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Nelson is lawyer, mentor, friend, trailblazer

By: Alison Henderson//June 23, 2016//

Nelson is lawyer, mentor, friend, trailblazer

By: Alison Henderson//June 23, 2016//

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Christine Nelson | Nelson, Connell, Tallmadge & Slein
Christine Nelson | Nelson, Connell, Tallmadge & Slein

Chris Nelson is not only a lawyer to lawyers, but also a friend to lawyers.

As a malpractice lawyer and a founder of the firm Nelson, Connell, Tallmadge & Slein, Nelson has been an objective, yet accessible shoulder that lawyers can lean on when they have found themselves in a tough spot.

“She has been counseling, consoling, cajoling and comforting lawyers with all sorts of legal and ethical problems for many years,” said John Slein, who is also a partner at Nelson, Connell, Tallmadge & Slein.

Slein has known Nelson since the late 80s and said she was a mentor to him when he was first starting out, providing him wiht advice that has stuck.

“I’ve been practicing for 32 years, and in my opinion … she’s one of the best female attorneys — actually, one of the best of any gender — in the state,” he said.

When Nelson graduated from Marquette Law School in 1979, she said she was one of 13 women in her class. Despite her then being part of a rather small group, she said she has never experienced anything that she has perceived to stand in her way as a female attorney.

“As a general proposition, any of the female attorneys that have been practicing as long as I have all paved the way for the females that are now practicing, because it used to be that we were sort of a rarity in the courtroom,” she said.

Nelson became one of the first women to make partner at the downtown Milwaukee law firm of Kluwin, Dunphy and Hankin, where Slein said she was always helping counsel job candidates (whether they were hired or not). She went on with her husband to establish her own firm in Waukesha County and has run it for more than 25 years.

“She was among the top partners in the firm in terms of production,” Slein said. “If you can develop clients and keep clients happy in a firm, that’s huge. … She’s always been flush with clients and repeat clients for many years, and that says it right there for me. I’ve always looked up to that, too. She’s been such a rainmaker and the clients are always very happy.”

She has served as the president of the Wisconsin Defense Counsel and as a fee-dispute arbitrator for the State Bar of Wisconsin. She has also given dozens of continuing education and client seminars. She was recognized as a Super Lawyer in 2008-09 and in the Martindale Hubbell’s Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers in 2011.

“I would say that this is a good job — you have to have a little bit of a stiff spine to do it. If you’re going to go into litigation, you just have to be prepared to work hard,” she said.

Although Slein said she tends to shy away from awards, her colleagues decided it was finally time to recognize her as one of the most deserving and qualified attorneys in the state.

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