Cancer takes life of Milwaukee attorney Bill Cannon

Listen to this article

One of Milwaukee’s most respected personal injury attorneys and well-known philanthropists, William (Bill) Cannon passed away at his Mequon home on Oct. 7 at age 75.

Cannon was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer in 2020, according to his brother, Tom Cannon.

During an interview with the Wisconsin Law Journal on Thursday, Tom Cannon said his brother received excellent care at Sloan Kettering in New York and at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and was most recently treated at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee.

“Bill’s family would like to offer special thanks to Father Tim Kitzke of St. John’s Cathedral, Drs. Scott Jorgensen and Rudy Bedford, Julie Takton, RN, Sarah Lucas, and the medical teams at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, especially Drs. Julio Garcia-Aguilar and Garrett Nash, and the Mayo Clinic,” Cannon’s obituary states.

A memorial service will be held at 9:30 a.m. until time of Memorial Mass at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 16, 2023, at St. Jude the Apostle Church, 734 Glenview Ave., Wauwatosa. A private interment will be held at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery.

Prominet legal family

Tom Cannon said he and his brother come from a long line of attorneys. The four-generation legal family has practiced more than a century in Wisconsin. Their father and grandfather were both attorneys and Bill Cannon’s two children are also attorneys, not to mention several other family members.

In addition to Bill Cannon’s track record for securing millions in settlement for his clients — more so than any other lawyer in Wisconsin — Cannon has earned a reputation in the Wisconsin legal community. To date, his firm has recovered more than $1 billion in client compensation through settlements and jury verdicts.

“He was a real gentleman and an excellent lawyer. He always knew what he was doing in court. You really can’t ask for anything more,” said Milwaukee attorney Nick Zales during an interview with the Wisconsin Law Journal on Thursday.

Godfrey & Kahn Shareholder Peter M. Sommerhauser said Bill Cannon was a legal and technological pioneer.

“It was incredible,” Sommerhauser said, noting how Cannon pioneered computer software to reduce paper consumption well before other Wisconsin firms utilized similar technology.

Sommerhauser noted how Cannon was also a legal pioneer.

“He was a pioneer in a lot of things, in his profession too. He was one of the top innovative personal injury lawyers in the country,” Sommerhauser said, taking note of Cannon’s intelligence and innovation.

“I think he (Bill Cannon) was one of the brightest people that I knew. He had the ability to communicate on everybody’s level and that’s a talent,” Sommerhauser added.

James M. Brennan, chair of the Wisconsin Public Defender Board said he got to know Bill Cannon in Brennan’s capacity as previous director of the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee.

“Bill was regarded as a top-flight personal injury trial lawyer. His clients got nothing but the best representation from Bill. Bill’s success rate at trials was exceptional,” Brennan said.

Tom Cannon, who is a retired attorney, agreed.

“Bill was considered one of the top trial lawyers in state of Wisconsin. For the last 30 years he was a dominant force in courtroom. He connected well with jurors and judges. He used his very dry sense of humor to deflate arguments of opponents,” Tom Cannon said.

Bill Cannon’s cases have frequently been in the national spotlight. His cases were featured on the CBS program “60 Minutes” and the “ABC Evening National News.” He has also been named among The Best Lawyers in America for more than 25 consecutive years and was named to the Wisconsin Law Journal’s Power 30 Personal Injury Attorneys list this year.

According to Tom Cannon, Bill Cannon was also heavily involved in volunteer work and philanthropy.

“He (Bill) was a big supporter of The Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee. He donated over $100,000 to them,” Tom Cannon said, noting that his brother has donated millions of dollars to Marquette University High School, St. Jude Parish and the Hunger Task Force.

According to Cannon & Dunphy, Raymond J. Cannon (his grandfather) was admitted to the Wisconsin Bar in 1914 and was the most famous trial lawyer of his generation. His father, Judge Robert C. Cannon, was admitted to Wisconsin Bar in 1941 and served as a Milwaukee County Civil and Circuit Court judge. Bill Cannon’s daughter, Kelly Gildea Cannon, is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Law  in Chicago and is licensed to practice law in Illinois and New York.  Conor Michael Cannon, Bill Cannon’s son, is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School and is licensed to practice in Wisconsin and Illinois.

Bill Cannon’s notable awards and settlements:

• • $13.5 million awarded in a food-borne illness case to a family whose 3-year-old daughter died 11 days after eating contaminated food at a restaurant. The source of the contamination was E. coli 0157:H7 from a whole intact tri-tip piece of meat manufactured and sold by Excel Corp., a subsidiary of Cargill Corporation. This is the largest food-borne illness award in Wisconsin history.* – Location: Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, WI
  • $12 million awarded in a medical malpractice case to the family of an infant who suffered a cerebral palsy brain injury at birth due to a failure to timely perform a C-section. – Location: Oshkosh, Winnebago County, WI
  • $12 million awarded in an automobile accident case to two families after an illegally overloaded cement truck ran a red light and struck a van, causing the death of the driver and serious permanent brain injuries to the passenger. – Location: Waukesha, Waukesha County, WI
  • $10 million awarded in a truck accident case in Michigan to the family of a 37-year-old married mother of two after a Waste Management truck ran a stop sign and struck her van, causing her death. – Location: Grand Rapids, Kent County, MI
  • $10 million awarded in a medical malpractice case to an 8-month-old boy for the negligence of a doctor in prescribing an overdose of morphine, which caused severe brain damage. – Location: LaCrosse, LaCrosse County, WI
  • $10 million settlement in a medical malpractice case involving a 10-year-old boy. Arterial and venous lines from a heart/lung machine were reversed during open heart surgery resulting in severe brain damage. This is the first eight-figure personal injury settlement in Wisconsin history.* – Location: Green Bay, Brown County, WI
  • $9.7 million awarded in a products liability case to an 11-year-old boy whose left arm was amputated in a Laundromat accident and subsequently reattached. The European manufacturer was aware of a defect that allowed the washing machine door to be opened during operation for 10 years before the accident, but never fixed the defect or warned users of the defect. – Location: Sturgeon Bay, Door County, WI
  • $8.9 million recovered for a woman who suffered substantial brain damage after receiving an overdose of Dilaudid® pain medication from a nurse who was a temporary hospital employee. – Location: Milwaukee, WI
  • $7 million award in a medical malpractice case for the failure of a family practice physician to call the attending obstetrician for an emergency C-section. The baby suffered severe late heart rate decelerations during labor and delivery causing severe brain damage. – Location: Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, WI
  • $6 million recovered in a legal malpractice case against a law firm that engaged in numerous conflicts of interest and failed to give appropriate tax and legal advice to a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation. – Location: Milwaukee, WI
  • $5.25 million awarded to the family of a woman involved in an automobile accident. A car making a wide turn came into contact with a school bus, causing the bus to crash into a van operated by the woman. The woman suffered severe brain damage confining her to a nursing home for the remainder of her life. – Location: Sheboygan, Sheboygan County, WI
  • $5 million settlement in a medical malpractice case involving a man whose pathologist misdiagnosed a brain lesion, treatable with steroid medication, as a malignant tumor. The misdiagnosis resulted in an unnecessary surgical removal of a portion of the man’s brain rendering him a totally disabled hemiplegic with severe brain damage. – Location: Oshkosh, Winnebago County, WI
  • $4.8 million settlement in a medical malpractice case involving an emergency room physician who negligently diagnosed ventricular tachycardia on an EKG and negligently ordered medicine, which caused the 67-year-old patient’s heart to stop for almost 20 minutes. The doctor also failed to timely resuscitate the patient, causing severe brain damage, which placed the patient in a persistent vegetative state. – Location: Waukesha, Waukesha County, WI
  • $4 million settlement in a products liability case involving a Halothane vaporizer that malfunctioned during pediatric surgery, causing extensive brain damage in a 1-year-old child. – Location: Madison, WI
  • $3.45 million jury verdict, judgment and settlement awarded to a minor against a physician who failed to properly treat the patient who was suffering from seizures following vaccine administration. – Location: Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, WI
  • $2.5 million judgment and settlement awarded to a plaintiff under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) for failure of the defendant to properly hook up the plaintiff patient undergoing open heart surgery. It resulted in extensive permanent brain damage. This case was featured on CBS’ “60 Minutes” television program. – Location: Milwaukee, WI Federal Court Eastern District (709 F.2d 1158 (7th Cir. 1983)

*Source: Cannon and Dunphy

Donations in lieu of flowers are requested in Bill Cannon’s name to support Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center research efforts in colorectal and appendiceal cancers.

Checks, made payable to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, should be mailed to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Attn: Fred’s Team, P.O. Box 27432, New York, NY 10087-7432.

A gift also can be made in Cannon’s honor to the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee, 5000 W. Electric Ave., West Milwaukee.