I've walked past their building on Phillips Avenue enough times to know the sign — Meierhenry Sargent LLP — without having to look up. That's the thing about law firms in downtown Sioux Falls. Most of them blend into the brick and glass until you need them. Then suddenly their name is the only one that matters.
This firm has been around since the seventies, which in Sioux Falls legal circles means something. Not flashy — there's no marble lobby or corporate art installation — just quiet competence housed in a building that's seen four decades of contract disputes, estate plans, and business formations. The kind of place where lawyers still answer their own phones sometimes.
They're listed as consultants, but that's really shorthand for business and estate planning. I know a few local business owners who've worked with them on succession planning when their kids were ready to take over. The conversations weren't easy — family businesses rarely are — but they walked away with documents that actually reflected what needed to happen, not just legal boilerplate.
The nine reviews, all five stars, tell you something. It's a small pool, sure, but law firms tend to collect angry reviews like lint. Someone's always unhappy about billable hours or outcomes they didn't want. The absence of those complaints suggests they're either very good at managing expectations or very careful about who they take on.
Their website won't win design awards — it's functional in that mid-2000s way that legal sites often are — but it lists their practice areas clearly enough. If you're trying to protect assets you've spent thirty years building or structure a sale so you're not eaten alive by taxes, that clarity matters more than sleek interfaces.
They're not the loudest firm in town, which might be exactly why they're still here.
— Grace
I know a few local business owners who've worked with them on succession planning when their kids were ready to take over.