Bryant has been with the firm since July 2007. He is a 1981 graduate of the University of Wisconsin – Madison where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a major in finance, investment, and banking. He is a 1984 Cum Laude graduate of Marquette Law School, during which time he also interned for Justice Louis J. Ceci of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Between 1984 and July 2007 he practiced with La Crosse, Wisconsin firm of Klos, Flynn & Papenfuss–Chartered. He was elected La Crosse County Bar president in 2000–2001.

Bryant has successfully litigated a variety of civil matters at the trial stage both before judges and juries. He has also handled appeals before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and Wisconsin Supreme Court. His civil litigation experience includes representing injured parties as well as defending those being sued for personal injury and their insurers. He has also represented various parties in business disputes over such matters as non-competition agreements, theft of business secrets and enforcement of contracts to sell real estate and privately held stock. He has litigated ground disputes, such as those that may arise out of adverse possession, easement claims, and boundary line disputes. He has represented parties in will and trust disputes that raise the issues of competency, undue influence, and breach of fiduciary duty. He has also represented secured and unsecured creditors in collection actions.

Bryant’s practice also involves representing clients in transactional matters such as estate planning, probate and trust administration, real estate transactions, and contractual matters.

Representative Experience

Klos, Flynn & Papenfuss – Chartered, Shareholder, 1984 – 2007

  • Recovered a substantial structured settlement for a 12-year-old boy who lost his thumb on the PTO of the family tractor while helping to do barn chores against a tractor repair shop for prior negligent repair.
  • Recovered monies for a young teenage driver, who suffered severe facial scarring, when alone in a car and driving on a rural road for the first time flew through a “T” intersection and a field and landed in a tree filled ravine, from the local municipality on the grounds the intersection was missing a previously placed stop sign due to a wind storm, and the municipality was negligent in not timely replacing the sign.
  • In defending an auto insurer and their driver against a claimed $100,000 soft tissue neck injury and headache claim, where at trial the plaintiff called both the treating doctor and chiropractor live and both of whom testified the plaintiff sustained a permanent soft tissue neck injury, which was causing headaches, convinced the jury by cross-examination of the experts using the existing medical chart and without an independent medical exam that the jury should only award medical expenses incurred during the first month of treatment resulting in a $1,500 verdict.
  • Convinced an extremely experienced trial judge by calling numerous lay witnesses about their detailed day-to-day experience with the aunt that his client, a middle-aged strong-willed businessman, had not exercised undue influence over his aunt, whose competency was also in question, when he took her to an attorney who amended his aunt’s trust to distribute all of her assets at death to him and eliminated his brother and sister ‘s 1/3 share each, where the siblings called the aunt’s treating doctor who testified he thought the aunt’s competency was very questionable and that his dealings with the client were such that he thought the client was the most pushy and overbearing person he ever had to deal with.
  • Convinced a trial judge, based on historical usage, to open as a Township Road a portion of pavement the defendant claimed as a private drive, as an extension of an exiting Town Road for the benefit of an adjoining landowner, despite the Township taking no position about whether it considered this area a Town Road, and convinced the Court of Appeals to extend the Township Road even further so as to fully connect the client’s property to the Town Road as matter of law.
  • In opposing a motion for summary judgment by the owner of a small town bank to void a contract he had signed to sell his stock to the client on grounds the contract was void for vagueness and on the grounds the client, a lawyer, had improperly dealt with the unrepresented banker in obtaining the banker’s signature on the contract, skillfully used the transcript of a four hour deposition of the banker to debunk any claimed impropriety on behalf of the lawyer and any claim the banker did not understand what he was signing to obtain a judgment from the trial judge forcing the banker to convey the contracted for stock.

Representative Cases

Professional & Community Affiliations

La Crosse County Bar Association, 2000–2001, President

Psi Upsilon Rho

Education

  • J.D., Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, (1984), Cum Laude
  • B.B.A. Finance, Investment and Banking, University of Wisconsin–Madison, (1981)

Admissions

Wisconsin, 1984

U.S. District Court Western District of Wisconsin, 1984

U.S. District Court Eastern District of Wisconsin, 1984

U.S. Court of Appeals 7th Circuit, 1991