As published in Development News - December 1, 2019
Rendering of Mayle LLC’s new Perrysburg office
Mayle LLC, an area litigation law firm serving clients across Ohio, has invested approximately $1 million to construct a new 3,150 square foot, one and a half-story office located at 13026 Roachton Road in Perrysburg near Levis Commons. In December 2016, a fire destroyed the law firm’s original, 130-year-old building in downtown Fremont, creating the need for a new office.
Andrew Mayle, attorney and owner of the firm, said, “We had a fire at our previous location, and we wanted to use this opportunity to build a first-class facility. We started working with Rudolph Libbe to find a good site for us, and we shared with them our vision for the project and what our needs were.”
Mayle has worked collaboratively with Rudolph Libbe for about two years. Together, they found the location that worked for Mayle’s vision, where there was actually a residence, and had to totally develop the site into a conventional property from square one.
“We were fine with that because we could do exactly what we wanted to do. It’s a totally new development, exactly how we wanted,” said Mayle. “We wanted to have a space that was really comfortable and welcoming for our clients, and that also reflected our creativity as leaders. We have a mix of urban, suburban, and rural clients, and I was really looking for a location that reflected that mix and was also easily accessible for our client base across northwest Ohio. This was a perfect match geographically and also demographically for our clients.”
Rudolph Libbe Inc., of the Rudolph Libbe Group, is serving as the design/build contractor for the project, where its tradespeople self-performed sitework, concrete, masonry, and carpentry. Duket Architects, based in Toledo, has also helped with the project.
The office is a one and a half-story building and features cedar and brick on its exterior.
When speaking of the office, Mayle explained, “Standing on the outside, the exterior is going to be the so-called Shou Sugi Ban. It’s an ancient Japanese technique for treating wood and no one in northwest Ohio – to my knowledge – has an exterior like this. We are the first to try it out and it’s beautiful. So, the exterior is very striking.
Construction in progress at Mayle LLC’s new office
“My favorite part on the inside is on the second floor where we have a room we are calling the lounge room. It has a fireplace and we think it’s going to be a great place to bring clients to talk to and survey. It’s a very relaxed atmosphere to take them out of a tense situation, a tense litigation, or a tense lawsuit, and just talk to them as people,” explained Mayle. “It’s not a traditional type of conference room, it’s just a very relaxed setting. And also, everyone that works in all the layers of our office, they’re music lovers so we have high-end audio in every room in the building, and every room can play a different song if we want it to. So those are some of the special features.”
According to Mayle, the litigation practice represents people, families, and companies in lawsuits in State and federal court across Ohio. He noted that the firm does a lot of Ohio Supreme Court litigation and also represents thousands of businesses across the region. The firm also has a pretty high-profile criminal defense practice as well, noted Mayle.
The firm currently has two lawyers and two support staffs. A previous partner became a judge after the fire, and Mayle expects to hire someone once the building is complete.
When speaking about his firm, Mayle noted that its passion sets them apart.
“Our passion for our clients and law is definitely what sets us apart. I think what sets a great lawyer apart from others is that they worry about their clients and think about the issues all the time. Your mind never shuts off at six o’clock or anything like that. I would say lawyers can tell clients some advice that the clients think that they need, but a great lawyer can give clients advice that the client doesn’t even know that they need. I think that’s what we do,” explained Mayle. “We’re always thinking steps ahead and you can really only do that if you have a passion for what you do. Another thing that sets us apart is that any lawyer can tell clients what they can’t do, we like to be ‘can do-ers’. Sure, we’ll tell them what they can’t do, but then we’re going to give them their options about what they can do to solve this problem. I think it’s our passion, our ‘can-do’ attitude, and our ability to give clients a perspective on things that they may not even realize are issues on the horizon.”
Construction on the project began in July and is expected to be complete by the end of November.
“The project has gone very smoothly. It’s been a pleasure to work with Andy throughout the process. There’s been great collaboration between Andy, Duket Architects, and our team,” said Dan Diekman, group manager in Rudolph Libbe Special Accounts.
“We are just excited to host our clients and our colleagues in our new space and we think the team did a wonderful job of taking our vision and bringing it to life. We think that the creativity of the building and its aesthetics really reflect how hard we go about practicing law which is in a creative and a fun and unique way. We’re just excited and can’t wait to have it open,” concluded Mayle.