On the Job
Attorney Doug Poland’s Practice
Attorney Douglas M. Poland is a partner in Stafford Rosenbaum’s Madison office. Doug’s practice focuses on appellate law and complex litigation, with emphasis on business, contract, and real estate disputes; election and voting rights law; environmental toxic torts; products liability; and consumer fraud lawsuits.
Doug has decades of significant experience in complex litigation matters in state and federal courts in Wisconsin, Illinois, and throughout the United States. He has served as lead counsel in trials before federal, state, and administrative courts, as well as in alternative dispute resolution proceedings. He is a member of the bars of the United States Supreme Court, Wisconsin Supreme Court, Illinois Supreme Court, and various federal appellate and district courts across the country.
Doug also counsels clients on regulatory and pre-litigation issues. Doug served as co-lead trial counsel for plaintiffs who successfully challenged the Wisconsin Assembly legislative districts before three-judge federal panels in 2012 and 2016, and is one of the members of the legal team that represented the respondents before the U.S. Supreme Court in Gill v. Whitford. Doug also served as lead counsel for plaintiffs in Lewis v. Bostelmann, who obtained a preliminary injunction in federal court extending the deadline to return mail-in absentee ballots in Wisconsin’s 2020 spring election by six days. Doug co-chairs Stafford Rosenbaum’s Election and Political Law practice group with Attorney Jeff Mandell. Doug’s election and political law work is so significant that he was recognized and featured in Loyola Law’s 2022 Magazine and in Wisconsin Super Lawyers 2023 Magazine.
Doug has been a Best Lawyer since 2010 in the practice areas of Commercial Litigation, Environmental Litigation, Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions (Defendants), and Product Liability Litigation (Defendants); the added honor of having a Best Lawyers Lawyer of the Year distinction has been awarded to Doug for 2021. He also has been named a Super Lawyer since 2012 in the practice areas of Business Litigation, Class Action/Mass Torts (Defense), Civil Rights, Environmental Litigation, and Products Personal Injury (Defense).
Doug’s Court Admissions
- State of Wisconsin
- State of Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
- U.S. Supreme Court
Doug’s Education
- Loyola University Chicago School of Law (J.D., 1994, summa cum laude)
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois/U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Judicial Extern to the Hon. Ilana D. Rovner (1992-1993)
- Northwestern University (B.A., 1988, departmental honors in History)
Doug’s Presentations and Publications
- The Past, Present, and Future of Wisconsin Legislative Maps, Middleton Democrats, March 19, 2024
- Spring Primary Election and Proposed Amendments Ballot Preview, Grassroots North Shore, March 17, 2024
- Spring Primary Election and Ballot Update, Verona Votes, March 6, 2024
- Author, “Understanding Proposed Amendments to the Wisconsin Constitution in a Faith Context,” Wisconsin Council of Churches, February 2024
- Developments in Election Administration and Access to Voting, State Bar of Wisconsin Constitutional Law Symposium, December 2023
- “Murphy v. Columbus-McKinnon Corporation: The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s First Interpretation of ‘Unreasonably Dangerous’ under Wisconsin’s New Product Liability Statute,” State Bar of Wisconsin 46th Annual Torts Update, September 2023
- Co-author, “Federal appeals court checks the legislature’s expanding power,” Wisconsin Examiner, November 19, 2019
- Co-author, “Partial Veto is a deliberate check on legislative power,” Wisconsin Examiner, Aug. 29, 2019
- “Democracy in the Balance: The Future of Gerrymandering and What It Means for Your Practice,” IADC Midyear Meeting, 2019
Doug’s Professional Memberships
- Litigation Counsel of America
- Fellow (2022-present)
- Downtown Madison, Inc.
- Board Chair (2019-2021)
- Board Vice-Chair (2017-2018)
- Board Member (2011-present)
- Chair, Ad Hoc Inclusiveness Committee (2015-2017)
- Chair, Transportation and Parking Committee (2012-2016)
- Chair, Bicycle Subcommittee (2011-2012)
- Madison’s Central Business Improvement District
- Board Member (2019-2021)
- James E. Doyle Inn of Court, Member, Programming Committee (2015-present)
- John Knox Presbytery
- Personnel Committee (2016-present)
- Presbytery Council, Chair (2015-16)
- Presbytery Council Member (2011-2016)
- Presbytery Council Technology Committee, Chair (2011-2016)
- Covenant Presbyterian Church
- Ruling Elder (2008-present)
- Chair, Technology Committee (2013-2016)
- Session, Ruling Elder Member (2008-2011)
- Vilas Neighborhood Association, Member, Edgewood Neighborhood Liaison Committee (2014-2018)
- Monroe Street Fine Arts Center
- Capital Campaign Committee (2019-2020)
- Board President (2012-2015)
- Board Member (2007-2015)
- City of Madison South Capitol District Planning Committee, Citizen Member (2013-2014)
- DRI Toxic Torts and Environmental Law Committee, Annual Seminar Program
- Chair (2010-2011)
