News & Updates

Greene Espel congratulates Laura J. Broomell, CLM, its Chief Operating Officer (COO), on being named an honoree of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s 2020 Women in Business award. The award honors industry-leading executives, entrepreneurs, and business owners for their professional successes and community involvement. Laura is among 51 women in the 2020 cohort.

Laura has served for 20 years as Greene Espel’s COO, a position that, given the firm’s unusual structure, is uniquely demanding. Greene Espel’s uncommonly decentralized structure means that Laura has the job of guiding the firm’s decision-making process and making sure that its 31 lawyers and 26 other professionals are working in tandem to do the firm’s internal business and grow the quality and impact of the firm’s practice.  Laura is a member of all of the firm’s committees, and she oversees all operational functions. She also leads and inspires its staff members, while ensuring that the lawyers have what they need to serve clients and handle cutting-edge, bet-the-company litigation and investigations.  Laura is also a thought leader when it comes to custom-fee arrangements for legal services, and her depth of knowledge on the subject allows Greene Espel to think and work creatively with its clients to structure win-win arrangements. According to firm partner Kate Hibbard, who chairs the firm’s finance committee, “Laura’s leadership and creativity are a key reason why our firm is able to take on and win cases against law firms fifty or a hundred times our size.”

While leading and managing Greene Espel on a full-time basis, Laura has also been actively engaged in leading the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA).  The ALA has over 90 chapters, with nearly 10,000 members, in more than 30 countries.  Laura has served in many leadership roles, including overseeing and guiding ALA as President of the Board of Directors. She also currently serves as a committee member on the Fourth District Ethics Committee, a group responsible for investigating ethics complaints against attorneys who practice in Hennepin County, Minnesota.  Of the 77 current committee members, Laura is one of 14 who is not an attorney.

Laura is a frequent writer and speaker to audiences nationwide and abroad on law firm and practice management.