Cardamone’s dedication to law and the arts is no act

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Attorney Joseph Cardamone III is a man of many talents beyond his role as senior assistant corporation counsel with Kenosha County.

He acts in and directs productions for the Lakeside Players community theater group and also sings with the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Master Singers.

Although spare time is scarce, Cardamone said he relishes any opportunity to explore his artistic side.

His legal career has been equally diverse, having started in 1998 as an assistant district attorney in Kenosha before moving into private practice; first with a local firm and later on his own.

In 2008, Cardamone took a contract position with Kenosha County as a corporation counsel and eventually was hired on full time in February 2009.

In advance of his appearance in the Lakeside Players upcoming production of “The Foreigner,” opening April 1, Cardamone ably played the role of participant in this week’s Asked & Answered.

Wisconsin Law Journal: If you could develop one CLE course for credit, what would it be about?

Joseph Cardamone III: I would suggest “How to treat Clerks and the Staff of the Clerk’s Office Appropriately and with Respect.” I have never understood attorneys who abuse the folks who literally control the schedule and can make your life exceptionally more easy or difficult depending on your attitude to them.

WLJ: What was your least favorite course in law school and why?

Cardamone: It was probably “Business Organizations.” To this day I think I only have the most basic understanding of the differences between LLPs and LLCs, and I was one of the latter!

WLJ: What is your favorite website and why?

Cardamone: Professionally, I check wispolitics.com and wisbar.org more or less daily to keep up on what’s going on. Personally, as a closet sci-fi geek, I tend to check aintitcoolnews.com pretty regularly.

WLJ: What is the one luxury item you cannot live without?

Cardamone: If one is defining “luxury” as something without which you could get by, but wouldn’t want to, probably my DVR.

WLJ: What is one thing attorneys should know that they won’t learn in law school?

Cardamone: That the practice of law in the real world is almost entirely unlike law school.

WLJ: What is the first concert you went to?

Cardamone: Probably Madonna, the “Who’s That Girl” tour, summer 1987.

WLJ: If you could trade places with someone for a day, who would it be and why?

Cardamone: Maybe Keith Lockhart, the conductor of the Boston Pops. I’ve just wrapped up directing a musical where I also conducted the pit band, and I find I really like conducting.

WLJ: What is your motto?

Cardamone: It is a toss-up between “Life’s too short to do something you hate,” and “The people have spoken; the bastards.” (The latter is from Morris Udall)

WLJ: What is your favorite movie about lawyers or the law and why?

Cardamone: “Primal Fear.” I certainly didn’t see that ending coming. Now, I’m going to do the thing that makes every lawyer crazy and answer the question I wanted you to ask instead of the one you did: favorite television show about lawyers? The first season of “Murder One;” the way it traced the entirety of a murder trial from arrest to verdict and appeal was brilliant.

WLJ: If you hadn’t become a lawyer, what career would you have chosen?

Cardamone: I was a political science major, so I might have wound up working in politics in some capacity. Otherwise, I’d love to be a novelist.