Stephen Sawyer, State Bar’s 71st President: ‘Strive to Be Humble and Kind’

Stephen Sawyer, Stevens Point, gives a speech at the Presidential Swearing-in and Celebration at the State Bar of Wisconsin’s 2026 Annual Meeting & Conference in La Crosse. Photos: Shannon Green. For more photos of the event, see the album on the State Bar’s Facebook page.

June 11, 2026 – Stephen Sawyer, who took the oath of office yesterday evening in La Crosse to serve as president of the State Bar of Wisconsin, encouraged a professional ethos of humility.

“We must remember that clients come to us often at their lowest points. They are usually in trouble and not concerned with our dignity or honor. They are concerned with being heard and understood,” said Sawyer at his Presidential Swearing-in and Celebration, which helped kick off the 2026 Annual Meeting & Conference at the La Crosse Center.

“A humble, kind lawyer listens. They treat their clients as equals, and they remember that we are stewards of justice, not just agents of profit.”

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn, who administered the oath of office to the new State Bar president, noted that Sawyer’s background is “defined by service,” from U.S. Navy pilot to his law practice in Stevens Point.

The challenges of smaller communities needing more lawyers “is not abstract” to Sawyer, Justice Hagedorn said, a concern the State Bar and the Supreme Court are addressing.

After Sawyer’s swearing in, he participated in the tradition of former State Bar presidents in attendance passing the gavel, from earliest in office to newest. The group included current American Bar Association (ABA) President Michelle Behnke.

Sawyer expressed his special thanks to his immediate predecessor, Dan Gartzke, for his “even leadership, your ability to stay calm under fire.”

Rescuer

Before Sawyer addressed the audience, his law partner and wife, Julie Sawyer, introduced him. The biography she wove from moments in his life ranged from lifeguard to helping clients through troubled circumstances.

He swam competitively at Nicolet High School in Fox Point. His first summer job was as a lifeguard.

Julie remembered sitting on a beach along the Gulf Coast. Red flags fluttered, warning people to stay out of the water.

Suddenly, Stephen sprinted toward the surf and dove in. “He pulled a very scared little girl out of the water before anyone else had time to realize what was happening.”

“That was the first rescue I ever saw. It was not the last,” she said.

In the U.S. Navy, Stephen became a helicopter pilot specializing in “VIP transport and search and rescue.”

After eight years in the Navy, Stephen attended the University of Notre Dame Law School. He returned to Milwaukee to work with Foley & Lardner and later at Quarles & Brady, contributing to corporate finance and financial institutions practice groups.

The 9/11 attacks, his wife said, made Stephen “rethink his law choices.”

Stephen chose to become a trial attorney. He started gaining trial experience in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office on the “misdemeanor team.”

Julie first met her future husband “in the courtroom in Milwaukee while I was attending Marquette University Law School, and I was a student intern with the State Public Defender program.”

“Before the court entered the room, Steve came over and started talking to us. He told us what the issues were, what he would get from the expert, what the standard of proof was, and how the case would proceed.”

“Steve did not need to do that. He didn’t know us. But he shared his experience and his enthusiasm for the law and the work.”

He spent a year and a half in the DA’s office, Julie said, before opening his own practice as a private criminal defense attorney. After they were married in 2004, the practice moved to Stevens Point. Julie continued service as an assistant public defender.

Julie described when she met one of her husband’s former clients. The client “wanted me to know that she had been so scared of the criminal justice system. She had gotten sick, and she was financially in trouble.”

Although “she was charged with writing checks she shouldn’t have written, … she was treated so well and with such courtesy and respect by Steve that she had to find me to tell me how grateful she was.”

“What I am grateful for is that Steve was her attorney,” concluded Julie, now Stephen’s law partner. “He helped her through one of the most difficult times in her life. … He put her mind at ease and he gave her hope.”

“He saw her as the whole person and not just as a criminal defendant, and he made sure that the prosecutor and judge saw that, too.”

‘An Honor’

The new president started his speech honoring the past presidents, “incredibly accomplished people – people who have created and shaped an organization that is the model of strength, vitality, and character that other state bar organizations look to.”

“It is an honor to pick up and carry that torch on its journey over the rocky, uneven, and at times unstable, terrain that is our current legal climate,” Sawyer said.

“It is also incredibly humbling to be entrusted with helping to guide the efforts of so many brilliant and dedicated souls in shaping the future of the law.”

Sawyer described the influence of his father, an ophthalmologist, who kept “copious notes about the patients jobs, hobbies, family members, and sports allegiances.”

“When a patient came to have their eyes examined by my father, my father wanted to be able to relate to each patient on a personal level, not just a professional one.”

This model of living, Sawyer described at his father’s funeral with an 1899 essay by John Walter Wayland, “The True Gentleman.”

Sawyer clarified that “the definition applies across the gender spectrum.”

This person’s “conduct proceeds from goodwill and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies, who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity.”

The person “speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy, whose deed follows his word, who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own, and who appears well in any company,” someone “with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.”

‘Virtue, Kindness, and Humility’

“What if we could find a way to make the honorable profession of law a place for this type of virtue, kindness, and humility? What would that look like?”

“There is a common misconception that in the law, kindness is a weakness and humility is a deficit,” Sawyer said.

“However, true, lasting success in this profession can and should be built on a foundation of humility and the building of authentic human connections.”

Humility has an intellectual aspect, Sawyer described. “A truly wise person understands the vastness of what they don’t know” and has “hearts and minds open to what we can learn from some of the most likely and unlikely sources.”

Whether from the senior partner and cardiologist to the shoe shiner, clerk, or janitor, “each has a particular set of skills and an accumulation of knowledge along with a unique perspective on life and living. Each has great value. Each is created in the image of God.

“Each has something to teach us if we listen – if we ask and truly listen.”

This ethic applies within one’s practice as well, Sawyer described.

“As lawyers, our job is not to be the star of the show. Our job is to serve our clients and the cause of justice.”

Respect – to colleagues, staff, and opposing counsel – “is free, yet it is our most valuable tool that we have. By being kind – even to those who are difficult – we don’t just win cases. We win respect.”

After thanking those present, including his family, Sawyer offered one last gem of advice.

“Success is temporary, but how you treat people lasts forever. Let your reputation be built not on how many people you conquered, but on how many people you helped. Let us strive to be humble and kind.”