As a young UW-Madison law student, Linda Balisle was drawn to commercial law. Ironically, family law didn’t interest her at all at the time. Now, the co-founder of Wisconsin’s largest family law firm combines both commercial and family law when resolving divorce and estate planning cases — particularly when family businesses are involved. She’s gained a reputation as being the one you don’t want representing a spouse.
Balisle, 58, moved to Madison after transferring to UW-Madison from the University of South Carolina in her sophomore year. She majored in history and minored in journalism, and worked for Madison Public Schools before setting her sights on law school.
But three years into the UW Law program, she began having serious misgivings about her career choice. Married at the time, with a toddler in tow, the large firms she was interviewing with seemed reluctant to accommodate the kind of flexible schedule she needed as a young mother.
Flags went up, so instead she clerked for a judge. While there, and with all that was going on in her life, Balisle couldn’t help but be drawn to developments that were coming out of the Wisconsin Legislature, which had recently passed new statutes relating to child custody and placement, taking a new view on the economic value of homemaking, and being a primary childcare provider. “The intellectual issues [at the time] were very interesting,” she recalled, and helped fuel her interest in family law.
By the time she graduated with her J.D. in 1979, Balisle was in the process of her own divorce, and had hired attorney Linda Roberson to represent her. A year later, Balisle — now a single mother — joined the same firm Roberson represented.
In 1993, Balisle & Roberson founded their own practice, and 17 years later, Balisle still enjoys the variety that family law affords. “One day, I’m deposing a psychologist; the next, I might be appraising commercial real estate, or dealing with issues relating to children and family violence or abuse, or chemical dependency, family dynamics or child development,” she said.
Some stories end well, some do not. “It doesn’t take very long, as a family lawyer, to see the consequences of my decisions,” she said. “I often wake up at night thinking of cases from years ago.”
A good family law attorney must be compassionate, yet objective, and also helpful in educating judges, who, Balisle said, often don’t have a background in the complexities of family law. “[Our clients] are good people in the worst time of their lives,” she said, “but the judge makes all the decisions. For most people, that’s one idea of hell.”
The current economy could be, for some, a second “hell.” Balisle said she’s witnessed top executives who once garnered six-figure salaries lose their jobs, or be forced to use their homes as banks to borrow money or to refinance a college education. “It’s a huge problem,” she said.
A more upsetting trend, though, is how economic pressures are filtering down to children. “Some parents are losing behavior boundaries with their children. They’re stressed and scared,” she said. Consequently, she said there has been a rise in the number of cases involving torture.
“We always assume the nuclear family can provide all of our needs, but if not … the first targets tend to be pets and children.” Thankfully, she said, those cases represent the minority.
While Balisle is active on several area boards, she holds The Rainbow Project, a counseling and resource center for children and families, especially close to her heart. When not working, she escapes the rigors of her profession at her Spring Green farm where she manages a prairie and woodlands, and polishes her writing skills — an avocation she’s maintained for most of her adult life. “That is my life,” she said. “It’s where I belong.”
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