Spencer Fane law firm names Phoenix office managing partner
Spencer Fane LLP has announced a changing of the guard at its Phoenix law office, with David Funkhouser III named as the new office managing partner.
Funkhouser replaced Andrew Federhar, effective March 1. Federhar, who had served in the role since the office’s 2017 opening, will return to full-time work as Of Counsel in the firm’s litigation practice group.
“We actually opened six years ago yesterday, when Andy came over from Fennemore to open the Phoenix office,” Funkhouser told the Business Journal on Thursday. “I am happy and flattered that I will be able to carry the baton forward. We started with three employees and now have over 30, and we still intend to grow our presence in the Phoenix market.”
Funkhouser has been a partner with the firm since 2018.
Amid a very competitive hiring atmosphere within the legal services sector since the outset of the pandemic, Funkhouser said Spencer Fane has been well-positioned to be able to bring its total national attorney count to 425.
“We didn’t see too much of a slowdown in hiring during Covid, and were very competitive in the Phoenix market. I think we became attractive because of our transparent compensation system and being more entrepreneurial in nature,” he said.
“Putting it bluntly, we let people practice law and stay out of their way. They aren’t burdened with administrative bureaucracy and we deliver generous attorney-client budgets that they can use at their discretion. And we keep overhead at a reasonable place.”
Spencer Fane adds family law practice
Spencer Fane, which is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri and has offices in 22 U.S. cities, has grown organically in Phoenix, but also by attracting small groups of attorneys en masse to the firm.
The latest group to move over was led by Norma Izzo, a family law attorney formerly with Jennings Strauss & Salmon PLC. Izzo brought two other attorneys along with four support employees to Spencer Fane in February. With these latest additions, Spencer Fane’s Phoenix office now has a total of 43 employees, including 27 attorneys.
“We didn’t have anything in that family law space and it helps to set us apart, and keep it all in-house,” Funkhouser said. The Phoenix office has built up expertise in litigation, business transactions, intellectual property, real estate, health care and other specialities, and Funkouser said that “If we can’t tackle it locally we have the bandwidth to do it nationally.”
The recent staff additions have meant that Spencer Fane has had to grow its physical footprint in Phoenix at the Esplanade office complex at 2415 E Camelback Road. The firm has just started another expansion and will occupy an entire floor in the building, about 20,000 square feet, by the fall of this year after starting with one-quarter of that space in 2017.
Federhar said he expects a smooth transition with Funkhouser moving into the managing partner role.
“As a firm, we have long appreciated David’s dedicated service to our clients, and he will undoubtedly continue to be a strong asset in the Phoenix office with his strong interpersonal and leadership skills,” Federhar said in a statement.
Funkhouser is well-known in Arizona business circles and in the community, having served out the remainder of a term for a vacated seat in Arizona’s House of Representatives in 2008. Funkhouser, a previous Phoenix Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree, serves on the executive board committee for Special Olympics Arizona.