‘Same Skills, Different Environment’

At 9 years old, Isabelle Faust fell in love with figure skating—“the kind you think of when you watch the Olympics: singles free skating with the jumps and spins,” says the Amundsen Davis litigator. Faust competed through high school, earning gold medal designations in five U.S. Figure Skating disciplines. That’s when most skaters quit, Faust says. “But I didn’t want to be done.” 

The only problem was UW-Madison didn’t have an intercollegiate team. So Faust helped start one, serving as captain for three seasons and growing the program exponentially. “And I can proudly say the Figure Skating Club of UW-Madison still exists today,” she says. Faust competed from 2008 to 2012, and the team made the national championships three times—an unlikely accomplishment for a small program.

“There are a lot of parallels between skating and being a litigator,” says Faust. Both hone performance and leadership skills, and intercollegiate skating is a team effort in which individuals get the spotlight, much like litigation. “It’s quite humbling to be out in front of a panel of judges, and in front of your peers and coaches and role models, just falling on the ice over and over again. But that leads to growth and success. It definitely teaches resilience. The consistent preparation and ultimate performance naturally transitioned to preparing legal arguments.” 

Skating also prepped her for courtrooms. “I’m very comfortable in these higher stakes, stressful, competitive environments. It was second nature to me. You need to know how to remain composed, get right back to it, and strategize to come back even stronger in the face of challenges. It’s using the same skills in a different environment.”

Faust has retired from the ice … mostly. She sometimes visits the rink near her office for a free skate, and often cheerleads her partner as he coaches skating teams. “I no longer experience the stressful parts of skating myself. I have my own stress in law firm life,” Faust says. She relieves it via yoga and Pilates, plus something she picked up during the pandemic: snowboarding. 

“My family and friends are like, ‘Maybe no tricks.’ They don’t want me to get hurt. Initially I agreed with them,” she says. “But now that I feel comfortable, I’m thinking, ‘I know how to be in the air and rotate.’ So I do think this coming season, we are going to try some tricks.”