Nathaniel (Nate) Cade, Jr.

Biography

Nathaniel (Nate) Cade, Jr. is an experienced trial lawyer counseling and assisting clients on limiting their liability exposure. He handles products and professional liability cases, as well as complex commercial litigation, construction law, and insurance defense matters. He also has handled patent litigation matters on behalf of clients.

Nate has had numerous trials, mediations, and arbitrations, throughout Wisconsin and the U.S., and has first-chaired more than two dozen bench and jury trials. He regularly defends and represents major companies and small businesses in defending them against frivolous lawsuits. Nate also has litigated numerous claims against insurers on behalf of corporate policyholders and has defended numerous E&O claims against architectural firms.

Nate has a wide-range of products liability experience, having served previously as regional counsel (responsible for 17 states) for a leading first tier automotive component manufacturer and representing one of the nation’s preeminent RV manufacturers. He also currently serves as Wisconsin counsel to a major medical device company. He previously served as local counsel for a Fortune 100 Company in lead paint litigation and was part of the trial team that obtained a defense verdict in 2007.

Nate represents Wisconsin lawyers charged with ethics violations and professional misconduct by the Office of Lawyer Regulation, an arm of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, with responsibility for regulating and disciplining lawyers. He serves as the Firm’s General Counsel because of his ethics and risk management experience. He lectures extensively on ethics, and has spoken on products liability, environmental law, and construction insurance law. Nate has authored many articles, which have appeared in publications such as the Bureau of National Affairs, Wisconsin Law Journal and Law360, and is the author of the Wisconsin Chapter for the American Bar Association’s (“ABA”) recently published book, The Law of Lawyer’s Liability.

Nate is a member of the Product Liability Advisory Council (“PLAC”), a non-profit association with over 100 corporate members representing a broad cross-section of American and international product manufacturers. In addition to these manufacturers, several hundred of the leading product liability defense attorneys in the country are exclusively invited to serve as sustaining (non-voting) members of PLAC.

He currently sits on the ABA’s ten member Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, which is tasked with writing ethics opinions and suggesting changes to the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Ethics. He also serves in the ABA’s House of Delegates, as a delegate from Wisconsin, where he is a member of the Rules and Calendar Committee. He also Co-Chairs the Products Liability Committee of the ABA’s Litigation Section. Nate previously served on the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Standing Committee on Professional Ethics for seven years, including three years as chair. He also served as a member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court Ethics 2000 Commission, which proposed revisions to the State’s Rules of Professional Conduct in July 2004. Nate also was appointed to the City of Milwaukee Code of Conduct Ethics Task Force (2002) by former Mayor Marvin Pratt.

Nate is a 2011 recipient of the State Bar of Wisconsin President’s Award. He was included on the 2005 Wisconsin Super Lawyers® list and as a 2007 Leader in the Law by the Wisconsin Law Journal. In July 2012, Nate was named one of the leading Milwaukee Litigation attorneys by M Magazine. He also was named to the 2012 Fellows Program of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD), made up of general counsels and managing partners from top law firms and in-house legal departments across the country.

Nate is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Bar Association (former board member), Wisconsin Association of African-American Lawyers, Thomas Fairchild American Inns of Court (Master of the Inn), and is a Past President of the Milwaukee Young Lawyers Association. He also was a member of the Milwaukee Barristers.

Nate earned a J.D. at the University of Michigan Law School, where he was the Associate Editor of the Journal of International Law and a quarter-finalist in the Campbell Moot Court Competition. He earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a columnist for The Daily Pennsylvanian and served as the mascot, the Quaker. Nate is admitted to practice in Wisconsin; U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth, Seventh, and Federal Circuits; and U.S. District Courts for the Eastern District of Michigan, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin, Southern District of Indiana, and Northern District of Illinois (including Trial Bar).

Education & Bar Admissions

Education

• University of Michigan Law School, J.D.
• University of Pennsylvania, B.A.

Bar Admissions

• Wisconsin
• U.S. District Court, Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan
• U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania
• U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (including Trial Bar)
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth, Seventh, and Federal Circuits
• U.S. Supreme Court

In the News

• 8/13/2012 - Nate Cade – Trial Victory
• 7/20/2012 - Nate Cade Contributes Chapter to ABA Book
• 7/11/2012 - Nate Cade appointed Division Director of Division V of the ABA Products Liability Committee Litigation Section
• 7/10/2012 - Nate Cade and Joseph M. Fasi II named “Leading Lawyers” in the area of Litigation
• 7/9/2012 - Nate Cade was interviewed for the Marketplace Morning Report
• 5/1/2012 - Nate Cade named to 2012 Fellows Program of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity
• 11/6/2011 - Nate Cade Quoted in ABA’s Litigation News
• 6/9/2011 - Nate Cade receives 2011 State Bar of Wisconsin President’s Award
• 6/3/2011 - Nate Cade presented “Daubert: Why Everyone Should Be Pleased We Have It”
• 3/23/2011 - Nathaniel Cade, Jr. has joined the firm