Details: Wipfli LLP, a Top 20 Firm based in Milwaukee, has added the partners and associates of Klein Hall, a firm based in Naperville, Illinois, effective Nov. 1.
The deal is Wipfli’s seventh deal in the Chicago area in the past five years and will add 25 Klein Hall employees, including five partners and 20 associates, to the firm. Wipfli has more than 2,400 employees, including over 260 partners, spread across 50 offices.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Wipfli’s net revenue for fiscal year 2019 was $361 million; it ranked No. 19 on Accounting Today’s 2019 list of the Top 100 Firms. Klein Hall’s revenue was unavailable.
Klein Hall was founded in 2002 and has been named as one of Accounting Today’s 100 Best Accounting Firms to Work For, and recently ranked No. 6 on Accounting Today’s Best Firms for Women.
“The addition will strengthen Wipfli’s resources in this key market where our firm currently has five locationsi,” said Wipfli managing partner Kurt Gresens in a statement. “This will add an office to our footprint in the western suburbs of Chicago, enhancing our physical presence in the market and helping Wipfli to become an even stronger leader in providing audit, tax and consulting services to Chicagoland’s organizations and businesses.”
Klein Hall offers accounting, tax and advisory services to privately held businesses in the Chicago area, mainly focusing on business advisory and consulting, serving as controllers and CFOs for midsized companies. The firm targets clients in the construction industry, along with professional services, manufacturing and distribution businesses and audits of local governments. After seeing 139 percent growth in a three-year period for the third consecutive year, Klein Hall was named one of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies, ranking No. 2,750 on Inc. Magazine’s 2019 Inc. 5000 list.
“We are proud of Klein Hall’s success over the years and our strong reputation for delivering quality solutions to our clients while also providing exceptional service,” stated Klein Hall managing partner Christina Klein Trapp. “Joining forces with Wipfli provides us with national resources and more extensive capabilities to continue to serve our clients’ evolving needs while also providing career and development opportunities to our employees, which will help us continue to retain and attract the best and brightest professionals in the industry.”
Koltin Consulting Group CEO Allan Koltin, who advised both firms on the deal, stated, “Wipfli continues with their strategic journey throughout Chicago by finding another very dynamic and entrepreneurial firm in Klein Hall. Wipfli’s rapid expansion and growth in the Chicago market has received national attention due to its successful integration and excellent results. Klein Hall has also been recognized nationally as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States and has received many national workplace awards. This is a great step for both firms.”
Wipfli has done a number of mergers and acquisitions in the past year, including a major one in October with Porter Keadle Moore in Atlanta. The firm also added Patke Associates in Illinois in August, TopLine Strategies in Arizona in June, and Howe, Riley Howe, in Bedford, New Hampshire, in January.