Biographies

Attorney Nila Jean Robinson

Nila has tried complex cases throughout Wisconsin, representing clients on charges ranging from speeding to first degree homicide.

She has been a lawyer in the Fox River Valley since 1981, when she graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School. She initially engaged in a general practice with an emphasis in criminal defense, family, and personal injury. For many years, she focused almost exclusively in the area of criminal defense, practicing extensively throughout the State in both federal and state courts.  She has recently returned to family law work after an absence and finds that she enjoys the return to her roots.

Nila has lectured at seminars for the Wisconsin Academy of Trial Lawyers and for the Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. She has served for several years on the Board of the Wisconsin Association of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Counselors, in various community projects, and as a member of the Board of Directors for the Criminal Law Section of the State Bar. She has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and Chairperson of the District 10 Investigative Committee for the Board of Attorneys Professional Responsibility. She is a past president of the Outagamie County Bar Association. She was recently voted the best criminal defense attorney in the Fox Valley Area in a poll conducted of her fellow lawyers. Nila also regularly volunteers time on pro bono and reduced-fee cases. She was volunteer counsel in post-conviction proceedings for an inmate on death row in Georgia.

Nila received a liberal arts education from Wayland Academy, a private college preparatory academy, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Washington, where she studied foreign languages, comparative literature, and creative writing. Her early training in the humanities has been very useful in her daily work with persons facing challenges in their personal lives and confronting the emotional upheaval that goes with it. Nila has been able to use her proficiency in Spanish to communicate with her clients in their own language, although she continues to use translators in court, with witnesses, and for conferences in which absolute accuracy must be assured.

Nila lives in rural Shiocton with two cats: Virgil and Milton, and Jake, her Australian Shepherd, as well as an assortment of farm animals. She occupies her free time developing her second business of raising pastured Tamworth pork, free range chickens, ducks and geese, and free-range eggs, as well as working on her 80-year-old house, landscaping, gardening, and creative writing. Her poetry has appeared in several publications and in an anthology of collected verse. Her pastured pork has appeared in the freezers of discriminating gourmet cooks throughout the Fox Valley area, as well as being featured at Apollon Restaurant and at Niemuth’s South Side Market.

Investigator Gary Smith

Gary is equipped with a vast range of experience in investigation and trial support.

Gary grew up in Illinois where his father ran a research farm for Swift & Co. He moved to Wisconsin with his family after his father purchased a dairy farm in northern Wisconsin. He attended Bloomer High School and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Gary has worked in and directed loss prevention for over 25 years, as well as providing private investigation and security consultation. His former clients and employers include Montgomery Wards, Shopko, H.C. Prange, and Fleet Farm, as well as numerous Native American-owned casinos and Wisconsin-based small businesses and manufacturers.

Gary has held a private investigative agency license since 1988 and has owned and operated Employer’s Investigative Services, Inc., since 1994. Gary continues to provide loss prevention and human resource consultation to corporate clients, including work as a hearing representative in unemployment compensation and discrimination hearings. Gary also provides private investigation and litigation support to a group of private law firms. He is a member of the American Society of Industrial Security, is active in the local chapter, and has held various offices. He is a member of the Professional Association of Wisconsin Licensed Investigators, the Wisconsin Merchants Federation, the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce, and the Better Business Bureau.

Gary conducts the investigations personally.  He has debriefed clients, located witnesses, conducted interviews, and audited financial records in a wide range of complex, multi-witness cases. Our success at trial in many of the cases he has worked on can be directly traced to the fine work he has done to support our pretrial preparation and trial efforts.