Dunn County Board appoints James McMenomy as new corporation counsel
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Dunn County Board has appointed James McMenomy as the new corporation counsel.
Dunn County Corporation Counsel Nick Lange is planning to retire in early January of 2025, and the Dunn County Board, based on a recommendation from the executive committee, appointed McMenomy at the September 18 meeting.
According to the background information with the resolution, McMenomy began working in the corporation counsel’s office on September 23.
The corporation counsel’s office has an assistant corporation counsel vacancy. With a start date in September, McMenomy would be able to cover some of the duties for the vacant assistant corporation counsel position, and the September start date also would allow for an overlap for orientation and transfer of leadership between Lange and McMenomy, the resolution states.
McMenomy told the Dunn County Board that he and his wife, Mary, had moved to Wisconsin in 1997.
McMenomy said he had told his wife that they would be living in Wisconsin for two or three years, and then they would move back to the Twin Cities.
“Twenty-seven years later, and I have not quite kept my promise,” he said.
“We fell in love with the area,” McMenomy said
The McMenomys have six children, three girls and three boys, and the girls are now “out of the house now,” he said.
McMenomy’s first job as an attorney was with Menards in 1997.
“I am excited for the opportunity (in Dunn County),” he said.
While he was in college, McMenomy said he had minored in political science and had intended to work for government.
Larry Bjork, county board supervisor from the Town of Spring Brook, asked where McMenomy had gone to law school and if there were particular classes he had taken that would prepare him for the position of corporation counsel.
McMenomy said he had taken two different classes in law school that he thought might helpful: municipal law and state and federal law.
He noted that he had graduated from William Mitchell College of Law in 1996.
The Dunn County Board unanimously approved appointing McMenomy on a voice vote.
Kristin Korpela, county manager, said one of the county board supervisors should ask McMenomy a technical question so he could get an idea about serving as corporation counsel.
Lange said he was not going to ask a question but that he would answer a question that had been asked.
“There is nothing you take in law school that prepares you for (serving as corporation counsel),” he said in a dry tone of voice.
Lange has served as corporation counsel in Dunn County for a number of years.
Prior to serving as corporation counsel, he served as assistant corporation counsel when Scott Cox was Dunn County’s corporation counsel.
Scott Cox then served as corporation counsel in St. Croix County and recently retired.
After graduating from Boyceville High School in 1981, Lange attended UW-Eau Claire for a year, then joined the United States Army.
He served in the Military Police Corps for three years and was honorably discharged in 1985.
Following his discharge, Lange returned to UW-Eau Claire and received a degree in Criminal Justice in 1989.
After graduating from college, he attended William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, and received his law degree in 1992.
