Spencer Fane has opened two new offices and added six new attorneys, hitting an ambitious growth target ahead of schedule.

The Kansas City, Missouri-based firm this week announced new offices in Minneapolis and Tampa, Florida, as well as the addition of longtime Quarles & Brady litigation partner in its Phoenix office.

In Minnesota, the firm has brought on three partners from local Twin Cities law firm Felhaber Larson.

Donald Heeman, who will lead the new office, Randi Winter and Jessica Nelson, a former Dorsey & Whitney associate who co-chaired Felhaber's litigation section, are all joining the firm as partners.

In Florida, the firm is opening its first office in the state with the additions of Quarles & Brady partners Doug Knox and Kirby McDonough. The firm also added Quarles & Brady partner David E. Funkhouser III to its Phoenix operation,

After the additions, Spencer Fane now boasts some 250 attorneys across 17 offices.

Chairman Patrick Whalen said that Minneapolis and Tampa were on the shortlist for expansion for some time, based on evolving client needs and market trends. But the timing, with two new offices announced the same day, was just a matter of seizing those opportunities when they presented themselves.

“In our business, where you get the right individual who can really lead and grow a market when they become available and you've got a window of time, you've got to move,” Whalen said. “One of the things we've demonstrated as a firm operationally is that we have the agility to move very quickly.”

Spencer Fane has been in expansion mode for the law few years, opening offices in Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, St. Louis and Plano, Texas.

But the firm has taken a different approach than most other expanding Am Law 200 firms, said Whalen, who took over Spencer Fane's leadership in 2013.

“We're very patient, and we've got a track record of growing over time,” he said. “You see pretty significant growth year over year, but head count is still modest in many of those markets, so we just try to be really surgical from both a cultural and financial point of view.”

About six years ago, the firm adopted a plan that identified 12 to 18 legal markets that Spencer Fane would target for expansion and set out a goal of $100 million in gross revenue by 2020.

Whalen said the firm exceeded the $100 million goal by 10 percent in 2018. But rather than patting itself on the back, he said, the firm is now working to formalize another multiyear expansion plan.

“We can't grow complacent or think that we've achieved victory, so now we're in the process of putting another long term strategic plan in place,” he said.

READ MORE: