LEWISTON – Apparently its 80-year history with the city is just the beginning for law firm Brann & Isaacson.

Founded in 1927 by Peter Isaacson and Louis Brann (who went on to serve as governor from 1932 to 1940), the firm just completed a $500,000 expansion of its fourth-floor offices in the old Peck’s department store on Main Street, at the head of Lisbon Street.

What was once Ladies Lingerie is now the firm’s lobby; the old mezzanine billing office with its network of pneumatic tubes is now a law library.

“We’re growing; we needed the space,” said George Isaacson, senior partner and distant relative of the founder. “When I came to Brann & Isaacson in 1976, there were three lawyers. Now we have 20.”

The expansion adds about 5,000 square feet of office space; the firm now consumes the entire fourth floor of the Peck Building, which is owned by L.L. Bean and home to one of its telemarketing centers.

L.L. Bean is also an essential part of Brann & Isaacson’s success. By chance, back in the ’60s, partner Irving Isaacson sat on a board with L.L. Bean grandson Leon Gorman. The two were chatting about a legal problem the famed sporting goods company was having and Gorman asked Isaacson if his firm could handle it.

It could, and has. Since 1967 Brann & Isaacson has represented L.L. Bean as general counsel (and, for the record, Irving Isaacson, son of Peter, still practices law at 92).

“As L.L. Bean grew, we’ve grown with it,” George Isaacson said.

That early association with a direct marketing company gave the law firm an expertise that has attracted a stellar list of clients: AOL, Time Inc., Earthlink, Talbot’s, Cold Water Creek and Scholastic Book Clubs to name a few.

“Direct marketing is a derivative or progression from mail order,” said Martin Eisenstein, also a senior partner with the firm. “Now it’s online marketing. They are all different ways to touch a customer. What we concentrate a good bit of our work on is how to serve those companies that have a commitment to their customers, whether by phone, mail or online.”

Those services run the gamut from sales tax issues to protecting consumers’ privacy and the companies’ intellectual property rights, to interpreting trade laws. The growing complexity of those issues – especially in a global, Web-based market – means the firm and its 45 staffers are always busy.

Isaacson said they’ve hired two or three people every year for the past few years and expect that to continue. Luckily, the technology that makes the world an open market also allows the firm to continue operating from Maine.

“Technology has very much moved in our direction,” Eisenstein said. “It makes communication with clients easy.”

In evidence: a console cabinet in one of the new cherry-paneled conference rooms that allows video conferencing with the push of a button.

The partners agree that Maine’s quality of life has made recruiting new talent to the firm relatively easy. And it gives them an edge when business takes them to courtrooms across the country.

“People have positive associations with the state of Maine,” Isaacson said. “They believe we have old-fashioned values that still count, such as honesty and respect. That ‘slick-lawyer’ assumption is not assumed when you come from Maine.”

The firm keeps those values alive by representing Maine municipalities, schools and charitable groups in its general practice. It has advised the city for years.

“We have a wonderful mix of clients,” Eisenstein said. “It really is a special privilege to represent them.”

Kayla Hodgkin contributed to this report.