About Tim
Tim Bottaro trained first as a liberal arts student and then as a lawyer. He earned a B.A. from Creighton University in 1981 and took his law degree from the University of South Dakota School of Law, receiving a J.D. in 1983. Those credentials set the path for a long legal career in Iowa.
He joined the Iowa bar in 1983 and spent years building a practice rooted in trial work. In 1995 he became a partner at Vriezelaar, Tigges, Edgington, Bottaro, Boden & Lessmann Law Office. That partnership lasted through decades of litigation and client work. In 2023 he took on a partner role at Tigges, Bottaro, & Lessmann, LLP, continuing to practice from the same region and professional community.
Bottaro’s credentials include mediation training geared toward personal injury matters. He completed mediator training through Iowa Mediation Services and a Creighton University CLE program. The mediator certification complements his courtroom experience and gives him another tool when cases go toward settlement rather than trial.
His professional life has included steady involvement in state and local bar institutions. He has been a member of the Iowa State Bar since 1983 and joined the Iowa Association for Justice in 2002. He served as president of the Iowa Association for Justice from 2017 to 2018. He has also been active in the Iowa American Board of Trial Advocates, serving as its president beginning in 2021. Locally, he is a member of the Woodbury County Bar Association.
Bottaro participates in judicial-advisory work as well. He holds membership on the Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure and on the Iowa Supreme Court Advisory Committee concerning certain Civil Justice Task Force recommendations. Those roles have put him in conversations about procedural rules and civil practice reforms at the state level.
Colleagues describe him as a lawyer who balances trial experience and alternative dispute resolution skills. He has practiced in Iowa for decades and continues to handle litigation, mediations, and related courtroom preparation. His current practice is based at Tigges, Bottaro & Lessmann, LLP, where he focuses on civil litigation, including personal injury matters.
