OBAMA LAWYER HAS MADISON OFFICE

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld

By Michael Horne

and the Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team

A boutique Chicago law firm that once employed Barack Obama -- and now has him for a client -- maintains an office in Madison, the Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team has learned.
William A. Miceli, a partner in the firm Miner Barnhill & Galland, was the supervisor of very junior attorney Barack Obama when the firm hired him in 1993.
Miceli's name also appears on the tax bill issued by the Cook County Treasurer's Office for Obama's home at 5460 S. Greenwood Ave., Chicago. The $22,233.34 bill was paid in full on October 20th, 2008, well before its due date of November 3rd, when Obama probably had other things on his mind.

I wrote to Miceli and asked him if he was the lawyer for the president-elect, and received this lawyerly confirmation in response:
"I am sorry, Mr. Horne, but I do not comment on client matters."

The firm has 14 lawyers, with 10 in Chicago, and four in the Madison office at 44 E. Mifflin St.

Among the Madison staff is William P. Dixon [SUNY -- Buffalo '70]. Dixon is the sort of fellow who is routinely described as "politically connected," having served in the past as Counsel to Governor Patrick Lucey, counsel to various congressional committees, Chief of Staff for Senator Gary Hart, and as former Wisconsin Commissioner of Banking.
Dixon was also sufficiently prescient to donate $1,000 to the Obama campaign -- for Congress, in 1999.

His office mate, founding partner Charles J. Barnhill, Jr. [U Michigan '68] apparently opened the Madison office around 1987 when he first joined the Wisconsin bar. The two have represented the state in its case against Abbott Laboratories and other drug manufacturers on pricing issues for state-purchased drugs. The case has had 1036 events since it was filed in 2004, keeping many, many lawyers busy, with the most recent activity recorded yesterday.

Other lawyers in the Madison office are Elizabeth J. Eberle [Stanford '98] and Sarah E. Siskind [Harvard '77].

FUN FACT!

The most recent president to have an attorney buddy with a Wisconsin connection was George H.W. Bush, who was tight with the late John MacIver of Michael Best & Friedrich. That law firm was loaded with Republicans, and has been laying off staff lately, for what it's worth.

Sooner or later there will be an announcement about the formation of the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy, Inc., incorporated with the state earlier this year. Expect it to be a conservative "think" tank, possibly with some high-profile members and staff. You read about it here first, and you've been warned.

--Michael Horne