Kathy Reilly looks forward to coming year as Dane County Bar Assn. president.

• Date: 26 June 2002

Byline: Tony Anderson

Depending on which business card she gives you, the new Dane County Bar Association president is either: "Kathleen Reiley, Attorney at Law" or "Kathy Reiley, Prosperous Adventurous."

Both people have an interest in helping others, are quick to smile and laugh easily.

Last week, Reiley took a few minutes to step away from her family law practice and relax at a small table behind Cafe Zoma just down the street from her Atwood Avenue office in Madison. She reflected on how to be dedicated to clients without taking their troubles home at night and how she arrived at this point in her practice.

Student Lawyer

Reiley, who graduated from law school at the University of Iowa in 1985, actually began handling cases while she was still a student. Although she was participating in an accelerated law school program, which involved taking classes continuously for two years and three months, she also managed to work with the school's Civil Litigation Clinic, interned in the Johnson County Attorney's office, and taught German to undergraduates. The clinic offered students a first-hand experience with active civil cases.

"I actually had district court cases that I was responsible for in Iowa," Reiley explained. "In fact, I had a classmate one year behind me whose father had died and there was a will contest. So I had a will contest in Dubuque County through the clinic."

The case provided an opportunity to take depositions and eventually ended with a settlement. While in law school, Reiley also handled her first jury trial. The break came while she was interning at the county attorney's office, comparable to the district attorney's office in Wisconsin.

As an intern, Reiley had been handling non-indictable misdemeanor cases. When an assistant county attorney left, she was able to step in and help. Iowa Supreme Court rules allowed her to prosecute cases, as long as a licensed attorney sat...