Legal Professional of the Year

Doyle dedicates her career to the underdog

Catey Doyle Attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee Inc.

There are a lot of people who should be happy that attorney Catey Doyle made the decision she made just more than 10 years ago.

That’s right around the time she decided to leave her private practice to take a job with the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee Inc.

“She’s got a first-rate legal mind,” said Tom Cannon, executive director of the society. “She’s a prodigiously hard worker, and she is passionate about protecting vulnerable people who are being taken advantage of by powerful corporate interests.”

It’s that desire to help others that brought her to the society, Cannon said.

The Legal Aid Society provides free legal aid to those who are unable to afford legal counsel, and it works with abused and neglected children and developmentally disabled adults as well as elderly, unemployed and homeless people.

Doyle, who is now the chief staff attorney for the society, often works with people who are going through foreclosures. She has also looked into predatory lending issues, Cannon said, and is supervising a study of all Milwaukee County foreclosures from January 2006 through July 1, 2007, to determine what areas of the county were hardest hit and which companies are behind the most foreclosures.

“I think Catey is a very unusual lawyer,” Cannon said. “She could be making multiples of her salary at Legal Aid with a private law firm, and she’s chosen to dedicate her talent to representing the underdog.”

Richard T. Lenz of McCarty & Lenz SC, Milwaukee, worked with Doyle in the private practice arena for years. Like Cannon, Lenz said Doyle is a smart and hard-working attorney, and one who has a strong desire to use her skills to help.

“In these kinds of cases, people like Catey don’t get compensated,” Lenz said.

“We have an obligation to try to see justice is done, sometimes without making a lot of money out of it. That’s what she’s done.”

Lenz said people like Doyle see their jobs as something more than a paycheck.

“You just have to admire anyone working at Legal Aid,” Lenz said. “They view law as a calling. There are plenty of lawyers who leave a lot to be desired. They give the legal profession a bad name.

“When you see people like Catey Doyle and others at Legal Aid and those in private practice who set aside time to help people — I admire [Doyle] a whole lot. She does that day in and day out.”

Both Cannon and Lenz attributed Doyle’s devotion to this kind of work to her upbringing. There is a long history of public service and dedication to the law in her family.

Her father was a federal judge, and her mother served in the state Legislature and on the Madison School Board. Her sisters are also attorneys who now work at universities.

Her brother is Gov. Jim Doyle.

“With that kind of background, she could be working at any law firm in the state,” Cannon said. “She’s chosen to work for the Legal Aid Society for an extremely modest salary.”

Lenz said that for someone like Doyle, it’s not about the monetary compensation.

“You can’t pay somebody enough to make it worth the impact on your daily life,” he said. “You’re rewarded by seeing good outcomes. That makes up for the compensation you don’t see.”

By Janine Anderson