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Degree and Year: BJ '80 (Advertising) Company: Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. Company Web Site: http://www.gklaw.com/ Title: Attorney City and State: Appleton, Wis.
I am an attorney with Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. in its Appleton, Wis. office. Our firm is based out of Milwaukee, Wis. I am a shareholder in the firm and we have approximately 170 lawyers and about 400 staff persons. My day-to-day work involves advising local, Wisconsin-based, Gannett newspapers on media law issues; labor and employment advice to business managers; business litigation; and land use matters such as zoning and using land for development projects. How did you get your job? I arrived at Godfrey & Kahn in 1991 by being an associate attorney in a firm in Oshkosh, Wis. That firm went out of business in 1991 and 12 of the lawyers from that firm, including me, joined Godfrey & Kahn. I got to Wisconsin from Missouri by passing the Wisconsin Bar examination in 1987. When I was sworn in as a lawyer in Wisconsin I met with a managing partner of a firm in Milwaukee for advice about potential legal opportunities in the state. The person gave me a lead at his firm and I interviewed and got a job starting in 1988. From 1986 until 1988 I was a practicing attorney at the Lake of the Ozarks and got that job by having clerked for the owner of the firm while I was in law school. I did work in the newspaper industry from 1981 until 1983. I got a job selling newspaper advertising through a contact from my college roommate, also a J-School graduate that was working at the newspaper. I left the newspaper in 1983 to attend law school. I went to law school with the intention of trying to be an in-house lawyer at a large media company. I never did get to a large media company, but by being persistent, after 16 years of practice I have the opportunity to assist six Gannett newspapers in Wisconsin. I really enjoy helping the newspaper. I have a newspaper background in advertising and circulation, so my practical skills are very valuable in providing legal advice to the newspapers. Best professional lesson learned at the J-School? I had majored in both advertising and newspaper publishing. From a practical standpoint the writing classes in the advertising curriculum were very beneficial. Writing advertising copy taught me to be persuasive and efficient. I use the skills of persuasive and efficient writing on a daily basis in my legal career. I also use the persuasive skills from advertising in the courtroom to hone in on the most relevant issues before a judge or jury. What would be your best advice to current students? Try to understand your role in the world. Stated another way, develop an understanding as to how you are important to the rest of society and the world. Learn that what we do as individuals does have an impact on the rest of society. By learning to understand your role, you can then begin to understand and respect other persons' roles. You can then begin to focus your energy on doing your best to move yourself forward. No task should be too mundane if it is part of your role in the world and will move you forward in life. For example, if one were assigned to write an obituary, that may seem mundane in comparison to having the inside scoop on an investigative story happening in government. However, writing the obituary will have impact on the lives of family members of the deceased as well as anyone who reads the item. The investigative story about government will have impact, too, but the common denominator is that both items are important and need to be done well. What is one thing you wished you had done? I wish I had not worked so many part-time jobs while in undergraduate school and had focused more on my studies. I had an incorrect thought process that I needed to have more money while in school. I always had a part-time job and sometimes up to three part-time jobs. 
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| Revised: 20 April 2007. Copyright © 2008 The Curators of the University of Missouri | Contact the J-School | |
