In September 1997 five partners at the oldest firm in San Joaquin County broke away to form their own firm. The new firm, now called HerumCrabtreeSuntag, was established to allow its partners to fulfill their desire to provide a consistently high quality, client driven, technologically advanced, professional service firm. The partners believe that a small and efficient law firm can provide the highest quality legal specialized services at a lower cost than a large, multidiscipline and multi-office law firm. In less than three years this new firm has nearly tripled in size and is now recognized as a leader in the Central Valley of California.