Thomas C. Hofbauer

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Attorney Thomas C. Hofbauer was driving to work on Dec. 6, 2006, when he learned about a massive gas explosion and fire at the Falk Foundry in Milwaukee. By 10:30 a.m., four potential clients/defendants had telephoned, wanting to hire his firm.

That’s because Hofbauer made the sage choice in 2000 to pair up with a lawyer nicknamed “the gas man” for his expertise in defending gas explosion cases, a/k/a John McCoy.

Early in Hofbauer’s career, when both attorneys were with Hinshaw & Culbertson, Hofbauer’s colleagues in the Chicago office where he worked scoffed at McCoy in the Milwaukee branch for creating such a refined niche practice.

Nonetheless, Hofbauer ultimately took the road less traveled with McCoy. In 2002, they set up a boutique litigation firm, McCoy & Hofbauer S.C. in Waukesha, handling only high-stakes, complex civil cases, typically involving catastrophic claims. Their remarkable success proves the wisdom of the niche-practice philosophy.

In the Foundry case, for example, the two served as personal counsel for J.M. Brennan Inc., which a jury exonerated from liability last September.

Or, consider Hofbauer’s efforts in Quad/Graphics v. HK Systems Inc., where he defended a manufacturer of steel tubing used in the automatic storage and retrieval system that collapsed at a warehouse and ignited into flames. A jury limited his client’s liability to just 10 percent. At issue now is whether the liability for the $63 million verdict is joint and several, or several, with Hofbauer recently arguing for the latter before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.

Another open file for Hofbauer is his representation of the designers of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed in August 2007. The bridge was designed and built in the 1960s and was materially altered several times, says Hofbauer. Four lawsuits are pending so far. A central, initial issue is whether a law passed just three months before the accident, which allows contribution from defendants notwithstanding Minnesota’s 10-year statute of repose, will withstand judicial scrutiny.

“There are so many good lawyers out there, that you have to find a way to stand out,” says Hofbauer about his rainmaking strategy. “We tell our associates to find something they like right out of the box. Then read the books. Find the groups. Speak publicly about it, so everyone who meets you knows who you are and what you’re good at. And I follow my own advice.”