New law firm brings years of legal expertise to a growing business district in Norton Shores

A growing business district in Norton Shores has a new resident alongside eateries, a coffee shop and an established financial institution. The law office of Gielow Groom Terpstra & McEvoy moved into the second floor of the Michigan Commerce Bank building (281 Seminole Rd.) with just five people onboard last April. The company now has nine employees and hopes to add more as business grows.

The four attorneys -- Eric Gielow, Brad Groom, Rachel Terpstra and Keith McEvoy -- have from eight years' to over 30 years' legal experience each, says Eric Gielow, and represent businesses and commercial clients. However, each attorney has specialties: Gielow in environmental law, Groom in trial experience, Terpstra in family law and domestic relations, and McEvoy in corporate, real estate and liquor law.

"We all practiced at another firm together and decided to form this firm," says Eric Gielow. Gielow says the firm has incorporated many lean practices to keep costs down, similar to the lean practices of the company's manufacturing clients.

Those lean practices include a goal of being a paperless office, helping the company to minimize costs. Gielow says that savings is passed along to the firm's clients.

The building was part of a brownfield redevelopment that includes new retail and commercial spaces, Gielow says, and is across the street from a new Verdoni's Italian Restaurant and local java place, The Coffee House.

Source: Eric Gielow, Gielow Groom Terpstra & McEvoy; Laura Holmes, Fine Line Creative
Writer: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor
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