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Chicago attorney brings new practice to Milwaukee

By: JESSICA STEPHEN//May 3, 2013//

Chicago attorney brings new practice to Milwaukee

By: JESSICA STEPHEN//May 3, 2013//

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Pat Coffey (Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)

After decades of carving out his niche as a white collar and health care attorney in Chicago, Pat Coffey is helping a Milwaukee firm develop a new corporate compliance and white collar defense team.

Coffey, who joined Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek SC in February, still primarily works in Chicago, but he also will be working on cases in Madison and Milwaukee with a team of about 40 attorneys – 20 in the white collar group and 20 more in the firm’s health care group.

The new role allows the Wisconsin native – born in Madison, raised in Milwaukee – to share his specialty, which he developed over the last 20 years after a mentor helped him identify the potential for the practice.

“Health care was a new kind of area of law practice at that point,” said Coffey, who describes himself as a white collar defense lawyer with experience in government regulation and a focus on health care.

Coffey, who often has faced off against the Department of Justice, state attorneys general and whistleblowers, said his biggest challenge is “helping clients spear their way through a regulatory enforcement environment in a setting where there are more rules, laws and regulations than you can even count.”

A near-constant flow of fraud claims makes that particularly challenging, he said.

“Mistakes will be made; mistakes don’t translate to fraud. But health care finds itself the very unfortunate target of fraud claims,” Coffey said. “In most instances, it’s not because somebody intended to create a problem. It’s most often a failure to appreciate that a given activity or arrangement runs afoul of the legal requirements … .”

Sometimes the best defense is a good offense, which is why Coffey works with clients to develop compliance programs and helps them learn to regulate themselves by developing internal methods to identify and investigate claims and then correct any problems.

“It has been an incredibly challenging area, “Coffey said, “ever-changing, significant and complicated. But I’ve always enjoyed clients address those challenges.”

Wisconsin Law Journal: If you could trade places with someone for a day, who would it be?
Pat Coffey: I have to say I really wouldn’t want to trade places with anyone in the world. If pressed, however, I could probably have some good fun being Ryan Braun for a day.

WLJ: What was your most useful law school course?
Coffey: Evidence. The rules remain part of my ongoing practice and the evaluation of cases and defenses.

WLJ: What was your least-favorite course in law school?
Coffey: Trusts and estates. Enough said. Trusts and estates people probably have about as much interest in what I do as I have in what they do.

WLJ: If you could develop one CLE course for credit, what would it be about?
Coffey: I would require all litigators and budding trial lawyers to experience being a witness under examination. I am convinced that there is no better way to understand the challenges confronting witnesses and assist them in the provision of testimony.

WLJ: What do you consider your biggest achievement?
Coffey: While I might be tempted to cite favorable trial outcomes, or better yet cases where I was able to obtain declinations on behalf of clients, my biggest achievement is my family.

WLJ: What is the one luxury item you cannot live without?
Coffey: My Winston No. 4 fly rod.

WLJ: What do you miss most about your childhood?
Coffey: Summers that seemed to last forever and pick-up baseball games where I pitched the Brewers to numerous world championships.

WLJ: What is the first concert you attended?
Coffey: Ten Years After in 1971 at the Arena.

WLJ: Finish this sentence: Happiness is …
Coffey: Happiness to me is having the ability to help others in need.

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