Michael J. Fichtel

CEO and Principal Partner, Michael Fichtel, joined the law firm of Kelley Kronenberg and quickly rose to partnership within only four years of his admission to the Florida Bar, in 1987.  Michael’s continued focus on creating value for clients and on maximizing the firm’s growth through the development of innovative business-relationship models led to an upward trajectory of growth for the firm and to Michael’s selection as the firm’s first CEO in 2010. 

Over the last ten years, Michael has changed the face of the firm and the industry.  By making client-value and client-relationships as important as the legal services he was providing, Michael proved that outstanding attorneys can also be exceptional business leaders with the right mindset and environment.  Michael now uses that philosophy to inspire the firm’s attorneys to place the power of their success in their own hands and his leadership has ensured that Kelley Kronenberg will always provide our attorneys with the optimal environment for professional and business growth.

With this goal in mind, Michael transformed his client-first philosophy into what became the foundation for the firm’s primary core value of “We are a Team,” the unwavering commitment to putting our people first. With an understanding that the firm’s success would be wholly dependent on the success and satisfaction of its attorneys and staff, Michael’s driving vision was to develop a business model that would attract the industry’s finest and then retain this superior talent by furnishing leading business and technological resources, providing dynamic professional development programs and mentorship opportunities, creating work environments that allow for collaboration, and establishing a firm culture that insists on personal and professional ethics and places an equally-high value on community service and civic involvement, diversity and inclusion, personal goals and growth, and work-life balance.

Astutely, Michael also recognized that financial security is often at the core of satisfaction and that the compensation structures traditionally offered by law firms were not meeting the needs of today’s partners. Michael, therefore, formulated a creative and progressive compensation structure that allows the firm’s partners to directly and transparently benefit from their own contributions, essentially becoming the engineers of their own earning potential.  Michael realized that the full value of this system could only be actualized if innovation and autonomy were coupled with collaboration and support.  Thus, under his leadership, the firm expanded its IT department, with the aim of leveraging technology for efficiency and consistency, and recruited a distinguished C-Level business-support team that meets regularly with each of the firm’s partners to provide critical guidance in the areas of financial operations, business development, and marketing. 

Under Michael’s leadership, the firm has seen great success and, as he envisioned, this has been commensurate to the success of our attorneys and staff. By putting people first, Kelley Kronenberg experienced unprecedented growth.  Now one of the largest and most broad-scoped law firms in Florida, Kelley Kronenberg is also amongst the most admired and respected, having received numerous industry awards and repeated recognition as one of Florida’s top places to work.  Additionally, Michael’s innovation and commitment to transparency and fairness have earned him the respect, loyalty and trust of the firm’s employees and leadership, the legal and business communities locally and throughout Florida, and his colleagues nationwide.

With the knowledge that the needs of the legal industry and the workforce are ever-changing, Michael remains unwavering in his commitment to the firm’s continued growth, driven in his goal to create a workplace that is revered by its employees and the community, relentless in his pursuit for innovative legal and business solutions, and compelled by an aspiration to help others realize that they can be outstanding attorneys and exceptional business leaders once they have the right mindset and environment.