Life and Family: During the last ten years we finished putting our daughters Anna and Jenny Gassman-Pines
through college, Anna at Yale and Jenny at Wesleyan. (Anna's now a professor at Duke and Jenny's a lawyer in
Minneapolis.) We also made two weddings, which were fabulous and we have two great sons-in-law, one a doctor
and the other soon to be a lawyer. Because my wife, Roberta Gassman, was appointed in 2003 as the Secretary
of the Department of Workforce Development in the cabinet of Governor Jim Doyle and was extremely busy, I took
the lead in working on the weddings, so I learned a lot about linens, flowers and caterers. In the meantime, I
continued to have a very active practice as an attorney, still doing both criminal defense and civil litigation, as I
have since 1975. I am also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Wisconsin Law School. In 2005 I was
inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, which is a honor given to no more than one
percent of the lawyers in any state. Roberta and I have stayed physically fit, running, hiking and biking. We've
gone with friends on bicycle trips to Europe a few times. Last summer we went to Tanzania where we climbed Mt.
Kilimanjaro and then went on a safari in the Sergenti Plain and the Ngoromgoro Crater. I also do sprint triathlons
and run in a few 5Ks every year. I've stayed active in the Jewish community here and am serving a two year term
as President of the Madison Jewish Community Council, which is the Jewish Federation of South Central
Wisconsin.
Next 10 Years: During the next ten years I hope to acheive the following: staying healthy; hanging around with
grandchildren (We don't have any yet but we have a granddog and an grandbird; and, retiring and passing my
legal practice on to my younger partners and then teaching and traveling.
Favorite Memories: Some of my favorite memories: driving around with my friend Bruce Goldberg in his 1964
Chevy; playing intra-mural football; taking the combined English/History American studies course; leaving school
at lunchtime, against the rules, and driving to Burger King in my Dodge Dart station wagon with push button
automtic transmission that I bought for $50 from Mrs. Balcom; playing Uncle Arnie in "A Thousand Clowns."
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