Ms. Howell's practice focuses on distribution-related matters, including litigation and counseling in connection with dealership terminations, antitrust and pricing matters, trade secret misappropriation and non-competition contracts, and automobile dealer/manufacturer relationships. Her experience also includes general business litigation, closely-held corporation/limited liability company shareholder disputes, eminent domain actions, constitutional litigation and class action defense.

She is a regular speaker at and currently chairs the firm's annual Law of Product Distribution and Franchise Seminar. Ms. Howell is a co-author of the CCH Product Distribution Law Guide, an editor of the Guide's second edition and has published several articles on the law of product distribution.

Ms. Howell is admitted to practice in Wisconsin and before the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and belongs to the Dane County, Western District of Wisconsin, State of Wisconsin, and American Bar Associations.

Ms. Howell earned her B.A. in 1984, with honors, from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and graduated, with high honors, in 1989 from the University of Wisconsin Law School. While studying law, she was elected to the scholastic honorary societies, Phi Beta Kappa and the Order of the Coif, and served on the Wisconsin Law Review as a member of the editorial board and as note and comment editor.

She is currently the president and member of the board of directors of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Western Wisconsin Chapter, and a member of the board of directors of the Fund for Campus Servant Leadership. She was a commissioner of the Kegonsa Sanitary District of the Town of Dunn, Wis., for 14 years, serving as president and secretary of the commission. Ms. Howell has been active in several community organizations, including as a member of the board of directors of the Stoughton Youth Hockey Association and in various capacities with the Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel and the Student Center on the UW-Madison campus.