In 1985, three local professionals, together with their three assistants, opened an office just across the street in the Heritage Center. Today, six people in a farmhouse have become six offices in Northwest Wisconsin, employing over thirty-five people, including 18 here in New Richmond. Their clients range from individuals, small businesses, and family farms to banks, developers and companies engaged in local, national and international trade.

They have not only dedicated themselves to providing high quality service to their clients, but have also taken an active role in their community and their profession. For the past 10 years, they have presented a free lecture series on personal responsibility, bringing nationally recognized speakers such as Arun Ghandi, Sister Helen Prejean, Martin Luther King III and Morris Dees to New Richmond. They serve on non-profit boards, City Committees, and as coaches, mentors and volunteers. Members of the firm have served as President of the Wisconsin and St. Croix Valley Bar Associations, been honored as the State of Wisconsin Pro Bono and Law Related Education Lawyers of the Year, and helped found the St. Croix Valley Free Legal Clinic. The firm has always taken an active role in the Chamber, providing sponsorship and volunteer support, including our most recent Past-President. This year's Small Business of the Year is Bakke-Norman Law Office.

We are appreciative of this recognition; proud of all the communities in which we live and serve.

Thank you, Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Bureau, for this special award. Certainly many other businesses are also deserving of recognition for their contributions to our community. Our towns may be ‘small,’ our businesses may be ‘small,’ but these are measures of population only. Our hearts are big. We generously invest our energy, time, money and caring in the places we live to enrich our lives as well as those of future generations.