Legal Experience
“These words are painted on the wall above the bench in the Lafayette County Courthouse:
‘The liberty of a people consists of their being governed by laws which they have made themselves.’
That means that Judges should not make laws – rather they should only apply admissible evidence to those laws that the representatives of the people have made. Judicial activism in the trial court, intended to produce Judge-made law from either the political right or the left, is contrary to liberty.”
-Peter B. Kelly
• Served as Green County Circuit Court Commissioner from 2010 to the present presiding
over hearings on criminal and civil law matters
• Practiced law primarily in Rock, Green and Lafayette County Circuit Courts since 1984. Admitted to WI fed District
Courts, 1984; to fed 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, 1985
• Served on Insurance Defense Litigation team of Brennan, Steil Law firm
• Represented clients in over three hundred criminal and traffic cases
from 1984 through 2009 in Rock and Green Counties
• Served Wisconsin Supreme Court’s Office of Lawyer Regulation, District 12 Committee, 1997 – 2005
• Served on litigation team of the three law firms representing The State of Wisconsin against big tobacco companies
(Brennan, Steil; Whyte Hirschboeck; and Habush, Habush & Rottier)
• Served as General Counsel for Lori Knapp Companies, Prairie du Chien, WI 2006 – 2017
(The Lori Knapp Companies assist people with developmental disabilities throughout Wisconsin)
• Serve as early participant in Green County Family Court Legal Clinic.
• Served at St. Benedict Law Student Legal Clinic while at Marquette Law School 1981 – 1984
• General practitioner with experience in insurance defense, plaintiff personal injury law, family law,
traffic and criminal defense, Guardian ad Litem, non-profit, corporate & LLC law,
estate planning, real estate, employment law and mediations