Minnesota Lawyer
When Remele began practicing in the 1970s, he says, “It was still routine to learn the skill of being a trial lawyer, and you weren’t really focused on the nature of the case because specialization hadn’t taken hold.” As a result, he says, “I’ve tried almost every kind of civil case you can try.”
In the ’80s, Remele began a four-year rotation on the King County Bar Association, serving as secretary, treasurer, and president. “I focused on issues starting to become more prevalent in the profession,” he says. “Mainly all the economic changes and pressures on lawyers.”
After his time on the King County Bar Association, he completed the same rotation on the Minnesota State Bar Association, serving as president in the ’90s. While working directly with the American Bar Association and other state bar association presidents, Remele says, “I continued to work on issues that directly affect lawyers and the profession. I think running that dialogue at a higher level and helping lawyers navigate through those issues was helpful.”
Remele has since focused on professional liability for attorneys, employment law, and business law. Over the years, he secured a $50 million verdict for an improperly dismissed CEO and $800 million for a computer company after their trade secrets were stolen. He also helped represent about 100,000 farmers across the Midwest in a case where a company knowingly sold corn seeds not accepted in China, ultimately securing roughly $1.5 billion.
Remele now considers himself semi-retired and is quick to credit his colleagues with much of his success over the years. “I had a lot of really good mentors. And as I built my own law firm, I’ve had a number of partners and lawyers who were wonderfully supportive,” he says. “That’s really the key to any trial lawyer’s success — the help and support they have around them.”
Read more about Minnesota Lawyer’s superb class of Attorneys of the Year for 2022 here.
