After working for an attorney in Superior, Wis. for nine months just after finishing law school, Johansen struck out on his own. “At first it was daunting,” he said. “I handled a lot of public defender cases. Also, attorneys that had conflicts would call me.” But Johansen has surmounted those obstacles. Today, his expertise covers a wide spectrum of law, including elder law and estate planning, family law, divorce and custody issues, and personal injury cases.
Johansen has always had strong ethical standards. He has defended those whom he felt were wrongly accused of criminal offenses. One of Johansen's clients was a passenger in a vehicle that was pulled over by a police officer. The officer checked the license plates, searched the car and charged the client with felony possession of marijuana. Upon hearing Johansen’s arguments, the judge agreed that the search was unwarranted and dismissed the case. Another client was charged with felony sexual assault, which Johansen felt was extreme. Thanks to his efforts, the jury acquitted his client of the felony. And his successes have not gone unnoticed. Johansen served as President and Vice President of the Douglas County Bar Association. He was also cited in Super Lawyers in 2010, and was among the tiny percentage of listed lawyers who are less than 40 years old and have less than 10 years of experience.
As a sole practitioner, Johansen says, “[I have] to think out of the box.” One of the main challenges he faces is “juggling the business end of the practice with the attorney side. There are expenses to be taken care of, and the [administrative] handling of cases.”
He has also invested in real estate and put his screenwriting ideas on paper, without assurances of a return on his investment. Calculating risk independently is one of the arts of the entrepreneur. Johansen's philosophy is that “even if it doesn’t work, it was still fun doing it.”
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