What did you want to be when you grew up?
It depended on the week. Some weeks it was a professional basketball player, a rock musician, or Purdue football coach, and some weeks it was something completely different. Funny enough, a lot of those childhood ambitions never left. These days I coach youth basketball, still play guitar, and as you can see, routinely go to Purdue football games. I didn’t end up on stage, on a basketball court, or even on the sideline at Purdue football games, but I’ve learned you don’t have to choose just one version of yourself. Being an attorney turned out to be the job that lets me keep all the others.

What made you want to be an attorney?
My inspiration was my father. He grew up in Mooresville, IN, a rural community at the time, and he comes from a long line of people who worked hard for everything they had. He never finished college, but that didn’t stop him from building a career as a Certified Financial Planner, which he still pursues in Indianapolis. Growing up, I watched him sit down with families and help them plan for retirement, for their kids’ futures, and for the businesses they had spent their lives building. He took that trust seriously, and he showed me that helping people protect what they’ve worked for is honorable work. Along the way, I noticed how often those conversations also needed a lawyer: a will had to be written, a business needed the right structure, a plan that had to hold up when it mattered most. That’s when I knew what I wanted to do. In many ways, my practice today is the legal side of the work my dad has done my whole life. What kept me in it is the variety of problems you get to solve. Over the past 15 years, my practice has covered corporate and securities work, tax, trusts and estates, Medicaid planning, and litigation across Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee. The common thread is that clients come to you at the most important moments for their families and their businesses. A founder is raising capital. An owner is planning a succession. A family is trying to protect what they’ve built. Being trusted with those moments is what drew me to the profession, and it’s still what I love about it.

Tell us about an important lesson you’ve learned during your law career.
The best lawyering happens before there’s a problem. Early in my career I handled a lot of disputes, and many of them traced back to a shareholder agreement that was never signed, a succession plan that was never written down, or an estate plan that didn’t account for the family business. Litigation taught me where documents fail. That has made me a far better planner because I draft everything now with the question, “How would this look in a courtroom?” in my mind. The other lesson is to never stop learning. I am constantly looking at taking additional CLEs, reading on my area of law, and always doing more than the state bar requirements for continuing legal education.

What are your goals this year as Chair?
I have three priorities for the group this year. First, I want our programming to address what our clients are actually facing. Currently, one of the biggest issues in my practice, and in our region, is ownership transition. Many closely held businesses in the area were built by owners who are approaching retirement, and the transfer of those businesses will be one of the largest in history. I’d like to offer practical sessions on succession planning, buy-sell agreements, and sell-side M&A for the lower middle market. 
Second, I want us to lead on technology. AI is changing how corporate work is completed, from due diligence to drafting, and lawyers need practical guidance on using it responsibly and effectively. Third, I want to build bridges. Corporate clients rely on teams that include their attorneys, CPAs, financial advisors, and bankers. I’d like to create opportunities for our members to connect with those professionals, and with each other across firm sizes and across the river. Our corporate bar is strongest when solo and small-firm practitioners, in-house counsel, and large firm lawyers are all in the room together. That’s especially true for newer attorneys looking to build their networks.
Dan Perry is an attorney at Wood + Lamping LLP