Phillips’ career takes off at Godfrey & Kahn

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With undergraduate degrees in math and physics, it might have seemed less than inevitable that Jim Phillips would become a lawyer.

“I really liked the sciences, but when I came around to graduate it made sense to do something else,” Phillips said.

Even if that “something else” was supposed to take a bit longer to find.

“Actually, I graduated from undergrad in three years, and I was going to take a year off — a semester skiing in Colorado and a semester in Europe. And my father said, ‘That’s OK, as long as you know what you’re doing when you come back.’ I said, ‘I’m going to law school,’ but then I never left.”

Phillips graduated at a time when “you could find jobs in the gutter on the streets.” So, after getting his legal degree in 1979, he went to work.

A year later, he had joined Godfrey & Kahn, where he is now a shareholder and former chairman of the tax team.

Over the years, Phillips has scratched his science itch by building small, two-seat experimental planes. He used to fly it with his wife, Lisa, whom he lost to breast cancer in 2009.

“She had no interest in flying, but she loved the transportation aspect,” Phillips laughed.

Phillips is also a board member at the Experimental Aircraft Association, the non-profit group known by many for its annual fly-in in Oshkosh.

But it’s his work with Life Navigators, a non-profit group that helps families dealing with development disabilities, that he’s found particularly satisfying.

“The goal is to try to improve the quality of life for a segment of the population that sometimes really needs some assistance,” said Phillips, whose brother is developmentally disabled.

His personal experience has emphasized the need for such services, although Phillips said his family hasn’t had to use them. But his experience with tax law has allowed him to work with families who have long-term care and asset allocation.

“I like the idea that, in some way, I’m helping a non-profit carry out its mission,” Phillips said. “It’s nice to be able to take some of what we’ve learned in a for-profit business and give away some of those services.”