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Meiners leads by example

By: JESSICA STEPHEN//September 17, 2014//

Meiners leads by example

By: JESSICA STEPHEN//September 17, 2014//

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Deborah Meiners, associate attorney, DeWitt Ross & Stevens SC, Madison
Deborah Meiners, associate attorney, DeWitt Ross & Stevens SC, Madison

Going to law school while also studying for a master’s degree in history probably wasn’t the easiest thing Debora Meiners ever did.

But it helped prepare her for a much bigger challenge that lay ahead.

“I never knew what sleep deprivation was until I tried to hold down a legal practice while having kids,” the civil litigator with DeWitt Ross & Stevens SC, Madison and mother of Patrick, 2 ½ and Collin, 5, said. “The law school and history program sounds like a cake walk now.”

Things got especially tough after Patrick, then only 7 months old, was diagnosed with kidney cancer in early 2012; news that came only weeks after Meiners and her husband, Luke Sticht, a U.S. Navy reservist, learned Sticht would be deployed to Afghanistan by July 2012.

Fortunately, Patrick’s cancer was caught early, which meant no chemotherapy or radiation.

“It was certainly a trauma in the family,” Meiners said. “But it would have been a totally different experience if he had to go through that. I can’t believe how lucky we were.”

Through it all, Meiners said she couldn’t have asked more from her firm, which rallied behind her through Patrick’s illness and Luke’s deployment.

A leader by example, Meiners is someone that is easy to get behind, said Megan Senatori, a shareholder at DeWitt Ross & Stevens.

“She is not someone who asks for credit or tells you how great she thinks she is,” Senatori said. “In fact, it’s quite to the contrary.”

And, Senatori added, she felt that way long before Meiners faced her family challenges.

“Deborah really sets the bar. She’s smart. She’s fearless. She’s very poised under pressure. She works on some of our most complicated and complex cases, with some of our most demanding partners,” Senatori said. “And, from the outside, it appears effortless. She just doesn’t get rattled.”

Meiners might tell you differently, partly because much of Patrick’s illness and Luke’s deployment was a blur of long days and little sleep. But, she said, what few memories she has are positive, like colleagues who signed up to bring her family dinners, others who donated for a snow removal service and her mother-in-law, Tary Sticht, who helped with the boys, despite her own full-time schedule.

“Hopefully, as time passes, that challenge will be eclipsed by the challenge of becoming a partner,” Meiners said. “Although I have a feeling that’s a few years away.”

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