Bye, Goff & Rohde is proud to announce that Partner Brian Laule has been named “Lawyer of the Year” for Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs in Eau Claire by Best Lawyers® for 2027 — his third time receiving this distinction, following previous honors in 2021 and 2023.
The announcement, made by Best Lawyers® on August 20, 2026, recognizes Laule as part of the 33rd edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, which this year honors 81,620 attorneys across 151 practice areas — representing only about 5% of practicing attorneys nationwide. Within each practice area and metropolitan region, only one attorney earns the additional “Lawyer of the Year” title, determined through Best Lawyers’ Purely Peer Review® methodology, in which currently recognized attorneys evaluate their peers’ professional performance.
“Being recognized by the very colleagues who see my work in the courtroom, case after case, means more to me than almost any other honor,” Laule said. “But awards have never been the point. The point is making sure that when someone walks into our office after the worst day of their life, they know someone is going to fight for them — not just process their case.”
For Laule, that conviction traces back to his father, who spent most of his career as Executive Director of Catholic Charities for a seven-county area south of metropolitan Chicago. A social worker by training who also taught philosophy, sociology, and anthropology at the college level, Laule’s father devoted his life to advocating for the poor and vulnerable.
“My father passed away shortly after I finished law school, but his influence never left me,” Laule said. “He worked tirelessly on behalf of people who didn’t have a voice of their own, and he did it with intellect, compassion, and an unshakable sense of purpose. I didn’t set out to practice personal injury law because of a single moment — it grew out of watching him show up for people who were hurting. That’s what I try to do for my clients every day.”
Laule’s path to the courtroom wasn’t a straight line. A lifelong interest in theater during his youth turned out to be more valuable trial preparation than law school itself, he said, teaching him that a jury trial is fundamentally a storytelling exercise built on authentic human emotion rather than legal jargon. That perspective has shaped his approach ever since: thorough investigation, rigorous preparation, and a refusal to settle for a “quick” resolution when clients deserve full justice.
That approach has translated into results. Laule has secured multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements for clients across Wisconsin and Minnesota, handling cases involving motor vehicle and recreational vehicle accidents, premises liability, workplace injuries, farm accidents, and dog bites. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Specialist through the National Board of Trial Advocacy, a member of the invitation-only American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), and has been named to Best Lawyers in America consecutively since 2019 and to Wisconsin Super Lawyers since 2020. In 2017, he received the Wisconsin Association for Justice’s Outstanding Young Trial Lawyer Award.
For anyone searching for the best accident lawyer in Eau Claire, Laule’s track record offers a clear answer: an attorney whose trial-ready preparation and client-first philosophy have earned both peer recognition and real results for injured Wisconsinites.
Outside the courtroom, Laule remains active in the Eau Claire and River Falls communities through his involvement with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwestern Wisconsin and the River Falls Rotary Club.
About Bye, Goff & Rohde
For more than 50 years, Bye, Goff & Rohde has represented injured clients throughout Wisconsin and Minnesota, with offices in River Falls, Eau Claire, and La Crosse. The firm’s partner attorneys are board-certified through the National Board of Trial Advocacy and handle personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis, offering free consultations to prospective clients. Because serious injuries deserve serious lawyers, Bye, Goff & Rohde is committed to being Wisconsin Strong for the Wronged.
For a free consultation with the best personal injury lawyers in Wisconsin, call or text Bye, Goff & Rohde at 715-425-8161.