I grew up on the southside of Milwaukee going to Catholic school, playing tons of baseball, and working at my parents’ ice cream shop at the age of 12. I added a job selling shoes at a local shoe store during high school to help make ends meet for my family. It’s at these jobs I learned at a young age the value of hard work, developing relationships with people, and the art of selling. As the second person to go to college (after my older sister) and the first person to go to law school in my family, I thought a law degree would propel me to a career as a progressive politician. But after clerking for a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice after graduating from law school, working at big silk-stalking corporate firm, and then taking a leave to run for the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2004 and losing, what I was really meant to do found me. I was recruited to join the firm I’ve been at over 20 years, Cannon & Dunphy, by an attorney I met during the State Assembly campaign. Everything happens for a reason – it’s crazy – and I’m so lucky. I’ve been fortunate to be trained and mentored by Inner Circle member Pat Dunphy. I credit his mentorship for the successes I’ve had including the 2017 Wisconsin Trial Lawyer of the Year, being a member of ABOTA, as well as a member of the International Society of Barristers (ISOB). And I got to itch my political bug after serving as the 2023 President of the Wisconsin Association for Justice (WAJ) and continue to do so as co-chair of WAJ’s Legislative Task Force – so I get to take our fight in the courtroom to Wisconsin’s capitol in Madison.
And here’s a story that will tell you a little bit about me and my family: During the summer of 1994 I interned for a member of Congress in Washington, D.C. 1994 was the summer of O.J. and the white Bronco – and Coolio’s hit “Fantastic Voyage” – and Forrest Gump. One night I may have been stumbling back after a night out with my friends and stopped at a palm reader at like 2 a.m. The palm reader said I’d meet my wife in the next year and have four to six children. I met my wife Sherry eight months later (at a bar – another good story) and we have five children – four boys and our little a girl. Crazy.
Finally, as much as I love being a trial lawyer, if I could do it all over again I wouldn’t be a politician like I originally thought. Rather, I’d be a late-night talk show host, pro golfer, or late 80s to early/mid 90s alternative rock lead singer (think INXS – or maybe even a little Jane’s Addiction – and definitely some Beastie Boys).
Biography provided by Trial Lawyers University.
