Gunn keeps Quarles & Brady a step ahead

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Judi Gunn was working as a legal secretary during the day while attending law school at night when she had an epiphany.

“I realized that I didn’t want the kind of life you needed to have to succeed as an attorney, but I just couldn’t quit the law stuff, so it seemed as though being a legal secretary would be a good compromise,” she said. “It would let me have the kind of life I wanted and still work with some terrifically smart people.”

Gunn joined Quarles & Brady in 2006 as a legal secretary in its product liability practice group. Within three years, she had become an assistant to Ken Hallett, a partner in the firm’s business law group.

“It wasn’t long before it was clear that Judi could, and did, add value to me and my practice,” he said. “I’m not the most organized person, and I dreaded losing my prior secretary of 25-plus years, but Judi made the transition seamless for me and my clients and very quickly suggested ways in which she could take on and organize more tasks and free me up for more client-facing time.”

As a lead audit-letter coordinator, Gunn trains new attorneys in response protocols and helps to resolve occasional questions with recipient-accounting firms.

In 2016, Gunn volunteered to help with the firm’s summer associate program.She set up a technology system to track assignments, ran productivity reports to keep the group chairmen apprised of the progress of assignments and acted as an informal resource for summer associates themselves.

More recently, Gunn was approached to support additional timekeepers in the firm’s franchise distribution group. She developed a method for docketing franchise-expiration dates, developed personnel charts for assignment reviews and for franchise filing and reviewed application documents to ensure they were compliant with regulations.

Gunn said she appreciates the opportunity she has to work with colleagues who make it enjoyable to go to work each day.

“Yes, I’m getting this wonderful award but there are people I work with who deserve this award just as much, if not more,” she said.