Gionis saw law degree as path to own business

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Kathleen Gionis went to law school to do more than become a lawyer—she wanted work for herself.

“I had worked for large employers,” she said. “And I didn’t like it because you just didn’t have the autonomy to have the flexibility to do the things you wanted to do, like with family and sick children.”

The family-law attorney spent eight years working in a variety of fields before starting law school, at Hamline University, in 1977.

Before making that momentous decisoin, Gionis had been an editor at a small newspaper in Luck, worked in Honeywell’s technical-writing and credit department and done a stint at St. Paul-based Viking Electric.

It wasn’t long after law school that Gionis got a taste of what it would be like to be running the show at a law firm. Even before officially hiring her, the lawyer Jim Erickson left Gionis in charge of his firm for a short time while he went on vacation with his son. Later, Gionis again took ever the reins when Erickson spent six months in court-administration school in Colorado.

“I think he was planning it all along there that he was going to run for judge and was really looking for someone to take over the practice,” Gionis said.

She eventually bought the St. Croix Falls-based firm, now named Gionis & Murtaugh Law Office, from Erickson when he was elected to the Polk County bench. Gionis, who now works with her daughter, also an attorney, has been in charge there for 35 years.

Earlier this year, Gov. Scott Walker presented Gionis with the Pioneer Award, which honors the owners of majority-women-owned Wisconsin businesses that have been in operation for 25 years or more.

Gionis noted that many people have helped her along the way throughout her life. While she was in law school, she noted, she was also going through a divorce. Despite the impending breakup of her marriage, her then-husband’s grandmother agreed to be a babysitter for her preschool-age children.

“Your housing and your childcare are big expenses,” Gionis said. “I just think that anyone that has gotten anywhere probably had other people helping them, supporting them, showing them the way—giving them chances.”

Wisconsin Law Journal: Tell me about someone who has had a significant impact on your approach to your work.

Gionis: I think that Jim Erickson, when he hired me, he was a very good mentor. He did a very good job of that. He had a lot of good practice tips like, ‘Pay your mortgage and your taxes – and then worry about the rest.’ …

He said he always thought of himself as a problem solver in being a lawyer. … He also set a good example in civility, which some lawyers don’t always demonstrate.

WLJ: What do you do to disconnect from work?

Gionis: I actually have never really had that problem. I have an office that is away from home, it’s about a mile from where I live. This is where I do all my work. It is rare when I take anything home – that’s not to say I never have.

WLJ: What did you like least about law school?

Gionis: I think it was probate. To this day, I’ve only ever done a one probate case. I never liked it. It was just boring to me.

WLJ: What’s a favorite concert or show you’ve gone to?

Gionis: A few years ago, before Leonard Cohen died, my two youngest daughters and I went to Chicago and saw him in concert. … It was one of his last tours. I liked Leonard Cohen. I didn’t know that my youngest daughter also liked Leonard Cohen. We were talking one day and just discovered that we both really, really liked Leonard Cohen.