Law office outgrows space

Law office outgrows space

Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge's office in Holland is located downtown. Courtesy Smith Haughey

Just 18 months after moving, a locally based law firm has found a new home again for one of its offices.

Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge’s Holland office was able to opt out of a three-year lease to relocate to a new office space just a block away.

The office moved in the first week of October and is now located at 85 E. 8th St. in downtown Holland. It was leased from two private investors.

“We were looking to grow, but we grew more quickly than we anticipated,” said Lori Gibson, chief operating officer, Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge.

When the firm opened its previous Holland office at 170 College Ave. in March 2016, there were two attorneys and one staffer. The space was 2,500 square feet, with four offices and two conference rooms, as they were adding new attorneys.

“We just didn't have any room,” Gibson said. “We had people crammed in a conference room. We had no space.”

Now, Gibson said there are five attorneys, a paralegal and two staffers working at the new location.

The new office is more than 10,000 square feet, according to Jaron Nyhof, a Smith Haughey attorney in Holland. There are conference rooms, break areas and 14 offices, which Nyhof said aren’t all occupied, but he’s looking forward to it.

“Part of the reason we like this space is because we anticipate further growth,” Nyhof said. “We were looking for a place we can continue to grow in and this provides us with that.”

The firm's Holland office primarily focuses on the lakeshore area. It practices business law, corporate law, employment law, securities law and real estate law.

Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge was founded in 1941.

The Grand Rapids-based law firm also has offices in Muskegon and Ann Arbor.