Daniel Tenenbaum (Lathrop GPM)

Daniel Tenenbaum is a partner at Lathrop GPM, a full-service law firm in the Twin Cities.

A member of the first and largest graduating class of Hopkins High School, after the closure of one of the schools in the district his senior year, the approachable Tenenbaum spent his time as a teenager disagreeing with his parents and fluctuating between social circles.

“I was just a regular guy in the middle of it all,” says Tenenbaum.

“In high school, I wasn’t very popular. I wasn’t a jock, wasn’t a burnout, but just sort of got along with most people.”

After high school, Tenenbaum left the glorious weather in Minnesota and headed to the East Coast, where he enrolled at Brandeis University outside of Boston to pursue a degree in psychology and legal studies.

“From the time that I was in third grade, everyone told me that I should be a lawyer because I was really good at arguing with everyone,” Tenenbaum mentions.  

At the same time, Tenenbaum’s plan for his life was slowly coming to fruition.

After earning his undergrad, he was accepted into the law school at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

“I did the whole Ivy League thing,” Tenenbaum says nonchalantly, his accomplishments never overriding his ability to connect with individuals of all classes and demographics.

Tenenbaum went through law school, and like most aspiring attorneys, he passed the bar exam and became a licensed legal professional.

He then moved back to the Twin Cities and started working for a small firm there.

“I knew I wanted to do transactional work instead of litigation. My personality is not conducive to being a jerk in court all day,” Tenenbaum explains.

Not even a year into his time at the small firm, internal strife led to the practice being disbanded, levying a setback to Tenenbaum’s young career.

“I had a law degree from an Ivy League school but no obvious path to sustainable employment,” the Golden Valley product says, adding that in 1990, at the time the small firm was dissolved, jobs were scarce for transactional attorneys.

Determined to find a role that was optimal for him, Tenenbaum networked his way into a position with Frank Vargas, who was previously a lawyer in Silicon Valley during that region’s initial tech boom, but in 1990 had moved back to the Twin Cities to open his own practice.

At Vargas & Associates, Vargas and Tenenbaum focused on helping entrepreneurs, capitalizing on a gap in the market because most firms weren’t focused on assisting entrepreneurs with their legal work.

“The whole concept of entrepreneurship was exciting to me, and I convinced Frank to hire me,” says Tenenbaum, a man who today remains grateful for the opportunity Vargas afforded to him.

“Frank was a tremendous mentor and remains a close friend.”

For the next handful of years, Tenenbaum helped entrepreneurs by working on corporate securities and technology licensing, but when the clients of Vargas & Associates started outgrowing the firm, it merged with the larger, full-service, Doherty, Rumble, & Butler law firm.

That firm went out of business in 1999, and Tenenbaum joined Gray Plant Mooty, the oldest law firm in Minnesota which, through a combination in 2000, is now known as Lathrop GPM, where Tenenbaum remains a partner.  

As a partner at a highly revered firm, Tenenbaum is never wont for work, but as is the case with partners in professional service organizations, there are also inherent financial risks he assumes by being a partner.

“Like most law firm partners, I have an anticipated base compensation,” Tenenbaum says, which essentially serves as a salary, albeit an unguaranteed one.

“I draw against that at a level that the firm knows will be exceeded. Then, as the firm exceeds additional revenue thresholds, they will disperse funds out to the partners to get them to their base compensation, assuming the firm meets its annual budget.”

If that seems like a complicated way of paying out salaries, know that the upside to this method is that if Lathrop GPM exceeds their projected income, then all the partners in the firm share in the remaining profits.

But at 58 years old, money is the not the primary motivator for Tenenbaum, who relishes attending musicals with his wife and family when he isn’t helping a motivated entrepreneur realize their dreams. 

He’s even written an original musical that had its premiere in Orlando in 2022 and is scheduled to be produced at Blue Water Theatre Company in the Twin Cities in early 2024.  

“At this stage of my career, my ideal client is an energized entrepreneur with an interesting business idea,” Tenenbaum says.

“I love working with those types of people because after 30+ years of working in this business, I can add a ton of value to those individuals and help them realize their entrepreneurial aspirations.”

Still, for as important as Tenenbaum’s knowledge and expertise are to securing and retaining clients, what’s perhaps more paramount is fostering a healthy dynamic with clients that supersedes any technical aspects of his job. He also enjoys mentoring junior colleagues and student entrepreneurs.

“There are a lot of unpleasant lawyers in the world, and if you are successful in business, you are going to spend a lot of time stuck in conference rooms for hours on end with your lawyer, so you should at least spend that time with someone you enjoy being around,” Tenenbaum notes.  

“If I were looking for a legal professional, I would want to know if I could trust them and if I could get along with them. Of course, you want someone who knows what they’re doing, but most people at my level are extremely competent, and so it simply becomes a matter of personalities meshing.”

For context, like most full-service law firms, at Lathrop GPM, in most cases, clients are billed hourly for the firm’s work, but they also have implemented what the profession calls “alternative fee arrangements” to accommodate the needs of their clients.

These alternatives could be a monthly retainer for the firm’s services, sharing risk for some agreed-upon return, or occasionally taking a small percentage of equity in a client’s company.

Looking ahead, Tenenbaum is still excited and passionate about the work he does, even though he acknowledges there will be a day when he will stop practicing law and settle into a more peaceful and predictable everyday life.

He does hope to stay involved in the local theatre community, where he currently serves as Vice Chair of Hennepin Theatre Trust and Chair of the Minneapolis Musical Theatre.

“Right now, I don’t have anything I’d rather do [than practice law]. I enjoy working with my clients and colleagues,” Tenenbaum says.  

“Again, I’m 58. I hope to not still be practicing law a decade from now. I would rather be playing pickleball, going to musicals with my wife, and enjoying retirement, but until that point arrives, I’ll continue to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses.” QS

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