A senior partner with Axley, Michael Anderson has extensive experience in both trial and appellate litigation, focusing on commercial, business and product liability.

He advises clients on a broad range of commercial agreements, including master services, software development and distribution contracts, and provides outside general counsel services for corporate compliance, transactional and corporate matters. Anderson also supervises both foreign and domestic litigation for his clients, including religious liberty and general counsel issues for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA.

Anderson advises clients on a broad range of commercial agreements, including master services, software development and distribution contracts and provides outside general counsel services for corporate compliance, transactional and corporate matters.

He is a past member of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Board of Attorneys Professional Responsibility District Committee and the Bench and Bar Committee. Additionally, Anderson was previously appointed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court to the Preliminary Review Committee, serving as chair for three years.

Anderson’s commitment to community service extends beyond the courtroom, having served on various nonprofit boards, including those for community development and legal services for low-income families.

Navigating the emotional, unpredictable and distractions of litigations, Sherry Coley not only looks for the legal answer, but also the real-world answer to her client’s objectives.

The managing partner of Amundsen Davis’s offices in Appleton and Green Bay, Coley is a skilled business defense attorney with a strong focus on complex commercial litigation. As a member of Business Litigation Service Group, she focuses on contract disputes, business torts, financial services litigation, real estate foreclosures and workouts and tax assessment appeals.

She litigates patent, trademark, copyright, unfair competition and trade secret cases in a wide variety of industries including consumer products, food products and software development.

Coley can also be found representing financial institutions in state and federal court on a variety of commercial lending disputes, including defense of counterclaims raised in response to foreclosure of deficiency actions and disputes arising from insolvent borrowers.

She is active in the community, sitting on the New North Inc. Board of Directors, is past chair of the Fox Valley Symphony and a member of the Appleton Police & Fire Commission.

An experienced litigator, Laura Davis is a partner in DeWitt LLP’s Litigation, Intellectual Property, Labor & Employment Relations and Background Screening practice groups.

Davis is routinely engaged in all aspects of her cases to provide her clients with consistent and competent representation, including discovery, motion practice, evidentiary hearings, oral arguments, trials, appeals and settlement. She has obtained successful resolution of disputes at all ages of the process from preliminary injunction to appeals.

While Davis is a strong litigator, she understands it isn’t the best option for every dispute or client. She uses her experience to consult clients on “litigation avoidance” measures, including adopting policies, securing insurance, drafting contracts, implementing preventative measures and taking other steps to reduce risks and avoid potential litigation.

Davis also consults clients on litigation rehabilitation to adjust business practices and policies to learn from issues that may be identified before, during or after the litigation process.

Cathleen Dettmann has practiced law for 17 years. A partner at Stafford Rosenbaum, she attributes her professional success not to individual achievement but to collaboration, saying litigation is a team endeavor in which the best outcomes emerge when ego is set aside and every strategic decision is rigorously examined by the full team of lawyers and staff.

Dettmann considers her greatest career accomplishment to be the opportunities she has had to take cases through trial and into the appellate courts, including arguments before the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, at a time when civil trials and appellate arguments have become increasingly rare.

Her leadership philosophy centers on creating an environment where colleagues feel comfortable asking difficult questions, challenging assumptions and offering creative perspectives. She believes good leadership is not about having all the answers, but about fostering a setting in which the best answers can emerge.

Dettmann has held several leadership roles within the Dane County Bar Association and the State Bar of Wisconsin. She also serves on the Monona Terrace Community & Convention Center Board.

Sheila Shadman Emerson is an attorney at Halloin Law Group, S.C. with 15 years of experience in the legal profession. She considers her greatest career accomplishment to be the consistent commitment and determination she brings to her clients and their cases — a standard she holds herself to throughout her practice.

Emerson is driven by the challenge of problem solving and the opportunity to develop practical, effective solutions for complex situations. She is dedicated to helping clients navigate the difficult and complicated circumstances that bring them to the firm, recognizing that people often seek legal counsel during some of the most challenging times in their lives.

Emerson is a member of the Wisconsin State Bar.

Alec Fraser is managing partner of the Milwaukee office of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP and chairs the firm’s Banking & Financial Services Industry Group. He brings 32 years of experience to his practice.

Fraser’s greatest career accomplishment has been building a national derivatives practice with a unique focus on regional and community banks — a market no other law firm has meaningfully developed. Through an entrepreneurial approach and sustained commitment to that market, he has developed a client base of national breadth and depth, creating a practice that stands apart not only among Wisconsin firms but relative to much larger firms whose derivatives practices generally serve larger institutions.

On leadership, Fraser believes leaders should lead by example, set the tone, bring energy and humanity to a serious environment, and then let talented people do their work. He attributes his own success to a combination of creativity, entrepreneurship and disciplined execution.

Fraser is a member of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. His board service includes the American School Health Association, Milwaukee Art Museum, Ten Chimneys Foundation, The Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation, Milwaukee Film Inc., Skylight Music Theatre and Wisconsin Museum of Nature and Culture. He is also a Greater Milwaukee Committee member.

For the past 11 years, Tamar Kelber has served clients at Gass Turek LLC on a wide range of civil litigation cases. A partner with the Gass Turek, Kelber offers knowledge and strategy across industries to her clients, understanding the big picture, leveraging her litigation proficiency and responsiveness to her client’s advantage.

Her practice focuses on product liability, commercial litigation and mass tort litigation, including cases in multiple jurisdictions across the country. In commercial matters, Kelber represents clients in a range of industries and her product liability experience spans multiple areas including consumer products, pharmaceuticals and biologics.

Kelber has substantial experience coordinating multi-jurisdictional, multi-plaintiff litigation and defense of individual single-plaintiff cases, leading all aspects of litigation from pretrial discovery through fact and expert witness development, trial and appeal in both state and federal courts.

Prior to joining to Gass Turek, Kelber worked 20 years at Sidley Austin in Chicago.

Justin Mertz is a partner at Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, where he has practiced law for 18 years. This year he stepped up to serve as co-chair of the firm’s Litigation group.

Mertz considers his greatest accomplishment to be becoming an equity partner at Michael Best. In his daily practice, he takes pride in guiding clients through complex, high-stakes litigation and restructuring matters and in resolving situations that initially appeared impossible, helping clients emerge with clarity and a path forward.

Mertz believes effective leadership is grounded in preparation, accountability and trust. He focuses on setting clear expectations for his team while remaining responsive and practical in decisions that impact his colleagues and help drive the firm forward.

Mertz serves on the board of the Wisconsin State Bar’s Bankruptcy, Insolvency, and Creditor’s Rights Section and on the planning committee for the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Central States regional conference. He is a board member of First Stage, Milwaukee’s youth theater academy, and recently was appointed board secretary of the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center. He also serves on the board of the Milwaukee Bar Association Foundation, which supports legal education and access to justice.

Attorney Michael Modl is a senior partner at Axley and a member of the firm’s Litigation and Labor and Employment Practice Groups.

Modl’s litigation practice focuses on federal court litigation, primarily in the areas of intellectual property, commercial disputes, employment, insurance defense, defense of municipalities and schools and defense of civil rights and constitutional claims. He is active in federal court, appearing in more than 200 cases in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

Modl’s practice also focuses on advising employers on employment and personnel matters. He assists clients in reviewing and drafting personnel policies and employee handbooks. He provides training, seminars and legal updates to clients on developments in the law, including the areas of workplace harassment prevention and investigation of complaints.

Modl is the past president of the Wisconsin Employment Law Letter and past president of the Western District of Wisconsin Bar Association. He is a member of the Defense Research Institute, the Dane County Bar Association, the State Bar of Wisconsin and the American Bar Association.

Hamang Patel is a partner and Management Committee member at Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, where he has practiced law for 27 years. His work centers on complex transactions involving tax, corporate governance and business structuring.

Patel counts a particularly intricate restructuring engagement as his greatest career accomplishment. He was brought in to advise a large closely held company whose multiple ownership groups had long been divided over a historical misalignment of ownership across affiliate companies, a dispute that had blocked several prior sale attempts. Patel developed a new holding company structure that consolidated decision-making and distribution rights, requiring him to navigate income tax, gift tax, valuation, real estate, banking and corporate governance issues simultaneously. He successfully negotiated the terms with separate law firms representing each ownership group, and the company completed a sale at an acceptable price within a year.

Patel’s approach to client service is rooted in serving as a trusted advisor who manages an entire transaction rather than simply answering isolated legal questions.

He is a member of the American Bar Association and the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Thomas Santarelli is the lead litigator and partner at Madrigrano, Aiello & Santarelli, where his practice focuses on civil litigation, collections, condominium law, construction law and business litigation.

He has served at the Kenosha law firm for more than two decades, continuing to build his reputation for resolving cases involving businesses, individuals, landlords, construction and collection issues.

Santarelli said that since litigation is often an emotional and intensive experience for clients, he takes time to present an objective view throughout the case to his clients so they can make rational, cost-effective decisions.

In the community, he serves on the Boys’ and Girls’ Club of Kenosha Board of Directors and is a member the Kenosha Rotary West and Little Leaguers of Kenosha.

John Scheller is the managing partner of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP’s Madison office and Sub-Group Leader for IP Litigation, where he has practiced law for 29 years. His practice focuses on complex, high-stakes disputes involving multiple parties, technical issues and competing expert opinions.

Scheller identifies building and leading teams that can navigate complex disputes to successful resolution as his greatest career accomplishment. He finds particular satisfaction in helping clients achieve clarity and reach their business goals, whether through favorable resolutions, strong litigation positions or strategic settlements. Equally important to him has been investing in talented lawyers and staff and creating an environment where preparation, collaboration, teamwork and accountability drive repeatable results for clients.

His leadership philosophy holds that effective leadership begins with being a trusted advisor who can simplify complex problems and make sound decisions under pressure. He emphasizes preparation, clear communication and a focus on practical outcomes over abstract legal theories and places a high value on responsiveness to clients and colleagues alike.

Scheller is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin, the Dane County Bar Association and the Western District of the United States District Court Bar Association.