Barnes & Thornburg was looking to scale up from a superregional law firm to a national one at the same time the global economy began to crash.

As the the legal industry reeled from the Great Recession, the Indianapolis-based law firm in 2009 launched new offices in Atlanta; Columbus, Ohio; Minneapolis; and Wilmington, Delaware. Although each office has grown at different rates—some slowly—the firm is celebrating their collective success and the 10th anniversary of their openings.

"I've been waiting for this phone call for a long time," Robert Grand, the firm's managing partner, told The American Lawyer. "Well, when you open up four offices in 2009, you remember what the economy looked like in 2009. There were a lot of people who thought that, by 2019 or even sooner than that, we'd be singing a different tune."