I wanted to take a moment to say a few things about my friend Mike Julka in the wake of his recent retirement.
Mike’s retirement won’t be widely reported in the sea of legal developments that law firms report on to school districts across our state. But in many ways, it is a legal development of equal, if not greater import.
Mike spent his entire career in one place: working at Lathrop and Clark, later, Boardman and Clark. Mike worked at the side of the venerable James Clark, one of the inaugural recipients of the George Tipler Award for achievement in school law and a pioneer of school law practice in Wisconsin. Mike followed in Jim’s footsteps by taking the lead role for the firm as the general counsel to the Wisconsin Association of School Boards and as Chair of the firm’s school law practice.
Mike was not merely the best school attorney in Wisconsin. He is the best school attorney in Wisconsin’s history.
Mike was a dedicated advocate and counselor for his clients, but he may be remembered most for his tireless commitment to pro bono (volunteer) work. Mike gave countless presentations to school professional groups, assisted professional associations with programming for their members, wrote articles, wrote or supervised materials for the WASB, advised school professional associations on pending legislation, and on and on. Mike — who began his career as a public school teacher — continued teaching by educating and training school board members, school professionals, and school attorneys throughout his career.
Mike influenced the legal services market around him by establishing school law as a stand-alone discipline. Mike’s perspective on school law practice was put to the test in the wake of Act 10, which slashed the amount of time that lawyers in our field spend on traditional labor law issues. Practices that had adopted (or mimicked) Mike’s model for providing comprehensive school legal services remained viable. Mike’s approach helped to shape the way that school law is practiced in Wisconsin today — not just in his own firm, but by all of us — and the work that we do for school districts today is as much a part of Mike’s legacy as our own.
Mike sent me a holiday greeting a few years ago that reflected on a program we had done together and shared how he “always thought of us as a tandem” in programming for school professionals. Perhaps Mike was enjoying some holiday egg nog when he was working on his cards that year, since I’m pretty sure that Mike has no worthy co-captain. I still think of Mike’s note as an honor I’ll treasure as much as any I’ve received.
So, if you felt a disturbance in the force in early January, now you know why. Giants can’t exit the realm without the earth shaking beneath them, and Mike was a Titan if ever there was one.
Mike, enjoy your retirement. And thanks for everything.