Kroening boosts Godfrey with keen eye for detail

Listen to this article

Jamie Kroening makes sure Godfrey & Kahn lives up to its reputation.

As a senior research assistant in the firm’s Madison office, Kroening is part of a team that double-checks every filing that the firm produces. A master researcher, Kroening uses her keen eye for detail to make sure citations are ironclad, filings are free of grammatical errors and arguments are grounded in good law.

“I’m an extra set of eyes before attorneys file anything,” she said. “That’s obviously helpful so they know what they’re filing with the court is true and accurate. I’m helping the attorneys present their best image of the firm.”

Kroening joined Godfrey & Kahn in 1999. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with an English degree, she was introduced to legal research in a job at the Dane County Law Library, where she was put to work fulfilling research requests for jail inmates.

She found she was suited to the work and later moved into a position at the Wisconsin State Law Library before taking a job at Godfrey & Kahn. She found the lawyers there easy to work with
Kroening credits the firm’s talented research team for helping her succeed at her job. She went on to earn a master’s degree in Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, deciding the degree would help further her career.

“I realized right away how much I really enjoyed doing the work,” she said. “So I wanted to actually be a librarian.”

Each day in Kroening’s job presents different demands, from researching companies, people and legislative actions to checking citations. Recently, she has helped the firm adapt to a world altered by COVID-19.

Kroening said she’s continually intrigued by her work.

“Every day is different,” she said. “You just never know what you’re going to find.”