James P. Connelly

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His parents might never have imagined that their son would help Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin grow from an urban health care provider to a nationally respected medical center.

But the seeds of James “Jim” P. Connelly’s passion for health care were sown at their home in Hartford, Wis.

“My father was a dentist, and my mother was a nurse,” said Connelly, 62, of River Hills. “The discussion of health care issues was a fairly ongoing process at our kitchen table.”

As a member of Foley & Lardner in Milwaukee, and a partner for 32 years, Connelly has put his compassion to work and used the law to transform health care in southeastern Wisconsin.

To further that effort, Connelly founded the Health Law Department at Foley & Lardner. What began as an endeavor by three attorneys at the firm’s Milwaukee office has grown into a practice of 160 health care lawyers at offices around the country.

Connelly faced one of the greatest challenges of his career when he finalized three years of negotiations with state and regional leaders to relocate Children’s Hospital from downtown Milwaukee to the Regional Medical Center in Wauwatosa in 1987.

The move was controversial but key for the hospital, which could never have grown from its land-locked facilities in an historic downtown building into a nationally ranked children’s hospital, which has doubled in size, Connelly said.

Connelly also has worked with Aurora Health Care system, from the 1984 mergers with Milwaukee Lutheran Hospital and Mount Sinai Medical Center to winning approval in 2007 to build a new medical center in western Waukesha County.

“I like to think between the strategic planning I’ve been involved with and the lawyering I’ve done, I’ve been able to convince public policymakers and business leaders that the best health care is critically important to Wisconsin and Milwaukee,” Connelly said.

Connelly’s leadership and his commitment to community issues extends beyond health care.

For the last 15 years, he has worked with entrepreneurs in Milwaukee’s central city. He hopes new businesses could help the area heal from within.

“I’m trying. That’s what it’s all about,” Connelly said.