By Howie Hanson
For a law firm that has spent more than a century quietly shaping business deals, courtroom fights, development projects and estate plans across northeastern Minnesota, this latest recognition probably feels less like surprise and more like confirmation of what many inside the region’s business community already understood.
Two attorneys from Hanft Fride — Jennifer L. Carey and William M. Burns — were recently named to the Minnesota Legal 250, a statewide recognition published by Minnesota Lawyer honoring some of the most influential figures inside Minnesota’s legal profession.
Carey was recognized in construction law. Burns earned recognition in mergers and acquisitions.
Around Duluth business circles, neither name exactly arrives from obscurity.
Carey, the firm’s president, has built one of the more respected legal resumes in the Northland, particularly in real estate, estate planning and construction law. Her client list stretches across developers, lenders, associations, property owners and families navigating complicated transactions that usually involve significant money, pressure and long-term consequences. She has repeatedly appeared on Minnesota “Super Lawyer” lists, including the Top 100 and Top 50 Women recognitions, while also earning consistent inclusion in Best Lawyers in America dating back to 2012.
Burns represents something increasingly rare in modern professional life — institutional longevity paired with continued relevance. He has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America since 1989, a stretch now reaching nearly four decades. His work has long centered around financing, healthcare business issues, mergers and acquisitions, and commercial real estate development, advising businesses, banks, developers, medical professionals and educational institutions during some of the region’s largest transactions and expansions.
The firm’s board of directors called the recognition a reflection of Hanft Fride’s long-standing commitment to clients and the legal profession. And in many ways, that probably explains why the firm continues to occupy such a durable place inside Duluth’s professional ecosystem.
Law firms, much like banks, hospitals and old industrial companies, become part of a city’s operating infrastructure over time. They survive recessions, leadership changes, development booms, economic downturns and shifting industries largely because institutional trust compounds slowly over decades. Hanft Fride has now existed for more than 100 years, which in business terms around Duluth qualifies as practically glacial permanence.
That kind of longevity does not happen accidentally.
Especially in law.
