Feb. 4, 2009 – Janesville is Exhibit A for the weak economy. It is also the place to look for answers to how a lawyer should practice when the going gets tough.

If the national recession had a local address in Wisconsin, it would likely be in Janesville.

General Motors, Janesville’s second largest employer, ceased SUV production on Dec. 23, 2008, cutting 2,200 jobs with the car manufacturer and at least 1,150 at supplier companies. Unemployment in the Janesville metropolitan area was last reported to be 8.1 percent, higher than the state average of 5.8 percent.

So while many lawyers around the country are anxiously wondering when and how the downturn will impact their communities and practices, Janesville attorneys are already taking stock.

Janesville attorney David Moore of Nowlan & Mouat, LLP, said that so far his firm has been resilient to the downturn, demonstrating the strength of its diversified structure. Moore said his 126-year-old firm traditionally focused on business transaction work, including the formation of the Samson Tractor Company that eventually became a part of GM. But, he said, the firm branched out in the last 30 years so that as real estate and other commercial activity has fallen off, its work in family law, litigation, foreclosures, and collections has increased.

Moore also credits a cohesive firm culture in which the attorneys share the economic woes. “We have a tight-knit group of lawyers so if one area of practice goes down, it does not mean a lawyer is out on his ear,” he said. “We approach this as a firm. This is not to say that individual incomes won’t go up or down, but the firm needs to be the focus.”

A similar response to the economic emergency was reported by George Steil, Jr. of Brennan Steil & Basting, S.C., another of Janesville’s prominent firms. Steil agreed that work had shifted away from areas of law that prosper in good times and toward those like foreclosures. This has resulted in all attorneys in the firm sharing workload and being very busy, he said.

Steil observed that his firm was prepared to adjust, commenting that attorneys tend to have greater flexibility in offering their services than other businesses such as auto parts suppliers.

It takes a village

But Steil said that beyond the efforts of individual firms to withstand the downturn, the city took important steps to prepare for a diminished GM presence years ago. “The GM plant had 8,000 people at its peak,” Steil said. “But over 10 years, that number was reduced. By the time it closed, it had 2,500 employees. The city knew GM was slowing down.”

Acting preemptively, Steil said the city aggressively recruited other industries and encouraged expansion of local employers, especially Mercy health System and Lab Safety Supply, to change its economic mix. He noted many of Janesville’s larger businesses, including clients of Brennan Steil & Basting, have a regional focus and are not directly affected by the local economy, also easing the crunch.

Moore stressed the role local government must continue to play. “My concern is local government’s ability to point toward the future, rather than withdraw like a turtle in a shell,” he said.

“Janesville needs to resist the impulse to slash public spending on services and schools because those are the things that will end up drawing Janesville’s next wave of businesses,” Moore said.

Lawyers – with their training and unique position – have an important role to play as community leaders in those kinds of debates, Moore added. “Lawyers can do a lot of community service – everything from food pantries and up to and including serving on their local chambers of commerce,” he said.

Likewise, Moore said lawyers have a financial responsibility to the community. “Our firm set up a charitable fund with our local community foundation a few years ago,” Moore said. “Our partners contribute money to the fund every year at the same time we distribute our profits. We recently approved a $15,000 grant to Healthnet of Janesville, Inc., a local provider of health care services for the uninsured and low income residents of Rock County.”

Both Steil and Moore cited the example of Kenosha, which lost an auto plant but returned to prosperity, as a model for Janesville. They credited that city with taking a creative and entrepreneurial approach to its predicament. But most importantly, they insist upon an optimism that things will eventually improve.

“The best thing we can do is help young small businesses grow into successful businesses,” Moore said. “The economy is going to get better.”

Signs of the times

In the meantime, Moore and Steil have noticed some particular challenges of practicing in a downturn. Many of them exist in any economic climate, but have become more pronounced with the current troubles.

For example, Moore said that there have been more litigants deciding to go unrepresented. These pro se parties are unfamiliar with proper procedure and consequently cases can end up taking far longer to resolve.

Also, Moore said, courts tend to allow them far more latitude than would be given to a licensed attorney in hopes of avoiding reversal on appeal. However, this almost works to penalize a represented party.

For his part, Steil said that a client’s ability to pay becomes a greater concern in tough times. Steil said in some cases, the client may be asked to pay a larger portion of a fee in advance and an attorney may have to make greater inquiry into the client’s ability to pay.

At the same time, Steil said that in these economic times his firm has made efforts to increase its amount of pro bono work, especially in the area of landlord-tenant law.

Alex De Grand is the legal writer for the State Bar of Wisconsin.