Shea builds on diverse background

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Before she chose the law, Elisabeth Shea joined the Peace Corps in West Africa and earned a master’s degree in agricultural and applied economics.

“I decided I wanted to work more directly with businesses,” she said, “and that law would allow me to do that.”

She now advises municipalities on such topics as zoning, land use, real estate, ordinances and contracts. Shea also helps businesses draft, negotiate and review contracts.

“I enjoy working with policymakers, whether they’re government policymakers or business policymakers,” she said. “They’re the people with the ideas, who have a goal.”

And, along the way, she keeps learning. That was the case when she helped a community try to acquire a blighted property through eminent domain.

“We faced issues that no one here had faced before — how to deal with lien holders on the property and environmental contamination issues that hadn’t yet been decided by a court,” Shea said. “So there was a lot of finding our way, even guessing at times.”

It helps to have a network of attorneys through the Dane County Bar Association

“I don’t necessarily think you need to be an experienced attorney to have a leadership position within the bar association,” Shea said. “You just have to have the enthusiasm and the interest and the drive to be involved.”

Shea’s last day at Stafford Rosenbaum was Sept. 4. She recently joined the Legislative Reference Bureau as a legislative attorney.