For Mueller, law is family affair with a twist

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As a young girl in the 1970s, Teresa Mueller relished the opportunity to accompany her dad, attorney Roger Mueller, to court in Dodgeville and other courthouses in southwestern Wisconsin.

So it came as little surprise to family members when she announced an intention to follow in her father’s footsteps. After all, her grandfather and brother also had chosen legal careers.

But Mueller, now with Safway Services LLC, practices law with a distinct emphasis, in contrast to her father’s more traditional litigation practice.

Waukesha-based Safway provides scaffolding products and services, and has some 85 full-service branches in the U.S. and Canada. As the company’s labor counsel, Mueller’s primary duties are handling union labor negotiations, representing the company in occasional grievances and arbitrations, and dealing with a smattering of traditional contract work.

The tenor of the job has changed over the years, she said.

“With the current economy and greater competition these days, we’re looking for more flexibility and cooperation from unions,” she said. “The relationship has become more collaborative, versus the traditional ‘management versus union’ relationship. Union contractors need to retain the work that they have and not lose work to the nonunion competition.

“That’s guided my practice for the past year or so. With some unions it has meant taking a harder line than we have in the past.”

Mueller began her career in private practice in Madison. She found her way to construction law by chance, being assigned to represent the Wisconsin Chapter of the Associated General Contractors in a lawsuit as an associate at Murphy Desmond SC. Midway through the lawsuit, the AGC’s general counsel left and its leaders asked her if she was interested in the job. She was.

In that capacity, Mueller became the go-to person for the association’s members’ legal questions, learning the nuts and bolts of construction law, as well as a broad array of other practice areas: public contracts, the rights and responsibilities among owners and contractors and subcontractors, labor and employment and other human resources issues.

Then in 2006, Mueller made the move to Safway.

In recent months, off the clock, Mueller has devoted countless hours to the creation of the state’s first Chinese immersion elementary school, the Verona Area International School, where students will learn half their subjects in Chinese and half in English. Similar schools in Minnesota and Michigan have served as models for Mueller and a handful of other parents in persuading the local school board to support the innovative curriculum.