Gerardo H. Gonzalez

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During the past 20 years, Gerardo H. Gonzalez has built his firm, Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan LLP, from a solo practice to one of the largest minority-owned law firms in the country. It now has 12 offices and more than 90 attorneys.

Through it all, Gonzalez and the firm have shown a commitment to helping minority businesses, minority attorneys and other minority-owned law firms.

“Supporting the minority business community has been a passion for this law firm going back to the earliest days,” Gonzalez said.

That support has been reflected in the 19 years of pro bono service the firm has provided to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce-Wisconsin.

“It’s been important to me personally and to the firm to work with the Hispanic population and to be there for businesses taking that next step,” Gonzalez explained.

Prior to going out on his own in 1989, he realized that parts of the community were under-represented. Given that he spoke Spanish and few other attorneys did, working with the Hispanic community became an important part of his solo practice.

In just a few years, he had added four associates to his practice, and in 1992 he teamed up with David Saggio, who had been with a large Chicago firm prior to going out on his own. Two years later, Emory Harlan, also from a large Chicago firm, came to Milwaukee and joined them. Since then, GSH has expanded into a national law firm with 12 locations.

Gonzalez’s passion for helping minority businesses extended to helping minority attorneys.

From 1995-2005 he and Michelle Behnke served as co-chairs of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Diversity Outreach Committee. His efforts there included developing opportunities for diverse attorneys to meet people who would hire them.

At the time, Gonzalez recalled, there were very few diverse attorneys representing corporate clients in Milwaukee, or around the country. His goal was to show that minority attorneys and firms could handle the work. Companies like Johnson Controls “got it” and became active with the efforts, Gonzalez said.

In 1999, GSH took the next step in trying to spread the word that minority- and women-owned law firms could handle the legal needs of corporate America. They brought half a dozen AV-rated firms together to form the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms.

Today the group, chaired by Harlan, has about 60 AV-rated law firms and boasts the support of more than 80 Fortune 500 companies.