William M. “Billy” Symmes, a principal at Spokane’s oldest and largest law firm, Witherspoon Kelley, isn’t as bothered by challenges such as the loss of experienced attorneys to retirement or attracting new talent as he is about the amount of legal work he sees being sent out of town.

“We do everything that a downtown Seattle law firm does for less the cost,” Symmes contends, adding, “We have been representing sophisticated businesses and transactions for over 100 years and have always done this type of work. More and more people think they need to purchase legal services outside of Spokane, and this is not true.”

 Looking ahead, he says, one of Witherspoon Kelley’s goals is to capture more of that westward-headed work by continuing to raise awareness of the firm’s breadth of services and by encouraging potential clients here to spend those dollars locally.

To be sure, the firm’s reach already extends through many of the most visible business sectors here. For example, it says it represents more than 10 local banks and credit unions, and it does work for most of the hospitals here.

It touts its assembled expertise in all facets of business and corporate law, including taxes, securities, medical negligence defense, health law, estate planning, labor and employment law, and real estate and land use law, among others. It says it’s seeing growth in the demand for legal services in a number of those sectors, although it declines to disclose its annual billings or to say how billings have been trending.

The firm, which was established here in 1884, now employs 46 lawyers in all, 40 of them here and the rest in an office in Coeur d’Alene that it opened in 1984, which is up from a total of 28 lawyers at the firm nine years ago, and it plans to add two new associates this fall. Altogether, it currently employs 86 people.

In Spokane, it occupies 26,000 square feet of office space—including part of the ninth floor and all of the 10th and 11th floors—in the U.S. Bank Building, at 422 W. Riverside, where it has been located since 1937.

It launched a major remodel of its quarters there about a year and a half ago. The project included modernizing the two upper floors and the portion of the ninth floor that it now occupies. As part of the project, it vacated space it had been using on the eighth floor after completing improvements on the ninth floor and moving some operations there.

The project also included adding an internal staircase between the 10th and 11th floors, and revamping and enlarging client conference rooms.

It also has seen a change in management as of the first of the year, as Brian T. Rekofke has taken over as president from Michael D. Currin, who had served in that role since October 2008 and now has returned his full attention to his business and banking practice areas, Symmes says.

Witherspoon Kelley has been ranked as a top regional law firm in the annual “Best Law Firms” survey conducted by U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers. It earned recognition in the practice areas of land use and zoning, labor and employment, real estate, medical malpractice defense, municipal law, and tax law.

Symmes says labor and employment law, his main focus, has been a significant area of growth for the firm, both in terms of litigation and regulatory compliance consulting and assistance.

“There are many news laws and regs concerning wages and leave, among other things, that employers must know,” he says.   

He says he and fellow Witherspoon Kelley lawyer Kim Kamel have been providing training for clients and making presentations on those legal areas at seminars and conferences. 

Symmes also says he and Amy Mensik, a new associate at Witherspoon Kelly, also will be presenting at the 2015 Northwest Human Resource Management Association’s annual conference that’s to be held in Portland in early October.

Another recent area of growth has been patent litigation and intellectual property law, he says, adding, “We have been representing manufacturers and software companies in patent and IP litigation. Defending IP and patents are become more and more part of our practice.”

In the health care sector, Symmes says, “Our medical malpractice and health care department has been really active. We defend the hospitals and practice groups in malpractice litigation and Medicare fraud cases. We provide compliance training in this area as well. Hollie Westly, who was in-house counsel for years, is now part of our group and counseling clients in the health care arena.”

Some of Witherspoon Kelley serve in high-profile positions. For example, Stanley M. Schwartz, another shareholder at the firm and a Best Lawyers honoree in the areas of municipal law, real estate, and land use and zoning law, serves as general counsel to the Spokane Public Facilities District, which operates the newly expanded Spokane Convention Center, the INB Performing Arts Center, and the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena. He also has been involved in real estate matters at the still-evolving Riverpoint Campus in the University District just east of downtown.

“I see the land use and real estate areas gaining momentum,” he says. “I think it’s clearly woken up (locally). I think that’s good for a whole bunch of professionals.”

Among the firm’s clients are property owners involved in condemnation proceedings, such as for Spokane’s partially completed north-south freeway, and Symmes says, “We anticipate condemnation to pick up over the freeway, and that is something we’ve been involved in for a long time.”

Timothy M. Lawlor, another shareholder at the firm and a Best Lawyers honoree in eminent domain and condemnation law, does a lot of that condemnation work for the firm, Symmes says. Lawlor also currently is defending two whistleblower cases that have captured national attention.

He says, “We’ve done a lot of class action defense work. Those are big cases.”