Michael J. Westcott

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For labor and employment law attorney Michael J. Westcott, a big part of his practice relies on being able to relate to his clients.

As an avid hunter, fisherman, snowmobiler and motorcyclist, Westcott said he has a natural association with the types of people he often represents in labor relations and union bargaining cases.

“It’s kind of nice because the people I’m dealing with when I engage in those activities are the kind of people — the salt of the earth people — that I deal with on a case-by-case basis,” said Westcott, who has been with Axley Brynelson, LLP, in Madison since 1985. “Those are the kind of people I want to have a beer with.”

Westcott’s personal and professional lives have intertwined since his youth. His father was in the trucking industry and often dealt with the Teamsters from the management side.

“I had my first taste of labor management from my dad and that really piqued my curiosity,” said Westcott who dabbled in labor and employment law while clerking during his second year at Marquette Law School.

After graduating in 1982, Westcott married his wife, Debbie, and moved to Madison where he landed a job with Axley. More than two decades and two sons later, Westcott still practices in the area he enjoys most — representing employers in union bargaining.

“I like the more traditional forms of the labor law area, but it’s a lot different than what I started,” said Westcott.

While he estimated about 50 percent of his personal practice deals with traditional union work, almost three-quarters of Axley’s volume deals with other aspects of employment law like discrimination cases, wage and hour cases and employee benefits.

“Clearly there has been a decrease in unionization since 1982, but there are certain industries that our firm is doing more work with that had traditional labor law work,” said Westcott. “I’m probably doing as large a percentage of it now as I have been in the last 20 years, but overall, when you look at it compared with all the work our firm does, it’s a lot less than it used to be.”

Westcott considers himself lucky to still be able to generate the majority of his business among “blue-collar” clients, often in a very amicable fashion, especially this time of year.

“When trying to schedule a bargaining in November, I’m the first one to yell, not during the week of deer hunting,” said Westcott. “Everyone on the other side of the table tends to agree with that.”