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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIn its more than 150-year history, Krieg DeVault LLP has been building and shaping offices across Indiana and the wider Midwest through office moves and mergers, all with an eye toward how to best serve clients.
Founded in 1870 in Indianapolis, the firm has grown to 114 attorneys across its six offices, including 72 in central Indiana, according to IBJ’s list of largest law firms. To support that growth, managing partner Mike Messaglia says, Krieg DeVault maintains a sense of community through firmwide programs designed to promote professional growth through mentorship and provide exceptional client services.
“Having a strong mentor is very important,” Messaglia told The Indiana Lawyer. “That’s both formal mentorships, but also, I think we pride ourselves on informal mentorships, too. We want everybody to take an interest in the success of everyone here, including our associates.”
The firm has five offices in Indiana and one in Chicago. Earlier this month, the firm announced the relocation of its office in Hamilton County, a move Messaglia emphasized will allow attorneys to better serve clients in that region and invest the firm more predominately in the community.
Growing across Indiana
For several decades, Krieg DeVault maintained its sole office in Indianapolis. But beginning in the early 2000s, the firm started expanding to several locations around the state. It now has locations in Indianapolis, Carmel, South Bend, Crown Point, Fort Wayne and Chicago.
In January 2025, the firm completed a merger with Chicago-based Fuchs & Roselli Ltd., a boutique firm specializing in corporate and business law, banking, real estate, litigation and estate planning.
The merger added 26 attorneys to Krieg Devault’s existing Chicago presence; the law firm opened its doors in the Windy City in 2007. Fuchs & Roselli was founded in 1989.
In January 2026, Krieg DeVault completed an additional merger, this time in northeast Indiana. The firm announced last October that it was acquiring Fort Wayne-based Rothberg Law Firm, which was founded in 1952. The merger added 12 legal professionals to Krieg DeVault’s roster and brought additional depth in practice areas like government, health care, corporate and employment law.
And earlier this month, the firm announced the relocation of its Carmel office. Having occupied a space directly west of U.S. 31, the office now sits at the intersection of 116th and Pennsylvania streets. Messaglia said the new space gives the firm “more room to grow and expand.”
“We saw it as an opportunity to further invest in our relationships in Hamilton County,” he said.
When considering new mergers or moves, Krieg DeVault prioritizes what clients need and where those services are needed. When the firm merged with Rothberg in Fort Wayne, for example, Messaglia emphasized Rothberg’s proximity to a community of the firm’s existing clients.
But culture is also important. When it comes to choosing law firms who will merge well with Krieg DeVault, leaders prioritize harmonious values from both sides of the deal. With Rothberg, Krieg DeVault leaders were already familiar with the traits the firm displayed, as the two shared several clients prior to merging. Rothberg was also strong in areas like banking and health care, bolstering what Krieg DeVault was already doing before moving full-time to Fort Wayne.
Krieg DeVault also seeks firms that are willing to collaborate and display an ownership mentality and entrepreneurial spirit, Messaglia said.
Mentorships encourage growth
In tandem with outside growth, a major part of Krieg DeVault’s overall growth strategy is developing strong attorneys, Messaglia said. And that means formal mentorship programs that provide learning opportunities that are not found in a classroom.
“Law school prepares and teaches you to think like an attorney,” he said. “The actual practice of law also requires other skills that aren’t necessarily taught in law school.”
The firm has two mentorship programs, both led by Bali Heir, the firm’s chief business and talent development officer. One is through the firm’s Professional Personnel Committee, which directly supports associates and paralegals. The second is a more formal program long maintained by the firm but updated in 2025 under Heir’s leadership. The program assigns young attorneys with both senior associates and partners to encourage intentional learning opportunities for attorneys just starting out.
Many mentorships develop organically, Heir said, but the firm wanted to provide every attorney access to someone who can help them along in their practice. The program also ensures consistent professional growth firmwide.
“Our goal was to create an environment where attorneys feel invested in, supported, and equipped for long-term success,” Heir told The Indiana Lawyer in an email.
Firm leaders including Heir consider several factors when choosing which attorneys to match, such as office location, professional interests and personal compatibility.
And while it can be beneficial to match attorneys who work in the same practice area, Heir emphasized the value of seeking broader perspectives across practice lines.
One such mentor-mentee match is between Donald Smith, a partner in the firm’s real estate and environmental practice in Indianapolis, and Caleb Perez, an associate practicing in the firm’s real estate, renewable energy and corporate law areas in Carmel.
While the two graduated law school 20 years apart, they’ve formed a mentorship from which they both glean wisdom.
“Being a good practicing attorney is about more than just the clients, more than just the dollars and cents,” Smith said in an email. “It’s more than just being a good legal technician. At the end of the day, it is about the relationships that you develop over time, not just with clients, but with other attorneys.”
“There is certainly a temptation, as a young attorney, to make everything about the billable hour and not prioritize certain non-billable activities, such as marketing,” Perez said. “However, Don has helped me understand that developing relationships and building a practice should begin early in your career.”
As attorneys progress in their careers, they begin to face new challenges and growth opportunities, so it’s important to have support at every stage, Heir said. When selecting mentors, the firm looks for attorneys who understand Krieg Devault’s culture and values and want to invest time in supporting younger attorneys.
A mentor’s wisdom lasts far beyond the first few years of practicing, according to both Smith and Messaglia, who reflected on the support they received early in their careers. Messaglia in particular started out as a summer associate at Krieg DeVault before joining the firm full time.
“My journey has been one of the support, the nurturing and encouragement to become the best attorney that I can be through the people at our firm that helped me along the way,” Messaglia said.”
A rewarding aspect of leading the mentorship program is seeing how the attorneys’ relationships continue even after the formal components of the program are completed, Heir said.
Overall, Krieg DeVault’s mentorship programs speak to its overall vision, laid out in the firm’s four CORE values: commitment, ownership, respect and excellence. The firm believes attorneys who feel supported and invested in are in the best position to exemplify those values.
“Mentorship helps create those connections and strengthens the culture that allows our people and our clients to succeed,” she said.•
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