Walther bucks family trend in practice choice

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When she was growing up, Jennifer Walther said, she wanted to be anything but a lawyer.

Then she grew up and became a lawyer.

Blood and aptitude are hard to shake, Walther said, even for a rebellious youth.

“I blame it on my father,” she said of David Walther, a family lawyer in her native Milwaukee.

Noting Walther’s detail-oriented diligence and love of reading, her father always told her she would make a good lawyer. Her response was: “Never, never, never,” she said.

In Walther’s family, four out of the six children became attorneys.

But when Walther caved and became an attorney, she still found a way to rebel. She veered from her family’s family law focus and chose a career in business law.

She specializes in employment law for the private sector at Milwaukee’s Mawicke & Goisman SC. She joined after graduating cum laude from Georgetown University Law School and spending several years at a smaller firm.

Joining Mawicke & Goisman, she said, was a defining moment in her career.

“It reaffirmed my decision to become a lawyer,” Walther said. “I’d always practiced business law, but now I could expand the range of what I can offer my clients, which is very rewarding.”

For the past seven years, Walther has carved out her own niche at Mawicke & Goisman, making herself a technical expert and a valuable member of the team, said founder Jeff Mawicke.

“People underestimate the value of consistent, predictable focus,” he said. “In today’s world of glitter and show, Jennifer is uniquely dependable.”

Walther cuts her own path in other ways too. When she saw there was not an organization supporting Milwaukee’s female entrepreneurs, she founded Wisconsin Women Entrepreneurs of Greater Milwaukee Inc. She also devotes her free time as the vice chairwoman of the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin.

The rest of her free time, Walther said, is spent reading, golfing and occasionally seeing her husband, dog and two cats. When her family gets together, and everyone gathers around the table, woe to the person who brings up a legal snarl to untangle.

“Things can get interesting,” Walther said.

And, while she never practiced law with her dad like her other attorney siblings did, she said she is glad he pointed her toward the law.

“After graduating college, I said, ‘OK, I am going to try this,’” Walther said, “and I got a job working at a law firm. I enjoyed the work, and the rest is history.”