John V. McCoy

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Attorney John V. McCoy works in an explosive field — literally.

For more than 20 years, McCoy has made a living litigating cases involving forest fires, dynamite, lightning, fireworks, natural gas and electrical fires.

“If something blows up, odds are we are going to get involved,” said McCoy, who co-founded Waukesha firm McCoy & Hofbauer, S.C., in 2002.

When he became a private practitioner after serving as a military lawyer, McCoy had no aspirations of carving out a niche practice. But on his first day at Hinshaw & Culbertson, LLP, the firm assigned him to a large industrial fire case in Manitowoc.

“For pretty much all the first year, that’s the only case I worked on,” said McCoy. “At the end of it, we got a favorable result for our client and I had spent so much time learning about propane.”

McCoy spent the next several years networking nationally with leaders in the propane industry and eventually developed a client base.

Now, he primarily serves as counsel in propane-related cases and has worked on trials in more than 40 states. In Wisconsin, he provided legal guidance on the 2006 Falk Corp. explosion and the 2002 Quad/Graphics fire in Lomira.

Though a profitable field, both financially and personally, McCoy still encounters people who question his choice of practice area.

“Certainly, there are naysayers,” said McCoy. “When I tell people what I do, their response is, ‘you can make a living at that?’”

Even McCoy has had doubts at times, but he counts one his riskiest defenses among the most pivotal of his career.

Less than two years after forming McCoy & Hofbauer, he was called in for a second opinion on a high-profile propane case in Pennsylvania. The client was under pressure to settle the case for $1.6 million, but McCoy convinced the company to pursue the case to a verdict.

After a two-week trial, the jury took roughly 15 minutes to rule in favor of McCoy’s client.

“There was at least some belief the client could be hit for upwards of $15 million,” said McCoy. “So it was very rewarding to turn around a case where the client could have had to pay out millions of dollars because they were getting bad advice.”

McCoy admits that had the jury ruled differently, he might not be where he is today.

“The risk of course is if we had gotten slaughtered on that case, next time out, that client, who is our biggest today, might have said we like you, but we’re going to try something else,” said McCoy.