Michael Best was founded in 1848 by
Edward George Ryan, a Wisconsin trial attorney who later served as Chief Justice of the
Wisconsin Supreme Court. Over the course of more than a hundred and seventy years, the firm expanded throughout Wisconsin and across the country through a series of expansions and mergers, eventually growing from a small legal practice to a full-service business law firm that serves clients in the United States and across the globe. Michael Best is affiliated with various global law organizations, including
Lex Mundi, a network of 160 law firms with over 21,000 attorneys in more than 100 countries; the
Employment Law Alliance (ELA), a global network of employment and labor law firms; and the American Property Tax Counsel (APTC), a national affiliation of property tax law firms that provides major portfolio owners with a single source of tax advice. ==Attorney compensation==