Kelley Kronenberg's new office building at 10360 W. State Road 84, Fort Lauderdale. Photo: J. Albert Diaz/ALM

When Diaz Briscoe Medina started contemplating a move, the six-attorney Miami firm focused on insurance defense work was concentrating on available office space.

The search for a new home turned into a merger with Kelley Kronenberg, a business law firm based in a newly built headquarters in Davie. The firm has more than 130 attorneys at nine offices in Florida and Illinois.

The attorneys at the woman- and minority-owned firm led by Espy Diaz Briscoe joined Kelley Kronenberg on Monday along with two paralegals and four administrative staffers.

Diaz Briscoe linked up with Kelley Kronenberg on a somewhat circuitous route. The firm was contemplating a real estate search without a merger in mind and considered subleasing space from another firm, but it sounded complicated.

Diaz Briscoe talked with several groups, someone put her in touch with Kelley Kronenberg during the office search, and talks blossomed.

"I met with them a number of times before we actually made a determination" around May, she said Thursday in an interview. Talks translated to a merger and a move into Kelley's Brickell district office in the Sabadell Financial Center.

Diaz Briscoe, Maria Medina and Bianca Zuluaga joined as partners, and Ashley Askari, Precious Lawrence and Greg Thomson as attorneys.

The insurance focus blends well into Kelley Kronenberg, which is known for its insurance defense work. Diaz Briscoe said she was attracted by the firm's reputation, work ethic, work product and firm culture.

Based on seeing how people interacted, "you sense immediately that this is a family-type job," she said. "It's not just a large firm, and we were instantly attracted by that."

Other factors were being able to hand off the administrative duties of managing partner and joining a firm with expanded resources.

Diaz Briscoe expects "many opportunities that open up by this joinder that we probably would have taken many, many years to achieve."

Michael Fichtel, Kelley's CEO and a principal partner, said in a statement that he was confident the newcomers "will greatly benefit from our platform which provides tremendous operational support, training, and robust employee benefits."

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