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Ogletree Opens Two Midwest Offices
The National Law Journal
August 15, 2007
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, a national labor and employment boutique firm, has opened an office in St. Louis with plans to open another location in the Detroit area on Sept. 1.
The additional locations would bring Ogletree's total number of U.S. offices to 32.
The St. Louis office will be co-managed by Gregg M. Lemley, a former partner at Bryan Cave, and Tim A. Garnett, former director of labor relations at Kinder Morgan Inc. Heidi Kuns Durr, an associate at Bryan Cave, will join both on Aug. 20. All three will become shareholders at Ogletree.
Although Ogletree has a Missouri office in Kansas City, no other national labor and employment law firm is located in St. Louis, said Gray Geddie, managing shareholder of Ogletree.
"St. Louis is a large corporate headquarters city," he said. "We hope to take advantage of that."
In Michigan, Ogletree is merging with Cattel, Tuyn & Rudzewicz, a law firm in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Founding partners Richard M. Tuyn and Thomas A. Cattel, who will manage Ogletree's Detroit office, plan to open the location with their fellow partners, Sharon Rae Gross, Vicki J. Patterson and Michelle J. LeBeau. All will become shareholders at Ogletree.
The new office also will include associates Debra A. Colby, Martin C. Brook and Eric A. Mahler, who were associates at Cattel, Tuyn & Rudzewicz.
"We have been looking at Detroit for a number of years," Geddie said. "In terms of the sectors where we do business, automobile suppliers are some of the largest."
Including St. Louis and Detroit, Ogletree has opened seven new offices so far this year. On Jan. 1, Ogletree opened offices in Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. In July, the firm merged with Lewis Fisher Henderson & Claxton to open locations in Memphis, Tenn., and Jackson, Miss.
