Tell us a little bit about your career.
I have been in private practice my entire career. I began as an associate in a mid-sized Iowa firm, where I focused on corporate and business law. In a move to enable my wife to pursue further post-graduate education, I joined a small Kansas firm and engaged in a general law practice. I relocated to Des Moines, Iowa, where I have remained since and have found a highly rewarding career focused principally on business/corporate and banking/finance law. When the agricultural insolvency crisis struck Iowa in the 1980’s, I became deeply involved in creditors’ rights and bankruptcy matters on behalf of my lending clients and built a practice group of attorneys devoted to this area. As the insolvency crisis waned, my business and banking practice began to grow and in 1999, I joined my current firm, Nyemaster Goode, P.C., as a shareholder, practicing principally business, banking, and finance law. We are the largest law firm in Iowa with a broadly diverse practice and offices in three cities across the state.
Is that what you had planned when you started law school?
My undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa was in business, with a labor relations major. I thought I would become a labor lawyer, but that never materialized. My practice focus has been driven more by the opportunities presented to me and the drive to be successful with them, than by career design. My business background contributed significantly to my success in the practices I have developed over the course of my career.
However, interest in a career that provided continual growth set me on the road to law school at the University of Kansas. I have always viewed learning as a lifelong process, so I did not want my education to end when I left school. Lawyers I had met seemed inspired and satisfied with their jobs, and most important to me, they were always learning new things and meeting new people. Law practice has certainly contributed to this lifelong learning process.
