Grassl Bradley serves up tech law

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It’s a safe bet that attorney Rebecca Grassl Bradley is more computer savvy than the average attorney.

After all, the Whyte Hirschboek Dudek SC lawyer is a member of the firm’s Technology Law Team and has developed, reviewed and negotiated more than $100 million in software contracts.

Her practice includes commercial, information technology and intellectual property litigation and transactions.

She also is current president of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Business Law Section, is an American Arbitration Association arbitrator and an avid tennis player.

Bradley is in her second stint with the Milwaukee-based firm, having worked as an associate from 2000-04 and then from 2007 to the present.

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1996, she practiced at Chicago-based Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP for four years and, in between her time with WHD, served as vice president of Legal Operations at RedPrairie.

Bradley served up her answers to this week’s Asked & Answered.

Wisconsin Law Journal: If you could develop one CLE course for credit, what would it be about?

Rebecca Grassl Bradley: The U.S. Constitution.  It is all too frequently misinterpreted.

WLJ: What was your least favorite course in law school and why?

Bradley: Corporate Taxation. You know that dream where you have to take a final exam for a course you forgot to attend all semester?  Well, I attended Corporate Taxation all semester but nonetheless felt like that during the final.

WLJ: What is your favorite website and why?

Bradley: www.nationalreview.com. I am a politics and policy aficionado.

WLJ: What is the one luxury item you cannot live without?

Bradley: After spending three weeks in Africa, I learned that I can live without all luxury items, except fresh water and indoor plumbing. Applying American standards, I would answer: my tennis racquet.

WLJ: What is one thing attorneys should know that they won’t learn in law school?

Bradley: Often clients do not want to know what case law says or how a statute reads and they do not care to read long analytical memoranda; instead, they simply want to know what they should do in a particular situation. They seek our judgment.

WLJ: What is the first concert you went to?

Bradley: The Who at Alpine Valley, during its 1989 Reunion Tour. A friend’s father obtained second row seats, and I caught Roger Daltry’s broken tambourine when he threw it into the audience.

WLJ: If you could trade places with someone for a day, who would it be and why?

Bradley: A U.S. Navy Blue Angel flying an F/A-18 on air show day. Does that require explanation?

WLJ: What is your motto?

Bradley: Don’t Tread on Me

WLJ: What is your favorite movie about lawyers or the law and why?

Bradley: I have three favorites: To Kill a Mockingbird, for Atticus Finch’s extraordinary demonstration of courage and conviction; Miracle on 34^th Street, for Fred Gailey’s clever and successful defense of Santa Claus; and the HBO miniseries John Adams, for bringing to life the founding of our country and the lawyers (and non-lawyers) who risked their lives for the sake of liberty.

WLJ: If you hadn’t become a lawyer, what career would you have chosen?

Bradley: CIA agent, astronaut, or pundit. I listed the former two in first grade when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, along with “President of the United States” and “a Mom.”