Brennan takes road less traveled on career path

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When attorney Pat Brennan graduated law school in 1981, he could have joined his father’s Janesville law practice, Brennan Steil SC.

But he wanted to make a name for himself, so instead he opted to do some temporary work for the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office. Brennan interviewed for an assistant prosecutor position and didn’t get it, but was employed to gather evidence on a doctor the state believed fled to Ireland after stealing money from a local hospital.

“I was traveling there anyway after law school,” he said. “So I did a little bit of leg work for them, although we didn’t get our man.”

When he returned to Wisconsin, Brennan briefly joined a small Milwaukee firm before starting at Crivello Carlson SC in 1983.

Now 55, the litigator practices in the areas of products liability, insurance coverage and construction law.

The Marquette University Law School graduate has served as a municipal judge in Whitefish Bay and been an active member of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Litigation and Business Law Sections.

Brennan reflected on nearly three decades of practice in this week’s Asked & Answered.

Wisconsin Law Journal: If you could develop one CLE course for credit, what would it be about?
Pat Brennan: Issue spotting, which is also known as theme development for trial. When and how you spot those issues and themes is still vitally important. At the same time, it is also one of the more difficult things to do.

WLJ: What was your least favorite course in law school and why?
Brennan: It was probably civil procedure. I found it to be dry and boring and it elevated form over substance, I suppose. I know it’s a necessary course because you have to have some guidelines for what is a very contentious arena. Just the same, it wasn’t my favorite course.

WLJ: What do you consider your biggest achievement to date and why?
Brennan: Marrying my wife of 26 years. I look up to her every day and she is an inspiration. Otherwise, I don’t really look back and think I have any great achievements.

WLJ: What is the one luxury item you cannot live without?
Brennan: A good pen, a nice watch and a smart phone

WLJ: What is one thing attorneys should know that they won’t learn in law school?
Brennan: How to really meet client’s expectations and understanding their motivations and needs. Then expressing what you are doing for that client in a way he or she will understand.

WLJ: What is the first concert you went to?
Brennan: Bachman-Turner Overdrive at the Dane County Coliseum in high school. It wasn’t the symphony, I can tell you that.

WLJ: If you could trade places with someone for a day, who would it be and why?
Brennan: It would really be something to win the British Open, the Masters or the Tour de France and be that guy for a day. I’m no better an athlete than an innovator or engineer, but those individuals who create are the people who I otherwise admire most, a guy like Norman Borlaug, who fed the world and won a Nobel Prize, or maybe Mark Twain or Will Rogers, multitalented people who enriched others lives and probably had a lot of fun doing it.

WLJ: What is your motto?
Brennan: No real motto other than I think loyalty and perseverance will get you pretty far in life.

WLJ: What is your favorite movie about lawyers or the law and why?
Brennan: I don’t watch movies or TV shows about lawyers. I do it every day and I don’t want to watch what some Hollywood producer tries to jam into a 60-minute show or two-hour movie about what lawyers do. That’s a bit excruciating.

WLJ: If you hadn’t become a lawyer, what career would you have chosen?
Brennan: Commodities trader. When I got out of undergraduate, I visited the Board of Trade in Chicago and found it pretty fascinating. It would have been really exciting I think, and allowed me to apply my economics degree in some respect.