After graduation, he was a faculty member at the University of Notre Dame, where he taught film and television history.

He received his Juris Doctor in 1998 from the University of Wisconsin Law School, graduating Order of the Coif.

He served as a law clerk for Judge David G. Deininger of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals from 1998 to 1999.

From 1999 to 2014, he had been a shareholder at the Wisconsin law firm of Godfrey & Kahn, S.C., where he was a member of the litigation and intellectual property practice groups and led the firm's intellectual property litigation working group.

[5] On February 6, 2014, his nomination was reported out of committee by a voice vote, with 2 senators recorded as “no”.