Crystal Fieber, new city attorney

When Crystal Hermann Fieber, a Kohler resident, took the helm as Plymouth’s newly hired city attorney May 1, she felt right at home.

This is due to the fact that Fieber, 30, the daughter of Mary Daley and Dale Hermann, resided in Plymouth from the time she entered first grade until 1998, when she graduated from Plymouth High School. Fieber replaced Ron Damp, who spent 40 years as the city of Plymouth’s attorney and has retired.

Since August 1, 2006, Fieber has been practicing law with Hopp Neumann Hanke LLP, located in Sheboygan. She will maintain her office in Sheboygan, but she will be in her Plymouth office at 124 E. Mill St., from 1-5 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons or by appointment.

Meanwhile, other attorneys from her firm will be available at the Plymouth office from 1-5 p.m. on Monday, Thursday and Friday afternoons.

“There will be four attorneys from Hopp Neumann Humke that will serve as the Plymouth Municipal Practice team,” Fieber said. “We use a team approach, so somebody is always available. However, I have primary representation for the city.”

Attorney Mike Bauer will head up the team, and the other members, in addition to Fieber, are attorneys Carl Buesing and Paul Dirkse. In addition to Sheboygan County, the firm’s municipal team represents numerous cities, villages, towns and special interest units of government throughout the county.

Fieber noted that the firm is accepting new clients and that her specific areas of focus are municipal law, business law and employment law.

In court, she handles traffic prosecutions for several Sheboygan County municipalities – among them: the cities of Plymouth and Sheboygan Falls and the villages of Kohler, Oostburg and Random Lake.

The wife of Tim Fieber and mother of Avery, 1, said she is looking forward to returning to the Plymouth area.

“Being selected the city attorney is huge for me, having grown up in Plymouth and coming back to work for the governing body,” she said. “It is a privilege to be selected.”

She is enamored with her career. “Every day is different,” Fieber said. “I like working with people and feeling like I can make a difference and that I’m able to help them.”

However, she readily admits her work is not without its share of challenges. “The stress level is high,” she said.

“When I check out at the end of the workday, it’s hard to turn it off. I think about it late into the night.”

It was in her junior year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was majoring in political science and international relations, that she decided to study law.

“I was enrolled in a constitutional law class and was fascinated with a case I studied,” Fieber recalled. “It was Brown v. the Board of Education of a school in the South. The case regarded Afro-Americans’ right to equal education. This course really got into historical law and was so interesting, and helped me realize I wanted to become an attorney.”

So, after earning her Bachelor of Arts degree, Fieber entered law school at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo. She earned her Juris Doctor degree in 2006.

Because she returned to Wisconsin to practice law, she was required to take the bar exam. “Attorneys who graduate from a law school in Wisconsin – either UW-Madison or Marquette University – are not required to take the bar exam,” Fieber said. “This is a diploma privilege from the state.”

Fieber took the two-day bar exam in July 2006 and was sworn in by the Wisconsin Supreme Court three months later.

Meanwhile, she had been hired by Hopp Neumann Humke LLP. Then, last fall, city of Plymouth officials posted a notice that Damp was to retire. The notice solicited applications for the position.

“I was excited about the possibility of being selected for that position,” Fieber said.

After submitting her application, she was invited to Plymouth for two separate interviews – one with the Plymouth Common Council’s Personnel Committee and the other with the Committee of the Whole on March 16.

Mayor Don Pohlman then sent Fieber a congratulatory e-mail informing her she had been selected as Plymouth’s new city attorney.

“I was ecstatic, just thrilled,” she said.

She’s looking forward to being in Plymouth and to serving the city.

In her spare time, Fieber enjoys playing volleyball, running and working on home-improvement projects.

Note: To contact attorney Crystal Fieber, phone (920) 892-4700.