Super Lawyers - Wisconsin 2011

2007. “Part of the art of doing this for a long time is that we’re sympathetic to our clients but we’re not trained counselors. That’s part of the normal intake that we do with people when they come to us. Do they have enough support? It’s good to have support, someone neutral, and not just rely on family and friends who love you. So I try to stay out of that counseling role, but I’m there to give advice if needed.

“You just have to be honest with
people. Here’s what I tell my clients, and
this is true: If somebody’s sitting across
from me, they’re my client, but really my
client is the person they’ll be five or 10 or
20 years from now. I want that person to
say, ‘Oh, I’m so glad that Daphne gave me
that good advice,’ and not have different
feelings about it.”
Joanis echoes this sentiment. “She is
trying to get the best outcome for her
client but mindful of the fact that you have
to have both a long-term and a short-term
[solution],” he says.

“My boundaries are very clear,” Webb
adds. “Maybe my first couple years I didn’t
quite know how to be there for people and
still be professional, but now it’s part of
who I am.”
As Webb has changed, so has family
law. In 1986, Wisconsin became the first
state in modern times to enact community
property law. That, Webb says, changed
everything.

“When I started, it was much lower stakes because women did not have an expectation of getting 50 percent of the divisible property,” she says. “Women got a third, maybe a half. If you got half the estate for your female client, that was a huge victory.

“When we got equitable property
division, people had to get sharper. You
really had to value things, you couldn’t
just roll over, you had to know what you
were doing. So we hired accountants
to value businesses and make sure
everything was fair.”
This is another area where Webb excels,
say her clients.

“I had hired an attorney before Daphne and was not impressed by her ability,” says the first client. “My divorce was complex, with multiple businesses, and Daphne was able to see everything quite well.

The opposing attorney had to draw little
balloons and interlink them as to who
owned what. [But Daphne] analyzed things
quickly and came to a great conclusion.”
As divorce became more expensive,
though, more people have had to go
without representation.

“In our county,” Webb says, “in about 50 percent of the divorces there are no lawyers involved. But I don’t handle cases where there’s not a lawyer on the other side. I prefer for the other spouse to be represented. There is a risk that an unrepresented party may later wonder if he or she made bad choices in the divorce or was taken advantage of. There can be bitterness in the future.

“It’s better to do it right the first time.”

WEBB, WHO HAS BEEN WITH STAFFORD
Rosenbaum since 1985, taps into her art
history background to procure artwork—
originals and prints—for the firm in
Madison. Whatever reluctance she has
talking about her clients’ cases disappears
when the subject turns to art.