Breaking the Ice: Finance background offers litigator an edge.

Byline: Todd Nelson

Name: Craig Krummen

Title: Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig

Education: B.B.A., finance, Iowa State University; J.D., University of Iowa College of Law

Craig Krummen's aptitude for finance may be his greatest asset in complex commercial litigation and intellectual property litigation.

Having majored in finance with an accounting emphasis, Krummen said, gives him a distinct advantage in analyzing damages reports when opposing counsel may rely on expert witnesses.

"Where a lot of the commercial litigators and intellectual property litigators that I go up against have a shortcoming is understanding damages claims," Krummen said.

Krummen has built a national practice in his specialties in the five years since a jury awarded a verdict on all liability claims in favor of client Kuryakyn Holdings Inc.

That result earned Krummen and Tiffany Blofield, who this year joined Greenberg Traurig from Winthrop & Weinstine, Minnesota Lawyer Attorney of the Year honors.

Two years as vice president and deputy counsel at Marvin Windows has been valuable in understanding how to collaborate with in-house counsel, Krummen said.

Q: What's the best way to start a conversation with you?

A: Ask me where I'm from. I grew up in a small town in rural Iowa in the middle of the farm crisis. I interned during college for congressman Fred Grandy, who played Gopher on "The Love Boat." He had a phrase for it, "rural dismantlement."

Q: What prompted you to study law and pursue it professionally?

A: I've always been a big believer in justice and figuring out how to redress unfairness. I was pretty good at problem solving and at advocacy. If you can converge the ability to solve problems, to advocate and to seek redress for unfairness the law is probably your ticket.

Q: What books are on your bedside table or e-reader?

A: "The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr." His mother taught him that what he was experiencing in the South was the result of a social condition that needed to be redressed. It wasn't the natural order of things.

Q: What's a pet peeve of yours?

A: The proliferation of false narratives I believe it's on the increase in politics, in litigation matters really bothers me.

Q: What are your favorite aspects of being an attorney?

A: Righting an injustice or seeking redress for unfairness and making sure that the harm is redressed.

Q: Least favorite?

A: Trying to find balance in a profession that not always but certainly can become all consuming.

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