Emery K. Harlan

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About a dozen years ago, attorney Emery K. Harlan decided that Milwaukee was a ripe market for businesses desiring legal services to be provided by professionals with diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, who also owned that firm. He convinced the two other named partners in his current firm, Gerardo H. Gonzalez and David R. Saggio, that this was a smart approach, and joined their six-lawyer, single-office firm.

Fast-forward to 2007, and Gonzalez, Saggio and Harlan LLP has become the second largest minority-owned law firm in the nation, with 65 attorneys and nine offices. Moreover, the firm was recently selected as regional employment counsel for Sara Lee and Outback Steakhouse; it has been designated as go-to counsel for Target, Wells Fargo and Staples; and it is the only minority-owned firm to be listed as a go-to law firm in Corporate Counsel Magazine’s list of firms representing the Fortune 250.

Harlan is extremely proud of that growth, the representative clients and the positive feedback. There’s more to come, he promises. “We’re going to continue to expand as the opportunities present themselves. We’re very confident that there’s a place in the market for a firm like ours,” says Harlan.

“I absolutely love Milwaukee. But for Milwaukee, our firm would not be where it is. It’s been a great ride and we’re looking forward to the future.”

Management-side employment law has been and remains the firm’s mainstay, with Harlan serving as co-leader of that team.

Harlan, initially a transactional lawyer, made the switch to employment litigation in the early 1990s, after determining that it was a wise strategic choice.

“Employment law seemed to be an area where, as a young lawyer, there was the ability to get companies to use you on a one-case-and-off basis. In other words, it’s a practice area where companies are more willing to take a shot on a new law firm and a new lawyer, compared to other practice areas like transactional law, for example, where companies tend to do the routine transactions in-house, and send out only the most complex, sophisticated work, to firms that they have a history with….

“In addition, it’s a practice area where there are some inherent advantages for people of color who practice on the management side to be able to get work from companies, where they’re dealing with issues of diversity. And, I think companies think it’s to their advantage to use diverse outside counsel.”

Harlan has been involved in a number of high-profile cases, with successful results for his clients, including Lowe v. Consolidated Freightways, 177 F.3d 640 (7th Cir. 1999). Yet, he considers some of the cases that received no media scrutiny, and that never became a part of the public record, to be his best work. While he’s comfortable in a courtroom, he states, “My preference is to be able to find ways to resolve cases, without expending the resources and risking the reputational harm associated with going to a jury trial.”