assist the firm's clients with federal relations issues. In the 1990s, a second subsidiary company called Capitol Direct (later B&D Quorum) was formed in D.C. to assist clients through grassroots advocacy, direct marketing and public affairs efforts. At the turn of the millennium, a third consulting practice was added when Baker & Daniels formed Aventor, a global medical technology consulting firm. Each of these three practices were combined in 2006 to create one company, B&D Consulting. B&D Consulting expanded its national services to the property tax industry with the addition of the B&D Equity Property Tax Group in Chicago.

Notable lawyers associated with the legacy firm Baker & Daniels have included Evan Bayh was a Baker & Daniels partner before his election to the U.S. Senate. Other former partners include Stephen Goldsmith, former Mayor of Indianapolis; Pam Carter, the first African-American female State Attorney General in the country; and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, a firm partner before taking a senior position at Eli Lilly and Company. One former partner is and another was a Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court. Jack Swarbrick, a former Baker & Daniels partner, became athletic director at the University of Notre Dame in 2008, and Fred Glass, another former partner at Baker & Daniels, became athletic director at Indiana University at the start of 2009.

Combination and Beyond

Faegre & Benson and Baker & Daniels were not immune to the 2008–2012 global recession, which led to changes in the legal economy. Firms like Faegre & Benson and Baker & Daniels had to resort to salary cuts, reduced or delayed hiring and even staff layoffs in some cases.^[5] While the firms weathered the storm, they began to explore ways to adapt to the changing legal market and, on August 11, 2011, the two firms announced they were exploring a potential combination.^[6] The combination was approved two months later^[7] and on January 1, 2012, Faegre & Benson and Baker & Daniels began business operations as Faegre Baker Daniels LLP.^[8] The combination was presented as a merger of equals - the combined firm has no official "headquarters" and the leaders of each legacy firm retained a management role. Legacy Faegre chair Andrew Humphrey became managing partner of the combined firm, while legacy Baker & Daniels CEO Thomas Froehle, Jr. became its chief operating partner.^[9] Nonetheless, legacy Faegre - the larger firm - was reputed to be the "dominant" firm in the merger.^[10]

On July 1, 2013, Faegre Baker Daniels opened a Silicon Valley office, the firm's first new location since the January 2012 merger. The office is located in East Palo Alto, California, and is initially offering intellectual property services. Faegre Baker Daniels has announced plans to add food and agriculture litigation, immigration and privacy law capabilities to the office in the future. In March 2017, Faegre Baker Daniels opened a Los Angeles office, the firm's newest location. The office offers business, employment, intellectual property and product liability litigation and consulting.^[11]

Legal Practice

Faegre Baker Daniels is a full-service law firm, with lawyers specializing in the following areas of law, among others:^[12]

Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting

The firm also includes Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting, a division based in Washington, D.C. that acts as a national advisory and advocacy firm. Originally formed in 1985 to act as a full-service lobbying group, it became an important division of legacy firm Baker & Daniels as its scope grew to include grassroots advocacy, direct marketing and public affairs efforts, global medical technology consulting and advice on property tax issues. During this time, the group underwent various name changes (including Gogol & Associates, Sagamore Associates and B&D Consulting). The division was finally rebranded FaegreBD Consulting in connection with the 2012 combination, and now includes approximately fifty professionals who provide interdisciplinary services for private and public sector clients across the country from offices in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Indianapolis. FaegreBD Consulting markets expertise in the following sectors:^[13]

North America

• Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Indianapolis, Indiana
  • Downtown
  • 96th Street
• Boulder, Colorado
• Chicago, Illinois
• Denver, Colorado
• Des Moines, Iowa
• Fort Wayne, Indiana
• East Palo Alto (Silicon Valley), California
• Los Angeles, California
• South Bend, Indiana
• Washington, D.C.

Europe

• London, England

Asia

• Beijing, China
• Shanghai, China