Joseph A. Padway was born July 25, 1891 in England, immigrated to the United States in 1905, and to Milwaukee a year or two later. He received a law degree from Marquette University and was admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1912. During his career Padway established himself as one of the nation's premier labor lawyers. He founded the firm which became Padway, Goldberg, and Previant, and later, Goldberg, Previant and Uelmen. In 1915 he became general counsel for the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor and eventually became legal counsel for all American Federation of Labor (AFL) affiliates in the state. In this capacity he was involved with many of the significant labor disputes in the state including the Kohler Company and Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company strikes of 1934. As Wisconsin labor's legal advisor he also had substantial impact on much of the labor and social welfare legislation enacted in the state from the late 1910's through the 1930's. From 1938 until his death Padway served as chief legal counsel for the AFL and maintained offices in both Milwaukee and Washington, D. C. During this period he helped shape the Federation's legal responses to important labor legislation including the National Labor Relations Act and the Taft-Hartley Labor Act, and to the challenge of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
Padway was also active in Milwaukee and state politics. Until the mid 1920's he was associated with the Socialist Party, and thereafter with the Progressives. He served briefly as a state senator in 1925, and from 1925-1927 was a Milwaukee County Civil Court judge. He also served in 1931 as treasurer of the Republican state central committee, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1932, and from 1933-1937 was a regent of the state normal schools.
In 1912 Padway married Lydia Rose Paetow; they had one daughter, Ruth Doris (later Mrs. Leo Winshel). Joseph A. Padway suffered a stroke while addressing the 1947 AFL convention in San Francisco and died in that city on October 9, 1947.
Note: Based on biographical sketches which appear in Gary M. Fink (ed.), Biographical Dictionary of American Labor Leaders (1974); and the Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography (1960).
