Labor lawyer preserves the state of the union

By: Jack Zemlicka, [email protected]//September 19, 2011//

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asked_kurt_kobelt — Kurt Kobelt (Photo by Kevin Harnack)

Attorney Kurt Kobelt traces his union law roots to an internship with an electrical workers association while at George Washington University Law School.

More than 30 years later, he has represented a diverse group of trade professionals in private practice and in-house.

Kobelt’s job as general counsel for the Wisconsin Education Association Council is perhaps his most challenging position yet, given the ongoing battle over a state law that stripped public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights.

He took the job in 2009 after 10 years at Lawton & Cates SC, Madison, and supervises a team of 14 attorneys who provide legal guidance to the union of about 98,000 state teachers and other education professionals.

While Kobelt jokingly said the tumultuous year so far has prompted second thoughts about taking the job, he isn’t one to walk away from a challenge.

Kobelt, 56, was certainly up to the task of taking on questions in this month’s Asked & Answered.

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

Kurt Kobelt: I think all lawyers should be required to take a course in poverty law preparing them for a mandatory pro bono commitment, and I wouldn’t allow the partners in the big corporate firms to evade this responsibility by assigning some associate to be a token full-time pro bono attorney.

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

Kobelt: Commercial Paper taught by a criminal law professor I took as a bar exam requirement. I don’t know who was more bored, the students or the teacher.

WLJ: What do you consider your biggest achievement to date and why?

Kobelt: Apart from raising my two teenagers, one of my most significant professional achievements was being lead counsel in a recent wage and hours case against Kraft Oscar Mayer that resulted in a $5 million recovery for over 1,800 workers. I also appreciate the gratitude expressed by individual victims of race or sex discrimination I have represented that someone is willing to stand up for them.

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

Kobelt: Single malt scotch

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

Kobelt: That much of practicing law consists of soft skills such as active listening, empathizing and problem solving.

WLJ: What is the first concert you went to?

Kobelt: Jethro Tull at the Dane County Coliseum in 1973

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

Kobelt: I would like to be Stephen Colbert and display his razor-sharp wit for an episode of his show. I would want to interview Rush Limbaugh and accuse him of not being true to conservative values.

WLJ: What is your motto?

Kobelt: I’ve always liked Mae West’s saying:

‘You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.’ But since Gov. (Scott) Walker’s union-busting law was introduced in February, I’ve frequently found myself humming Bruce Cockburn’s ‘If I had a rocket launcher.’

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

Kobelt: It drives me crazy that producers can spend tens of millions of dollars on a lawyer movie and not give the script to a lawyer to make sure the details of whatever legal proceeding is being portrayed are at least technically accurate. So my favorite lawyer movie doesn’t have many courtroom scenes: ‘Body Heat.’

A hapless criminal defense lawyer is putty in the hands of Kathleen Turner in her prime.

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