On October 2, Crain’s Cleveland Business published an interview with James Mizgala and Joe Morford on Tucker Ellis’s upcoming managing partner transition, effective January 1, 2026.

James will become the firm’s fourth-ever managing partner, succeeding Joe, who has served as managing partner for the past 16 years.

“All along, I wanted to leave the firm in a great place,” Joe said. “We are in a great place now. We are in the strongest position nationwide as a firm that we’ve ever been in and by far. I’ve done my thing. We’ve fulfilled my vision. And I could see that it was time for the next step.”

James credits the encouragement of colleagues for his decision to accept the challenge of becoming managing partner.

“I’ve been in various leadership positions throughout my life,” James said. “This wasn’t something that I really wanted to do, but when I looked around, I said, you know, I can do this. And I look at who’s coming up in the firm, and several younger lawyers came to me and said, ‘I think you should do this.’ Given that level of support, I thought I should throw my hat in the ring.”

While James is based in the firm’s Chicago office, he considers Cleveland his second home and is traveling frequently to meet with partners and clients.

“Cleveland is our biggest office, and it has a strong presence in the community. That is not going to change,” James said.

“We have this great footprint from coast to coast, and I just want to fill in what else is going on in those areas,” he continued. “Cleveland is clearly our most comprehensive place where we offer services, and my goal is to see what we can develop using people out of Cleveland to help develop specialties elsewhere.”

Joe remarked that he’s most proud of managing his strategy of slow and deliberate growth while retaining the Tucker Ellis culture.

“We managed to succeed financially in the industry while at the same time taking care of each other and having long-term relationships built on more than just making money,” Joe said. “It can be hard to grow a multi-generational law firm and maintain a meaningful culture that is just your culture. And we’ve done that. And I’m super proud that we did.”

The article is available by subscription on the Crain’s website here.