Star-struck lawyer keeps feet on the ground

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Milwaukee lawyer David Westrup is on his way toward cashing in his 15 minutes of fame.

The corporate litigator at von Briesen & Roper SC is mentioned by name in Kurt Eichenwald’s book, “The Informant [A True Story],” which was the basis for the 2009 Matt Damon movie.

Westrup represented one of the defendants indicted in the price-fixing lawsuit involving Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland Co.

The Fort Bragg native also was a student at Columbia College in New York during the filming of “Ghostbusters,” which was shot in part on the campus.

An admitted film buff, Westrup said he doesn’t mind reminiscing about his fleeting moments in the spotlight but is much more comfortable in the courtroom.

He joined von Briesen in 1999 and represents corporate clients in defense of antitrust, insurance coverage and products liability cases.

Westrup also is a former president of the Milwaukee Bar Association and a member of the Wisconsin Hispanic Lawyer’s Association.

He took five from the day job to take a starring role in this week’s Asked & Answered.

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

David Westrup: Wisconsin beer law. I once represented a brewer in a piece of litigation, and I always thought it would have been a great practice to cultivate. I checked online for “Wisconsin Beer Law CLE,” and apparently this is still an undeveloped area in continuing legal education.

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

Westrup: The first half of Contracts. I thought little of the professor’s teaching style, so little, in fact, that I requested a transfer to another section. Amazingly, my request was granted, and I took the rest of Contracts with Lee Bollinger, later dean of (University of Michigan) Law School and now president of Columbia University. Just goes to show it never hurts to ask for change.

WLJ: What do you consider your biggest achievement to date and why?

Westrup: Graduating from Columbia College. Everything else I’ve done flows from that. Also, I can’t really crow about anything I’ve done as a lawyer and label it ‘my achievement,’ as the kind of law I practice is intrinsically collaborative. And on the personal side, nearly everything good has more to do with my wife Amy than it does with me.

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

Westrup: There isn’t one. Too many people are making daily economic sacrifices for me to even suggest a particular luxury’s absence would darken my day.

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

Westrup: I would say that the most important thing not taught in law school is that the practice of law is a collegial enterprise. But the best lawyers I know did learn that in law school; they just didn’t learn it as part of their formal coursework.

WLJ: What is the first concert you went to?

Westrup: I thought it was the Eagles’ ‘The Long Run’ tour. But the Internet tells me they played in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 10, 1980. So my first concert was the band that played for my high school’s December 1979 winter formal. The band’s name escapes me, but the lead singer was Christopher Cross.

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

Westrup: Elvis Costello’s solicitor. That person almost certainly lives in London, so I could hang out at The Punch and Judy at Covent Garden, send Elvis an email, and be reasonably certain that I’d get an answer.

WLJ: What is your motto?

Westrup: Long hours make up for a multitude of shortcomings.

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

Westrup: ‘The War of the Roses.’ What we see on the screen is a story a lawyer tells to a client. At the end of the movie, we see a lawyer leaving for what sounds like a happy home after giving thoughtful advice that a client appears to have taken. That’s a pretty good view of the law. Plus, the story is incredibly funny.

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

Westrup: English professor. I actually completed a semester in Yale’s graduate English program. Yale was wonderful until the clerical staff went on strike in 1984 and the other unions elected to honor the picket lines. New Haven during a protracted strike is not where you want to be. So I decamped to New York City, eventually wound up in Ann Arbor, and took up the law.

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