Spokane-based law firm Witherspoon Brajcich McPhee PLLC is expanding its Spokane-based practice for the third time in four years, following increased demand for legal services and a 35% jump in its workforce in the last 12 months.

As a result, the law firm is preparing to add more office space at its headquarters in the Chase Financial Center, at 601 W. Main, in downtown Spokane, says managing partner Jim McPhee.

Preliminary plans are underway for an estimated 4,500-square-foot office expansion on the ninth floor that will add about 10 more offices and a conference room. WBM currently occupies about 12,000 square feet of office space on the 14th floor.

The project will give more room to work for about 10 employees who have joined the law firm in the last year, including seven attorneys, says senior partner Brian Werst.

Richard Repp is a new partner who recently joined WBM in February, following a one-year stint at the Spokane office of Boise-based Hawley Troxell Ennis & Hawley LLP, which is closing its doors here at the end of the month. Repp's career also includes over 22 years at Spokane-based law firm Witherspoon Kelley, which was acquired by Hawley Troxell in January 2023.

"Top-tier lawyers are coming here because of the culture and because there's a transparent compensation model that is very appealing to them," Repp says. "That's enabling McPhee, as coach of this team, to sort of build out the team exactly the way he wants based upon the skill sets that are complementary."

McPhee has a long history of being a team player, including as top-scoring basketball player at Gonzaga University in the mid- to late 1980s. His reputation—on the court and in the courtroom—has helped attract personnel, Werst and Repp say.

"This is the only law firm that I applied to and interviewed with," Repp contends. "It was the only place I wanted to go. Part of what really appealed to me is the fact that they were building this all-star team concept."  

Werst says 2023 was a year of good publicity for the law firm, "especially when (McPhee's) record was being chased last year," referring to Gonzaga forward Drew Timme who passed McPhee's record as the second all-time leading scorer at the university.

McPhee says WBM has enough employees now to meet demand for its growing legal practice.

"When the right person comes along and is the right fit, we'll be able to grow if we want to grow," he says.

WBM now has a total staff of 42, including 23 attorneys. Outside of the Spokane headquarters, the company operates an office in North Idaho, that opened in late 2022, at 608 Northwest Blvd., in Coeur d'Alene.

Founded in 1985, Witherspoon Brajcich McPhee is a full-service law firm, that ranked No. 8 on the Journal's 2023 Largest Law Firms list. It covers 15 legal areas including business and commercial law, labor and employment law, and real estate and property law. 

Repp, who specializes in mergers and acquisitions for clients who are mostly banks and startups, says business consolidations and private-equity firm acquisitions are contributing to increased business.

"There's a lot of opportunity for boomers to retire and sell family businesses into these other operations, and that's one thing that's driving a lot of my work," Repp says. 

Before Repp joined WBM, he wrote and published a children's book, "The Downtown Ducks" that tells the story of how a Spokane banker helped mallard ducklings reach the Spokane River from a hanging planter above the entrance to the Cutter Tower, at 510 W. Riverside, downtown.

A series of articles published in 2008 and 2009 by the Spokesman-Review helped the duck rescue story go viral.

"I felt like I had a personal connection to this story in part because Joel Armstrong was a banker for Sterling Savings Bank at the time that this all happened and Sterling Savings Bank was my biggest client," Repp says. 

For WBM, an affiliation with a children's book could be a boon to the law firm's name recognition and reputation in the community, Repp notes.

"Clients pay attention and like to work with lawyers that have a good reputation," says Repp.

McPhee's reputation also was well-known to many of Repp's clients before he joined WBM.

"When they found out that I was coming to this firm, the very first thing they said is Jim McPhee is a great guy," Repp says.

For the rest of 2024, executives plan to continue training associate attorneys for future leadership roles in high-demand practice areas as a type of succession planning to ensure that the company will last long after current executives retire, says McPhee.

Having a succession plan in place for the firm's future owners will help current owners make hiring decisions, he adds.

"(We) want to hire owners," McPhee explains. "Somebody who ... we envision being an owner down the road as we phase out and somebody else phases in."

McPhee declines to disclose WBM's annual revenue.

"We're growing, and we're definitely larger than we have been, but we don't ever want to think like a large law firm," says Werst, who joined nine years ago and represents municipalities and airports as clients. "We're still able to make decisions immediately." 

Small and midsized law firms can make business decisions quickly, for instance, compared to some bigger firms that may have to run decisions through a committee to guide any operational changes.

"One of the differences that you quickly see in the larger law firms is the bureaucracy that needs to run things up the flagpole," explains Repp.