Ronald J. Kotnik
[Deceased December 16, 2008]

Ronald J. Kotnik was a senior member of the firm’s Litigation Team. His 42 years of practice had been devoted to handling cases of an adversarial nature.

He was a 1962 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, but he first tested combat a few years earlier. As a naval reservist, Ron took part in war games designed to hunt down the nation’s first nuclear submarine, Nautilus. Luckily, the battles weren't real. After two weeks at sea, Nautilus and its wooden torpedoes had sunk the entire squadron.

Ron had fared better on land. He had been involved in employment-related litigation since the early 1970s, defending public and private employers against civil rights and discrimination claims, and other “wrongful acts” covered by professional liability insurance policies. As a trial lawyer, Ron had litigated hundreds of cases in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies like the state Equal Rights Division and federal EEOC.

Ron was admitted to practice before state and federal courts and is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin. He had served on the faculty at seminars sponsored by the National School Boards Association’s Council of School Attorneys. He belonged to the American, Seventh Circuit and Dane County Bar Associations, the Defense Research Institute, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the Civil Trial Counsel of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Academy of Trial Lawyers.

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