Timothy Hawks

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Timothy Hawks grew up watching his father work in the union movement in Dubuque, Iowa.

So as Hawks headed off to college at Georgetown University, he decided early on what he wanted to do.

“I had more aptitude in verbal skills than mathematical skills,” says Hawks, 55. “I was interested in becoming a lawyer representing unions and thought it was a worthwhile thing to do.”

As a shareholder at Hawks Quindel Ehlke & Perry SC in Milwaukee, Hawks practices labor law, representing unions including the American Federation of Teachers and affiliates and firefighters unions in collective bargaining, interest arbitration and grievance arbitration cases.

His most interesting case, he says, involved the Milwaukee firefighters union. It was an interest arbitration case concerning the post-retirement pension escalator. Union members complained that the pension stayed the same until they died and most of them received no Social Security.

When firefighters died, their spouses received 50 percent of pension that had been set 25 years earlier, Hawks says.

Through his work on the case, the collective bargaining agreement was changed. The pension escalator was set at the rate of inflation with a cap of 3 percent since 1994. The case also set the stage for the Milwaukee Police Association to make a similar demand, he says.

“In terms of economic and human value, it was the most important case I’ve worked on,” Hawks says.

During his 28 years in the field, Hawks says the biggest change has been the issues.

“In 1983 the problems we were trying to solve was to keep union member wages up with inflation,” he says.

“Today we’re dealing with historically unparalleled rapid inflation of healthcare costs.”

Hawks spends about 60 hours a week working, so he doesn’t have as much time as he’d like for volunteering.

He does enjoy spending time outdoors fishing with his children, a hobby he himself enjoyed with his grandfather growing up, he says.

At present, he doesn’t think his children will follow in his footsteps. His oldest daughter graduated from the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, two years ago. His child in college now is pre-med.

“My kids think dad works too hard,” he says.