Quieter setting: Barrett leaves din of Manhattan for Wisconsin ‘nice’

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Will J. Barrett would be a great attorney to have on your team. If you can find him.

Law Journal: “Will, we had a hard time finding you online. In fact, we couldn’t find anything.”

Barrett: “That’s good. I like a low digital profile.”

Law Journal: “What about Twitter?”

Barrett: “Nope.” (Chuckling…)

Law Journal: “Facebook?”

Barrett: “Nope.” (More chuckling…)

Law Journal: “Instagram? Pinterest?”

Barrett: (Open laughter…)

Being relatively inconspicuous suits Barrett just fine. The transplanted New York University law school graduate see little need to join the crush of people who live and die by their web identities.

“How can an online personality reflect who you really are?” said Barrett. “I want to know you, not your ‘brand.’”

Just out of law school, Barrett took a corporate-counsel position in New York at David Yurman, an luxury-jewelry company on the East Coast. Yet, even then, Barrett had already begun to feel the pull of a different kind of life – one that was more about quality than quantity. He began thinking about leaving the 24/7 din of the city for the Midwest.

“In New York, if someone sends an email marked ASAP, it really means do it right now or start looking for a new job,” Barrett said. “Out here, I know that if i take care of it fairly quickly, everything will be just fine, without the threat of additional drama.”

Early in the year, the 30-year-old Barrett and his fiancee, Julia Edwards – a modern-dance professor and Pilates instructor – left the bright lights behind for what must feel like the vast expanses of Oconomowoc. His first impressions, although eye opening, have generally been good.

“Wisconsin people are nicer,” said Barrett. “In New York there is a more of an agitated pace to everything.”

One source of culture shock has been the near silence that Barrett has found surrounding him in his new home in a Wisconsin small town.

Barrett recalls waking up one morning to a perfectly quiet house.

“For a moment,” Barrett said, “I wondered if I had died.”

As a law student, Barrett knew that the life of a litigator would hold little interest for him and that he instead wanted to be a “change agent” in the business world.

“Transactional lawyers are typecast as the one who always says ‘no’ to an idea,” Barrett said. “I want to be just the opposite. The one who helps the team take an idea and shapes into a positive for the business.”

Barrett has found a good spot working for Orbis, a subsidiary of the Menasha Corporation. “Our specialty is creating reusable plastic products for everything from the automotive to the food and beverage industries.”

Striving to break the mold of a corporate lawyer could be how Barrett finds his purpose. Rather than conform to the stereotype of the suit sitting in his office all day, Barrett seeks to be one of the first, instead of the last, in any conversation.

“I want to be a resource to the Orbis team,” he said.“The one who solves problems and breaks down the status quo.”