Longtime lawyer thrives on legal challenges

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A. They are people who have shown compassion and strength and leadership through tough times. The whole commitment to justice and equality. ... There's almost a mystical quality to Lincoln, I think, in terms of how he appeared at the time and place he did and led the country through an unbelievably challenging set of circumstances.

A. The job itself is constantly presenting new challenges, new things to learn, new opportunities. It really doesn't feel like I've been in one job for that long a time. The practice evolves. The legal issues that businesses are confronted with evolve.

The first few years of my practice I worked on tax-shelter, limited-partnership deals, some real estate and some more exotic deals like race-horse breeding and silver mining. ... That work really wouldn't have been something I would have done for 20-some years.

Being in the (San Francisco) Bay area (for law school), I had gotten a real taste for the excitement that was going on in Silicon Valley with the emerging technology companies there.

At (one) point in my career here in Madison, I started to look around and realized that we had the potential here for the kind of knowledge-based economy, between the biotech and the medical devices and the information technology, to really base a legal career on working for those companies.

A. I think a lot of it had to do with being tuned in to the university and being a member of a faculty family and knowing some of the spin-off companies. For about seven years, I was outside counsel for ABS Global.

And I had also, as an undergraduate, studied bioethics and some biotechnology and was aware that here on campus there was a lot of pioneer work being done in biotechnology.

A. Right now my primary focus is doing the transactional work for technology companies.

A. I have clients ranging from very early stage startups. I'm working with several faculty members both at the University of Wisconsin and faculty members at the Medical College of Wisconsin and some other schools. Doing everything for them from company formation employment arrangements (and) licensing technology out of the university.

Just kind of outside general counsel for everything those companies need to get technology in place.

Then, ranging up to publicly held companies where the work consists more of transactions that in-house counsel wants to delegate to an outside counsel.

A lot of the deals I work on are with companies outside the United States, particularly in the medical-devices field but also in IT and pharmaceuticals and biotech to some degree. The (international) boundaries have just become more and more meaningless as far as sharing technology.

A. Well it makes the legal issues more complicated and I really enjoy it. It means you have to have very flexible hours.

You have to work around things like import and export regulations, different regulatory schemes, different tax laws. I really enjoy the cross-cultural deals.

A. The shared values that are exhibited without regard to boundaries between countries. And the focus in these transactions tends to be on bringing the technology to people that can be helped by it. Often, (these are) medical devices, advances in agriculture or sometimes just things that are fun and people enjoy.

It's really rewarding and sort of affirming to work that closely with people in other countries and realize that the most important things are the things that we have in common.

A. As the Madison office grows and the business community grows and changes, finding the right niche (is a goal). Given what Foley & Lardner can deliver, (our goal is) to continue to stay in the right place. To make sure we're delivering value to our clients, to do that as effectively as possible.

It's not expansion for the sake of expansion, it's being able to be nimble and responsive and have an answer (for our clients) as quickly as possible. Laws are not becoming less complicated.

A. To take the time and effort to make sure that first we understand what the client needs and not to deliver any more or less than the appropriate level of service to help the client accomplish their goals.

A. One of the most important things a good lawyer does is listen. A lot of active listening, asking the right questions and taking the time to understand the client's business, and what the client is trying to accomplish. And taking the time, if it's a transaction, (to find out) what the other party is trying to accomplish.

A. It's very much a cultural thing. We work very hard on being solution providers. ... We try to avoid over-lawyering. We try to be nimble, creative, innovative. ... Creativity is very important.

A. Just on a general basis, I'm very proud of, and very much enjoy, the relationships I have with my clients. I have a number of client relationships with people I really like. I really admire what they're doing. They tell me I'm helping them accomplish what they're accomplishing and that is the thing I take home at the end of every day that keeps me coming back here.

In terms of specific projects ... one of my partners, Tim Radelet, and I worked with the YWCA 15 years ago to help them raise the money to rehab their facility here on the (Capitol) Square and preserve that facility for housing for low-income women and shelter housing. That was an immensely challenging project. They needed substantial funding. A lot of people thought it couldn't be done. We found a way to get the low-income housing tax credits out to for-profit partners. ... I feel good, every time I walk by the YWCA, that I had a part in that.

A. You know, there are some decisions that I've made that with the benefit of hindsight I might have made differently. I'm happy to say I feel like I've always kind of landed on my feet.

(There were) mistakes I made using e-mail during the early days, when that was a new medium. It has the power of the written word and the permanency of the written word. But you can fire off an e-mail about as fast as you can make a remark in a conversation. And I did learn some interesting things about the danger of trying to use humor when you didn't have a tone of voice or, better yet, a facial expression to go along with it. And also the danger of saying anything critical in an e-mail message.

A. I love doing business in Madison. A lot of it is the people. Everywhere you turn in Madison, there are brilliant, generous, ethical, kind, fun people. I'm happy to say a lot of them have a need for legal services. I like the people who live here and are attracted here both in the private and public sector.

A. A lot of things that are often pointed to as negative issues I often see as positives. Things like the climate. The culture here, a lot of people say, is too risk-averse or we don't reward risk-takers enough. There might be some truth to that, but that has its charms too, I think. It also means you maybe don't get those high highs and low lows that some other places get.

One thing I would definitely join the chorus of complaints about is the difficulty of air travel in and out. It really is an issue.

It certainly would be helpful if we had a bigger pool of risk capital. I think a lot of that is going to be dependent on having one or two or three companies really make it in a huge way. A Microsoft or a Hewlett-Packard, such that there's a spin-off of a whole class of multimillionaires who then turn around and reinvest.

A. I think it can happen. I think there are several companies that could get there. I think it's probably just a matter of time.

A. I look for things where the transition is instantaneous. Probably the top of my list is working with horses because when I work with horses, my mind just goes instantly into their world, their mindset. ... Fly fishing I find to be similar. I love watching Packer games with friends in the fall and winter. Again, because I just throw myself into it. There's nothing else happening for those three hours. I like watching old movies. But the career is not something you walk out the door and leave in the office. For one thing, the day is very expandable. The day ends when the work that needs to get done gets done.

Q. Do you enjoy the expandability of the workday?

A. I do. I thrive on it. Clearly, I wouldn't still be doing it if I didn't love it.