About William Joseph
William Joseph Maddix has spent a career moving between trial courts and appellate benches. He trained in federal appellate practice early, then returned to private practice where he has built a varied docket. His work record traces steady involvement in jury trials and appellate briefs.
Maddix studied at the University of Iowa. Soon after law school he accepted a federal clerkship. In 1987 he served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Jerome Farris on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. That early exposure to appellate procedure and opinion writing shaped his approach to litigation.
After his clerkship Maddix joined Faegre & Benson as an associate in 1988. A year later he co-founded Hanson & Maddix, and he served there as founder and partner beginning in 1989. He later appears as a partner at Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P. in 2003. Records also list him founding a solo practice under the name William Maddix, Lawyer at Law first in 1997 and again in 2014, reflecting shifts between larger firms and independent practice over the years.
Maddix is admitted in state and federal courts across multiple jurisdictions. He holds admission in Minnesota and Wisconsin and has standing to appear before the Eighth and Ninth Circuits. That combination of trial-court work and appellate admissions has allowed him to present arguments at different levels and to follow cases from jury verdicts through appeals.
His professional memberships cover a long span. He has been a member of the Minnesota Association for Justice since 1992 and served on the Minnesota Civil Jury Instruction Guide Committee as part of its Professional Negligence Advisory Committee beginning in 2012. He joined the Iowa Association for Justice in 2013 and is listed as a member there currently. Earlier in his career he was active in groups such as the American Association for Justice, Minnesota State Bar Association, Hennepin County Bar Association, Wisconsin Association for Justice and the Wisconsin State Bar Association during the 2003–2014 period. He also participated in a Pro Bono Consortium assembled for litigation following the Interstate 35 bridge collapse from 2007 to 2010.
Today he practices under the name William Maddix, Lawyer at Law. His practice has combined appellate advocacy and civil trial matters, including professional negligence work, and he continues to accept matters that reach both trial and appellate stages.
