Menghini making his mark

Listen to this article

One of attorney Michael Menghini’s professional goals was to appear in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Just five years out of law school, he’s accomplished that goal three times over.

On each occasion, Menghini has been responsible for briefing and on two of the cases he had the chance to orally argue his case to the justices.

“It’s an honor, it’s extremely humbling, nerve wracking and really exciting,” Menghini said.

In the first state Supreme Court case, Menghini represented the town of Black Creek in a case that was critical in defining and interpreting the statutes regarding the classification of property in tax assessment cases. In his second case, Menghini represented Orion Logistics LLC and briefed the issue of the scope of the supplemental proceedings statute.

Menghini is currently representing a family-owned company in litigation involving the scope of the pollution exclusion in insurance policies. He will argue that case before the court in September.

“The Supreme Court is a totally different level,” he said. “The justices can ask whatever they want and interject at any point in time, and they do continuously.

“They have all of your briefing months in advance so they know all the issues and the law pretty well. You’ve got to be on your toes.”

Chuck Koehler, president of Herrling Clark, said he believes Menghini will continue to carry on the reputation of the firm based on the cases he has handled so far.

“Mike is very much the same as the other lawyers already here,” he said. “That’s a compliment based on the literally hundreds of repeat clients that our law firm has served during the past 50 years, along with their friends and business associates who have been referred to our firm by these existing clients for their legal services.”

Despite his opportunities at the Supreme Court, Menghini said his favorite case, and the one he is most proud of, involved a family friend. After the friend’s grandfather died, the family discovered the recently deceased had invested most of his money with a fraudulent broker. The case took several turns and it took several months to track down the broker, but eventually, Menghini was able to get the money back for the family.

“We did a lot of things off the cuff and the case really challenged me,” he said. “But I got to help out some friends and at the end of the day, it felt good.”