How big is too big for a law firm? According to Brian Meltzer, 30 attorneys is pushing it.

Though most businesses gauge size and growth in terms of revenues, profits or market capitalization, Meltzer measures his firm’s growth by the number of lawyers and paralegals on the payroll.

As managing partner of Schaumburg-based Meltzer, Purtill & Stelle LLC, he has seen the firm nearly triple in size from eight lawyers and two paralegals when formed in 1996, to 22 lawyers and six paralegals today.

“It’s tough not to grow,” Meltzer said. “If you’re successful – as we’re finding out – you get very busy and you need to add people to do the work, or turn away the work.

“We probably don’t want to get much bigger than 30 lawyers,” he said. “There’s a certain point – I think it's around 30 or 40 – where the character and culture of a law firm changes...it becomes more institutionalized, more bureaucratic, more impersonal.”

In Meltzer, Purtill & Stelle latest expansion, the firm created a branch in Chicago’s financial district, opening an office on the top floor of 300 S. Wacker Drive. The branch, kitty corner from the Sears Tower and on the east bank of the Chicago River, allows the firm to compete aggressively with other firms in and around the Loop, aids recruitment of younger talent and provides better service to clients based in the city.

“This isn’t a mail-drop; this is a real office,” Meltzer said from his desk overlooking Printers Row and the Pennsylvania Freight Terminal.

“We were successful in building a very strong practice in several areas where our completion was firms downtown,” Meltzer said. “ And we felt we’d proved that we could take these guys on and get our share of the business even though we were in Schaumburg.”

“Now, let’s see what we can do if we go down to Chicago,” Meltzer added. “I think it’s working.”

One area of the firm’s expertise is mergers and acquisitions. Another is real estate, especially in lending, new construction and condominium construction.

Meltzer, Purtill & Stelle brought seven lawyers and two paralegals to its Chicago branch with plans to add more staff.

Meltzer said he tries to hire attorneys who will do the job thoroughly and efficiently the first time, without letting formality stand in the way of business proficiency.

“Instead of sitting there complaining about what the other side is or isn’t doing, if you go in and just sit down and get it done, everybody’s happy, and you get more business out of it,” Meltzer said.

“I think that’s how we’ve built our reputation.”

Meltzer and his partners – John F. Purtill, Roger T. Stelle and William J. Mitchell – got their start together in 1988 as the Schaumburg branch of the national law firm Kreck, Mahin & Cate L.L.C.

They left that firm in 1995 to form their own practice.

Today, the company’s clientele includes financial institutions, national home-builders, the corporate middle market, entrepreneurs and high net-worth individuals.

“We are going to grow,” Meltzer said. “ We’re getting some interest from people who would like to be in a smaller firm, where it’s more entrepreneurial, and they have a chance to build a practice.”