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Family law a great fit for Brooks

By: Jack Zemlicka, [email protected]//December 30, 2011//

Family law a great fit for Brooks

By: Jack Zemlicka, [email protected]//December 30, 2011//

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Christy Brooks (Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)

When von Briesen & Roper SC attorney Christy Brooks graduated law school in 1977, she wanted to avoid traditional practice areas for female lawyers at the time, such as trusts and estates, and labor and employment law.

So Brooks, 59, started out litigating divorces and found the trial work to be both challenging and rewarding.

Initially, most of her clients were women, she said. Those early days gave Brooks an unexpected appreciation for practicing family law, she said, and exposed her to a diverse group of smart women.

Over the years, the gender split has evened out, she said, so she has many male clients now, as well.

Now 34 years into her work at von Briesen, Brooks said her family law and school law practice is just as exciting as it was her first day. She focuses on collaborative divorce, custody and paternity issues, and student issues such as suspensions and expulsions.

On the cusp of the New Year, Brooks took time to reflect and reminisce in this week’s Asked & Answered.

Wisconsin Law Journal: If you could develop one CLE course for credit, what would it be about?   
Christy Brooks:
Improving client interviews, especially first conferences. Lawyers do very little role play and almost never feel what it’s like to be interviewed, let alone examined as a witness.

WLJ: What was your least favorite course in law school and why?
Brooks: Legal writing. My background was in journalism and I was sorry to have to change a style that was simple, formed in two or three sentence paragraphs, and able to be understood by sixth-graders. I’ve spent a long time heading back that way.

WLJ: What do you consider your biggest achievement to date and why?
Brooks: Being part of a growing circle of wonderful family, friends, business colleagues and clients. What else matters?

WLJ: What is the one luxury item you cannot live without?
Brooks: Coffee. And I don’t mean special coffee from Stumptown in Manhattan or anything highfalutin. Just coffee.

WLJ: What is one thing attorneys should know that they won’t learn in law school?
Brooks: How important it is to understand the history and inclinations of the lawyers and judges involved in our cases. Lots of others, including our clients, now can easily research the substantive and procedural law, but knowing how to problem-solve with the people in our field is uniquely our domain.

WLJ: What is the first concert you went to?
Brooks: The first I wanted to go to, and still regret not pushing for a ticket, was the Beatles in Milwaukee. The first one I crashed, since I couldn’t get a ticket, was James Taylor back east in 1971 with a surprise appearance by Carole King.

WLJ: If you could trade places with someone for a day, who would it be and why?
Brooks: One of my heroes, Hillary Clinton. As a divorce attorney, I’d love to get into her head. As a fan of great foreign policy leaders, I’d love to get into her head. And, as a woman approaching 60 with a desire for great blond hair, I’d love to get onto her head and just trim that wacky flip.

WLJ: What is your motto?
Brooks: There are three on my desk. From my friends: ‘Follow your heart, do your best, help others and have fun.’ From Tom Cannon: ‘Liberty, justice and equality are our most cherished values, but without lawyers, they’re mere words.’ From Mike Guerin: ‘Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.’

WLJ: What is your favorite movie about lawyers or the law and why?
Brooks: The winner for me, because it’s the most fun is ‘My Cousin Vinny.’

WLJ: If you hadn’t become a lawyer, what career would you have chosen?
Brooks: Architecture. I’d love to build something beautiful that lasts for a long time.

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