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John P. Macy

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//May 25, 2009//

John P. Macy

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//May 25, 2009//

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Like many attorneys, and anyone who is a leader in the community, John Macy does what he does and works as hard as he does because he loves the people.

Unlike most attorneys, though, Macy doesn’t actually represent individual people; he represents municipalities — scores of cities, villages, towns, and districts throughout southeastern Wisconsin. And when you represent municipalities, the people you work with tend to disappear and get replaced with different ones after elections.

But that doesn’t seem to phase him.

“The vast majority of the people I work with are great people, who are very dedicated to their communities and very conscientious about what they do,” he says.

In the 30 years he has been representing municipalities, he’s never lost a client, even though administrations come and go.

The keys to success?

First, he says, every municipality has its own unique culture, and you have to learn that culture and work within it.

Second, he says, he doesn’t set policy.

“The reason I’ve survived, and survive from election to election, is I don’t try to set policy,” Macy says. “When I leave at the end of a meeting, people should have no idea how I would have voted. What I think is immaterial. My job is to let the elected officials know the law.”

That can’t always be easy for anyone, especially for Macy, one of the most outspoken members of the State Bar. Macy served on the Board of Governors from 1992-96, and again from 2003-08, and has served either as chair or member of dozens of bar committees.

He is also a former president of the Waukesha County Bar Association, and has long been very active in the American Bar Association, including serving as past chair of the Section of General Practice Solo and Small Firm Lawyers, and hosting its annual meeting in Milwaukee last year.

In addition, Macy lectures several times a year to municipal associations and organizations, training municipal clerks, and members of boards of review and fire and police commissions.

Among numerous other community organizations, he has also served as the 1st Vice-Chairman of the Republican Party of Waukesha County since 2000.

Why cram so much volunteer work into a workday that already goes until 10 p.m. every night attending government meetings?

As with his law practice, Macy cites the people: “It’s all about the people. My lifestyle is to be out with people.”

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