William Smoler

 


Attorney William Smoler attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history and his law degree in 1975.

Smoler heads the firm’s Madison office and handles their largest cases in central and western Wisconsin. Since he began with the firm in 2004, he specializes in working with clients who suffered injury in automobile, truck and motorcycle accidents. His skills and experience as a trial attorney and his creativity in working for his clients are traits that distinguish him in the field.

Madison Magazine named him a “best lawyer in Madison” in both the personal injury and medical malpractice fields. He is known as one of Wisconsin’s most experienced trial lawyers. The Kenosha, Wisconsin native paid for law school by working full-time jobs while also taking classes. After law school, Smoler established his own law firm, Smoler & Albert, along with partners who eventually went on to elected public office. He worked at Murphy & Desmond in Madison where he become a shareholder and eventually managing partner.

Smoler has argued five cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the past 10 years, a record that few lawyers can match. The cases have resulted in new law and new rights for people who were the victims of practitioners implanting false memories of childhood abuse.

He has achieved multi-million dollar settlements and verdicts for clients in false memory cases where practitioners caused vulnerable individuals to falsely accuse relatives of rape, incest and abuse. These “false memory” cases occupied Smoler and his law associates for several years.

He is part of a three-generation law family. His mother Harriet was one of the first 100 women to graduate from the UW Law School and his daughter Tedia practices criminal law in Milwaukee. The State Bar of Wisconsin featured this three-generation law family in the August 1998 issue of Wisconsin Lawyer.

His cases were ground-breaking in terms of opening up new avenues for victims of unscrupulous therapists to exercise their rights and sue. In one case, he successfully argued that the parents of a deceased patient had the right to sue for damages as a third party, and in another, that the statute of limitations should be extended if the victim was mentally ill. In a third he was successful in arguing that therapy records, generally considered privileged communication, could be unsealed and that privacy does not apply in cases where the therapist likely caused the patient to have false memories.

His most famous false memory case, Cool vs. Olson, was covered by the national and international press including CBS’s “60 Minutes” and also was discussed by columnists like Ann Landers and Charles Osgood.

Throughout his career, he has shown an entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and determination that clients in the firm’s Madison office value and appreciate.

Smoler and his wife and son live in Monona.