Joseph P. Hildebrandt is a retired partner of Foley & Lardner LLP, where he brought more than 35 years of extensive experience to assist clients in business law, finance, securities, and real estate matters. He was founder and chair of the Private Equity & Venture Capital Practice and a member of the Transactional & Securities Practice and Technology Industry Team. In addition to general corporate and real estate clients, he represented and counseled new businesses and developing companies, including high technology, biotechnology, and other rapid growth companies, in matters of structuring, strategy, and venture capital financing. After practicing in New York and Milwaukee, he helped open Foley & Lardner’s Madison office in 1976, and represented clients in over 300 private placement offerings.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin – Madison with a degree in finance, investment and banking, Joseph then attended Harvard Law School and simultaneously earned a law degree from Harvard and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin.
Joseph has been vice president of an investment brokerage firm and manager of a hedge fund, and is managing director of two venture capital funds.
Joseph served by appointment on several Wisconsin Securities Commissioner’s committees and as chairman of the Wisconsin Secretary of State Improvement Committee. He has also participated in drafting Wisconsin legislation for partnership, corporation, LLC, venture capital, tax credit and securities laws. He was co-organizer and president of the Wisconsin World Trade Center-Madison, Inc., and co-organizer, officer and director of Downtown Madison Partners, Inc., and The Boys and Girls Club of Dane County, Inc. Joseph has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America® for over 10 years in the areas of corporate governance and compliance law, corporate law, securities law, and venture capital law. He was also named to the 2007 list of Wisconsin Super Lawyers by Law & Politics Media, Inc., for his securities and corporate finance work.
In addition to his practice, Joseph was also active as president or chairman of the Madison Repertory Theater, the Red Triangles Foundation, Wisconsin Harvest, Inc., and Invest Wisconsin, Inc. Joseph was awarded the first national Lynford Lardner Community Service Award, the Madison Catholic Women’s Club Christian Achievement Award, and the Madison Community Foundation Individual Excellence Award.