Best & Flanagan is incredibly excited to celebrate its centennial year in 2026.
Founding partners Jim Best and Bob Flanagan established their partnership on the corner of 5th Street & 2nd Avenue South in Minneapolis in the New York Life Building in the summer of 1926. The stock market crash of 1929 predictably spawned a high volume of litigation amongst banks and trust companies. Many larger law firms would not handle these claims because of their industry connections, but B&F was too new and too small to have any such conflicts. The firm handled those cases with urgency and care and many of the parties became lifelong clients and friends of Best & Flanagan.
Personality has always been a cornerstone of our firm’s prosperity and longevity. The gregarious Bob Flanagan was a perfect complement to the quiet and reflective Jim Best, and both succeeded on the strength of their authentic relationships. Best & Flanagan began collecting like-minded professionals to expand our services from estate planning to real estate to family law to corporate law to litigation and nearly everything in between to fully support our clients’ evolving needs.
One hundred years is time enough to have witnessed some of the best and worst of times, and we have been and remain committed to actively shaping real and lasting change in the communities in which we live and practice. In our world, great lawyering isn’t about adding layers and complexity – it’s about being connected, collaborative, and fully invested in the work, our clients, and each other. This is just the beginning of our celebration of a whole century of showing up with purpose.
As we kick-off this year-long celebration, Board Chair Dan Grimsrud noted, “One hundred years into our journey we’re still a firm about people—our clients, our colleagues, and our community. We’re proud of where we’ve been and excited about where we’re going together.”
We’ve helped clients face the complex, the personal, and the unknown for 100 years. And we’re just getting started.