Attorney shares inauguration trip

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“Lambeau Field on steroids” is how Milwaukee attorney Jay A. Urban described the setting of President Barack Obama’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

Urban and his family attended the ceremony in Washington D.C., along with an estimated 2 million other Americans.

“It was a mass of humanity, but to be in the moment was fantastic,” said Urban, who perched his 9-year-old daughter on his shoulders for almost two hours during the festivities.

“My back is so sore, but she would have been trampled if I set her down,” Urban said. “I’m still a little shell-shocked by how many people there were.”

The evening provided a welcome contrast, as Urban and family attended the Midwest Inaugural Ball, one of 10 that Obama and his wife Michelle attended.

While he did not get to personally meet the President at the ball, Urban said it was encouraging to hear him speak off the cuff about problems facing the region.

“It was a very Midwest-directed speech and being from Illinois, he obviously has an appreciation the hard-working people in this part of the country,” Urban said.

Missouri-native Sheryl Crow provided the musical entertainment and Urban estimated that about 1,000 people attended the event.

Gov. Jim Doyle and Sen. Russ Feingold were in Urban’s seating area for the ball, along with fellow Wisconsin attorney Christine Bremer Muggli, who is past-president of the Wisconsin Association for Justice.

“I looked around to see if there were any other attorneys I knew from Wisconsin,” Urban said. “I count myself lucky to have been there since there were so few access points.”

Urban scored his tickets to the inauguration from Sen. Herb Kohl’s office and was invited to the ball through his affiliation with the American Association of Justice (AAJ).

“A group of attorneys around the nation who are members of AAJ formed an ad hoc committee and got in on the Obama campaign during its infancy,” said Urban, who reserved his hotel room the day Obama declared his candidacy and booked his flight the day he won the election.