Best & Flanagan LLP

Managing Partner: Sarah E. Crippen

Total Number of Attorneys: 50

Since 1926, Best & Flanagan has grown to become trusted professionals in a diverse array of complementary practice areas, including private wealth planning, business and corporate law, employment and labor, family law, litigation, intellectual property, construction law, government relations, real estate, and more. Generations of Minnesotans, from individuals and families, to non-profit organizations and foundations, closely-held businesses and Fortune 500 corporations have looked to Best & Flanagan for guidance as reliable counselors and partners who understand their unique challenges and local values. A local firm with national reach, Best & Flanagan focuses on providing quality legal advice in an approachable and collaborative style.

• Estate & Trust Administration
• Business & Corporate Law
• Employment Law
• Construction Law
• Family Law
• Real Estate
• Bankruptcy Litigation
• Intellectual Property
• Title Work
• Public Finance
• Litigation
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Private Wealth Planning

Estate & Trust Administration:

With trust and estate planning as its foundation, Best & Flanagan continues to provide sophisticated and personalized solutions for each client. Private Wealth Planning attorneys advise trustees, executors and beneficiaries on all phases of estate and trust administration; represent clients in court and before taxing authorities, as well as advise on the many aspects of fiduciary law. Disagreements between beneficiaries and fiduciaries are constructively resolved, and clients are assisted with probate and the post‑death administration of revocable trusts.

Contact: Jennifer Lammers and Mary Shearen

Business & Corporate Law:

Clients range from start-ups to established public corporations, to nonprofit organizations, to privately held and family businesses. More than just lawyers, Best & Flanagan's collaborative and close working relationships are highly regarded for their innovation and creativity as strategic business advisors. In addition to serving as outside general counsel, specialized advice is provided in business succession planning; compensation and equity incentive plans; customer, distributor and supplier contracts; joint venture agreements; mergers and stock and asset acquisitions; public offerings; shareholder disputes and litigation; venture capital financing, and more.

Contact: Dan Grimsrud

Employment Law:

Best & Flanagan’s employment and labor lawyers are skilled and strategic trial lawyers who represent large corporations, small businesses, and individuals in employment litigation—in state and federal court, mediations, and arbitrations in Minnesota and across the country. Clients benefit from thoughtful employment-related compliance expertise. Whether the question involves the complex and ever-changing employment regulatory environment, drafting and interpretation of employment policies and handbooks, manager and employee training programs, investigation of workplace complaints, or advice regarding hiring practices, reductions in force and labor relations, clients rely on the firm's creative, practical and timely advice.

Contact: Sarah Crippen

Construction Law:

Represented parties include owners, developers, general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, risk managers and captive groups. Best & Flanagan's seasoned construction litigation team works on public, private, hybrid, commercial industrial and multi-family residential projects. Clients' risk is proactively managed through contract negotiations, preserving and prosecuting rights to payment, addressing performance issues, and resolving construction defect claims through direct negotiations, mediation, arbitration and litigation.

Contact: Justin Short and Tim Sullivan

Family Law:

Best & Flanagan’s Family Law team uses care and emotional intelligence to consistently provide effective advocacy on the full spectrum of substantive family law disciplines. The practice group's multi-dimensional expertise includes dissolution of marriage (divorce); adoption and prenuptial agreements; child custody, paternity and child support; spousal maintenance (alimony), post-decree matters and beyond.

Contact: Cathy Gorlin

Real Estate:

With rich and extensive experience in real property matters (transaction or litigation-based), Best & Flanagan's real estate advisors are well-versed and positioned to assist clients in achieving their goals as buyer or seller, landlord or tenant, borrower or lender, landowner, developer, or municipality, and help buy, sell, develop, finance and lease all types of commercial and residential real estate projects. Effective dispute resolution between lenders and other stakeholders as well as prompt and efficient resolution of title issues.

Contact: Dan Kaplan and Craig Kepler

Intellectual Property:

Clients include software and technology companies, large nonprofits and family foundations, creative and marketing agencies, retail and e-commerce businesses, consumer products companies, professional service providers, artists, authors and musicians. Best & Flanagan's intellectual property attorneys help clients understand, identify, manage, protect and realize the value of their IP, and work with clients on large and small transactions, including IP audits, state and federal registrations, patent prosecution, licensing agreements, business deals and contracts, and enforcement.

Contact: David Schelzel

Public Finance:

Recognized as innovative leaders in tax-exempt and taxable governmental bond financings, Best & Flanagan is engaged at the leading edge of Public Private Partnership financing and development structures, utilizing 501(c)(3) bonds to provide P3 projects on a non-profit basis. Other representative experience includes charter school bonds, restructuring and workouts, governmental tax and revenue bonds, and more.

Contact: Dan Nelson

Litigation:

From early case evaluation through mediation, arbitration, trial, and appeals, Best & Flanagan's trial attorneys execute litigation strategies designed to protect clients’ interests and achieve their business objectives. Dedicated, effective, and persuasive advocates in and out of the courtroom with the multi-jurisdictional state and federal court expertise to advise clients at each stage of the litigation process. The firm has represented clients in complex business and commercial disputes, contract disputes, shareholder disputes, labor and employment litigation, non-compete and trade-secret litigation, securities litigation, fiduciary litigation, construction disputes, probate disputes, and real estate and condemnation matters.

Contact: Kyle Hardwick