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January 13, 2025
GREEN BAY – A Green Bay native with nearly 30 years of legal experience has earned a spot on the Super Lawyers list for a straight decade.
Evan (pronounced A-ven) Lin, the founding attorney and managing partner at Lin Law LLC, said he decided to start his own firm because he wanted to specialize his practice.
“I decided to do my own thing after 13 years at my old firm, because my old firm was a full-service law firm,” he said, “We did everything and… different practice areas have different needs that don’t always work well with other practice areas. So I felt it was best to start a business, estate planning firm – almost like a boutique, niche-type practice – (to) just be really good at what we do and specialize in that area.”
In the 12 years since starting Lin Law, Evan said he’s been named to the 2024 Super Lawyers list for 10 consecutive years.
A super career
After graduating from high school in Green Bay, Evan said he attended Loyola University in Chicago for his undergraduate degree with the initial career goal of becoming a CPA.
“Growing up in Green Bay, I wanted to see what else was out there – (in) a bigger city,” he said. “I was a business major and my emphasis was in public accounting – basically (an) accounting major. I graduated from undergrad with a business degree, and thereafter, I decided to go to law school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.”
Following law school, and because of his background in accounting, Evan said his goal was to work at one of the “big six” accounting firms, and ultimately landed a job with Deloitte in Milwaukee.
“Deloitte has a very sophisticated client base, so they have a lot of tax planning needs,” he said, “So I certainly did use my legal background and the research skills I learned in law school to help with those types of transactions.”
Evan said that position solidified his interest in “sophisticated tax planning projects,” but after working at Deloitte for a year, he found a job at a law firm in Green Bay and he and his wife made the move back home.
“It was absolutely a great experience – learning what a busy season was like – and it enabled me to learn a lot about 1040 tax returns, corporate tax returns, partnership returns,” he said. “But what ultimately made me (want to) go work for a law firm was… my wife and I wanted to get back home to Green Bay because we’re both from the area.”
Evan said his first firm wasn’t the best fit – spending less than a year there before finding work at another law firm in Green Bay where he spent the next 13 years.
“(The first firm) just wasn’t the right culture,” he said. “It wasn’t the right place for me, so I left there pretty quickly, and then I joined another firm in town, which was a great firm. I really enjoyed it. I became a managing shareholder at that firm. It was a bigger firm – at its peak, we had about 16-17 attorneys.”
Working at a larger firm, Evan said, led him to discover he wanted to scale down and specialize his own practice to better serve his clientele.
“It was harder to get things done, so to speak, because you have other partners,” he said. “It’s like working in Congress. I really enjoyed my time there – wouldn’t have spent 13 years of my life there if I didn’t – but it’s just the business side of it and the politics side and trying to get things done to benefit my practice and my clients. I just felt I needed to do my own thing.”
The Super Lawyers designation
Keeping with his goal of down-sized specialization, Evan said the Lin Law team consists of himself, an associate attorney and two paralegals.
“I’d like to think we have a really good reputation, and we’re known for being a good estate planning, business-type firm – that’s really all we do,” he said. “When clients call us for legal needs that we don’t handle, we certainly have relationships with attorneys in the community, (and) we can make sure they get to a qualified attorney to help them.”
Evan said as a smaller firm, he and his team don’t have to work through the politics larger firms typically experience – allowing them to provide tailored, quality legal services to their clients.
According to the Super Lawyers website (superlawyers.com), attorneys are named to the lists on a state-by-state basis.
Each candidate nominated for their respective state’s list “is evaluated on 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement.”
Those 12 performance indicators include metrics, such as verdicts/settlements, experience, honors/awards, scholarly lectures/writings, pro bono cases and community service.
Evan said the national organization is a “well-respected” resource for those seeking top-notch legal services across the country.
“Sometimes I have clients with needs in other states, (and) I usually look for a Super Lawyer designation just to give my clients a name,” he said. “When I talk to other lawyers from different states that are looking (for attorneys in Wisconsin), sometimes they get to me because of my designation – it’s a pretty reputable designation.”
Though he’s been named a Super Lawyer for the 10th year in a row, Evan said he’s simply happy to provide the people of his home state and city with quality legal service.
“I’m really proud to be back in my hometown to be able to service my clients,” he said. “It was a big thing for me. It’s great being in the city that I grew up in. I love it here. So it’s really been an honor to be able to serve the community, both professionally and (through) community service – I feel blessed.”
To learn more about Lin Law LLC, head to llattorneys.com or visit its Facebook page.
