Richard C. Yde, Partner

Practice 

Dick joined Stafford Rosenbaum LLP in 2001 after serving 14 years as the City Attorney for the City of West Bend. His practice is focused on government law, with a special emphasis on matters relating to land use and development. He has experience involving: 

• Litigation of issues involving annexation, eminent domain, incorporation, land division, property taxes, razing buildings, special assessments, municipal utilities, and zoning.  For example, Dick has provided clients with victories in trial and appellate courts in cases involving the right to put city sewers in town roads and to put recreational trails across railroad rights-of-way.
• Negotiation of development agreements and intergovernmental agreements and negotiation and administration of public construction contracts. In one case, Dick negotiated a one word change in a state highway construction contract, changing “a” to “the”, and as a result saved a municipal client $800,000 at the end of a $5.7 million project.
• Property tax assessments including presenting cases before boards of review and representing boards of review in trial and appellate courts.
• Condemnation including large scale projects requiring acquisition of many parcels, both urban and rural; acquisitions under both secs. 32.05 and 32.06, Wis. Stats.; easement and fee acquisitions; strip and total parcel acquisitions; litigation of condemnation cases; relocation benefits.
• Real estate development including large and small scale development agreements; tax increment districts; redevelopment districts; Brownfield development; real estate sales, purchases and leases; special assessments; platting.
• Land use including zoning, variances, conditional uses, erosion control, stormwater management, Smart Growth, comprehensive planning. For example, Dick was able to save an individual client from the cost of taking a municipality to court to prevent it from removing the client’s building by finding a defect in the adoption of a zoning ordinance that would have otherwise permitted the removal of the building.

Dick is admitted to practice in Wisconsin. Click here for Dick's lawyer rating.

Education

University of Wisconsin Law School (J.D., 1979)

University of Wisconsin – Madison (B.A., 1973)

Professional Recognition and Awards 

Selected by peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America (since 2007).

Selected by peers as a Wisconsin Super Lawyer for his work in government/cities/municipalities law (since 2007).

Selected by peers as a top lawyer in municipal law (Madison Magazine, January 2005).

Teaching Experience 

Dick teaches at seminars for professional and municipal organizations, including the League of Wisconsin Municipalities’ Assessors Institute and Municipal Attorneys’ Institute, the UWGB Clerks and Treasurers’ Institute, and the Wisconsin County Mutual Insurance Corporation’s Corporate and Defense Counsel Conference. 

He has served as a faculty member for the Lawyering Skills Program at the University of Wisconsin Law School. He has also lectured as an Adjunct Professor of environmental law at Northland College. 

Professional Memberships and Activities

American Bar Association (Environment, Energy and Resources Section, and State and Local Government Law Section)

State Bar of Wisconsin (Administrative and Local Government Law Section, Environmental Law Section, and Labor and Employment Law Section)

Dane County Bar Association

League of Wisconsin Municipalities Attorneys Section, Member and Past President and Secretary

International Municipal Lawyers Association