LOCAL BUSINESS AUTHOR, QUENTIN SUPER, WRITES A PROFILE OF OUR MINNEAPOLIS EMINENT DOMAIN ATTORNEY
Local author, Quentin Super, interviewed Jon Morphew to discuss his role as an eminent domain attorney, representing property owners having their property taken by the government for public improvement projects and assisting them with obtaining maximum compensation. The following is the article written by Mr. Super following their interview.
Jon Morphew is an eminent domain lawyer who helps property owners receive just compensation in cases where the government is attempting to acquire their land.
A native of Ottumwa, Iowa, Morphew grew up in a part of the Midwest that was adversely affected by the agriculture slowdown of the 1980s.
Back then, his circumstances weren’t quite Grapes of Wrath, but that humble upbringing, coupled with his ambitious nature, led Morphew to think beyond what the pastures of southeast Iowa could offer him.
Arguably, his path to personal fulfillment began in high school, when the academically gifted Morphew built a reputation as a talented debater, often trouncing opposing schools with his quick wit and expansive knowledge.
“I was pretty good at debating,” Morphew modestly shares, but his penchant for intellectual triumph earned him a scholarship to the University of Northern Iowa, which then afforded him the chance to test his mettle against top competition from around the United States.
“The cool part about being on the debate team was we got to travel all around the country,” Morphew adds.
Upon graduating from UNI, Morphew could have parlayed his academic might into a further trot down the road of higher education, but by that point the Ottumwa product was yearning for something different than pursuing a master’s degree, so he plunged deeper into the heart of the Midwest, leaving Iowa and enrolling into law school at the University of Nebraska.
Soon after, it was 1998, and Morphew, whose family relocated to the Twin Cities, joined them in The Land of 10,000 Lakes, becoming a licensed attorney in Minnesota.
Since then, Morphew has steadily built a business as an eminent domain lawyer, a position that tasks him with advocating for property owners whose land is being seized by the government.
For context, the government is not operating with malicious intent when they infringe upon a property owner’s land.
By law, the government can’t just acquire private land at their will.
They need to have a plan to put that acquired land to public use, a fact Morphew makes abundantly clear as we discuss the nuances of eminent domain in a quaint Osseo coffeehouse.
“Yes, the government can take your property, but there are two restrictions to that,” says Morphew, who has practiced eminent domain law for almost 25 years.
“First thing is when the government takes your property, it has to be for a public purpose, meaning they must have a bona fide plan to develop new roads or a light rail project; something of that nature. Secondarily, the person whose property is being infringed upon has to be justly compensated.”
That second element about just compensation is where Morphew’s expertise becomes indispensable, because quantifying fair compensation is just as much an art as it is a science.
Sure, appraisals are conducted and numbers are run to account for a variety of variables, but sometimes negotiating an appropriate settlement with the government involves ancillary factors (i.e. politics) that can’t be calculated on a spreadsheet.
For his part, Morphew protects property owners from being negatively impacted by those pesky yet all too real factors.
“I am a really cheap insurance policy,” says Morphew, who prior to any agreement being inked, will sit down with a prospective client and assess their situation, at no cost to them. “The purpose of that initial meeting is to make a determination on whether the government is treating that person fairly.”
Often, it only takes Morphew 20-30 minutes to analyze a potential client’s situation and determine whether just compensation has already been distributed by the government.
“And if I believe that the government is not appropriately compensating the property owner, that’s when we sign an agreement and I go to work on their behalf to do an appraisal and ultimately facilitate them receiving adequate compensation.”
It should be noted that in the vast majority of cases that Morphew takes on, he is working on a contingency basis, meaning he only gets paid if his clients receive additional compensation from the government.
From those additional funds his clients receive, Morphew is then paid a percentage (typically ⅓) only on that added amount.
For example, if his client has been offered $10,000 by the government, but the case ultimately settles for $15,000, then Morphew’s percentage is based on the additional $5,000 he helped secure, and not the $15,000 final total.
“In the end, if I don’t get my client a penny more than the government initially offered them, the client does not owe me a dime,” Morphew says.
For Morphew’s clients, understanding how he is compensated is important.
In fact, some property owners are reluctant to pursue representation for their eminent domain cases because they fear doing so will result in them paying an exorbitant retainer fee, or being saddled with an expensive hourly rate in order to have someone on their side.
“There are two types of people in this world. There are those that hire attorneys and those that don’t,” Morphew insists.
“Particularly at the outset of any interaction with a client, I’m always trying to explain how a contingency agreement works because a lot of people have misconceptions, and sometimes rightfully so, about eminent domain attorneys and how they are actually compensated.”
As is the case in any industry, there are eminent domain attorneys like Morphew who prioritize their clients and their needs, and then there are eminent domain lawyers who disregard their clients and focus only on their best interests.
“That’s why it’s crucial to partner with an attorney who not only specializes in eminent domain, but that also has a reputation for treating their clients well,” adds Morphew.
“In my opinion, with eminent domain, if you’re working with an attorney who cannot produce testimonials, a past body of work, or isn’t willing to work on contingency, then you’re better off working with someone else.”
Again, partnering with a legitimate eminent domain attorney is essential because reaching a settlement with the government over land often isn’t an hour-long or even week-long affair, and the litigation process can be emotionally taxing.
“I’ve worked on cases for five years before seeing a penny,” Morphew reveals.
“That’s the price you pay for this kind of fight, but ultimately it does prove to be worthwhile because I have seen stark discrepancies in terms of what the government initially offers property owners versus the amount that the government is willing to end up settling with a property owner for in the end.”
But if you don’t have a competent and experienced attorney serving as a liaison between you and the government, you could be unintentionally forfeiting hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Another element to this is that I’m willing to take on cases that other law firms will not touch because they may not see the potential upside,” says Morphew, who quite literally has built a practice rooted in a customer-first philosophy.
“I’ve learned throughout the course of my career that if I do the right thing, good things will happen, and the money will work itself out.”
But not all attorneys operate under this same set of guiding principles.
“My approach has always been that I don’t want to charge you if I can’t help you, but there are some lawyers who do not abide by that mentality,” Morphew mentions.
“It’s actually pretty easy for an attorney to convince someone to hire them at a high rate because the attorney will promise them the world even if they end up not delivering any value. I never wanted to be like that. I just wanted to treat people fairly and help them out, and again that approach has served me well throughout my career.”
Sure, Jon Morphew is a nice guy who genuinely cares about his clients, but he’s not completely altruistic.
He too wants to reap the benefits of his hard work, but perhaps the irony is that the more he does right by his clients, the more he is eventually rewarded.
“People truly appreciate it when you’re honest with them and tell them the reality of the situation, without charging them an exorbitant fee,” Morphew explains.
“I’m a big believer that if you put good vibes into the world, it will come back multifold.”
Looking ahead, the sagacious Morphew has no plans to scale his practice or plaster his face onto billboards around the Twin Cities.
As the twilight of his career slowly unfolds, Morphew is at peace with what he has done.
In many ways, his legacy is already secured, and now he is playing with house money, helping people who are in need but in no way trying to deviate from the ideologies that brought him to this juncture of his career.
“I’ve been fortunate to be able to accomplish way more than I thought I ever would. I’ve been very successful in appellate litigation. I’ve had three cases go to the Minnesota Supreme Court, and I’ve won them all,” Morphew says, his resume equally as impressive as his perspective on what it takes to garner respect and adoration.
“I list what I have done only to say that I’m most proud of the legacy I have created, and that’s only happened because I’ve never wavered from the fact that putting people first is paramount.”