State Bar of Wisconsin​

We are a professional association for Wisconsin lawyers. The State Bar provides educational, career development, and other services to more than 25,000 members. We also provide public services, including attorney referrals, public education, and reduced-fee legal assistance for low-income state residents. Our mission is to improve the administration of justice and the delivery of legal services and to promote the professional interests of Wisconsin lawyers.

Website: https://www.wisbar.org/
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State Bar of Wisconsin​ Blogs

Agricultural Law & Rural Practice | Solo Small Firm & General Practice Section
Bottom Up | A WisLawNOW Podcast
Business Law Blog | Business Law Section
Children & the Law Section Blog | Children & the Law Section
Construction Blog | Construction & Public Contract Law Section
Criminal Law Section Blog | Criminal Law Section
Dispute Resolution Section Blog | Dispute Resolution Section
Elder Law & Special Needs Section Blog | Elder Law and Special Needs Section
Environmental Law Section Blog | Environmental Law Section
Family Law Blog | Family Law Section
Health Law Blog | Health Law Section
International Practice Blog | International Practice Section
Labor & Employment Law Blog | Labor & Employment Law Section
Litigation Blog | Litigation Section
Nonresident Lawyers Blog | Nonresident Lawyers Division
Public Interest Blog | Public Interest Law Section
Real Property Probate & Trust Law Blog | Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law Section
Sua Sponte | Appellate Practice Section
Taxation Law Blog | Taxation Law Section
WisBar Court Review
WisBar News

Blog Authors

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Lynne Davis And Devin Martin
Cheryl Furstace Daniels And Larry J. Martin
Dean R. Dietrich And Larry J. Martin
Margaret Wrenn Hickey And Larry J. Martin
Jeff M. Brown And Shannon Green
David W. Runke And Timothy M. Barber
Chief Justice Annette K. Ziegler

Latest from State Bar of Wisconsin​

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Oct. 8, 2024 – A 7-year pilot project that established circuit court dockets solely for large claim business and commercial cases in numerous counties will phase out,
under an order the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued Oct. 7, with three justices dissenting.In 2017, under then-Chief Justice Patience Roggensack, the Wisconsin Supreme Court initially established the “commercial court docket,” or business court, as a temporary 3-year pilot project rolled out in eight counties – Brown, Door, Kewaunee, Marinette, Oconto, Outagamie,…
Continue Reading Wisconsin Supreme Court Order Discontinues Business Court Pilot Project

Federally funded grant programs create meaningful impacts in the lives of individuals and communities. Many programs address acute local, national, or global concerns. Annually, the U.S. government funds thousands of programs with taxpayer funds. Grant funds have historically been awarded to governmental entities, institutions of higher education, health care and research institutions, and other charitable nonprofits. In recent years, a growing number of for-profit entities have become eligible to receive federal grant awards. For example, eligible agricultural employers were…
Continue Reading Revised Uniform Guidance Expands Access to Federal Grants

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Will AI replace lawyers? That’s one of the questions explored in the latest episode of Bottom Up, produced by the State Bar of Wisconsin. Co-hosts Emil Ovbiagele and Kristen Hardy welcome Hiriam Bradley, an attorney specializing in privacy and technology law.

The conversation explores Hiriam’s career path, the evolution of privacy law, and the intersection of artificial intelligence and privacy. They discuss the challenges legal professionals face in navigating developing laws, the importance of consumer awareness, and the regulatory…
Continue Reading Bottom Up Episode 22: Data Privacy and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Hiriam Bradley

On July 29, 2024, the American Bar Association (ABA) issued Formal Opinion 512 regarding the use of generative artificial intelligence tools.

The 15-page opinion addressed the use of generative artificial intelligence in the practice of law, focusing on the specific rules pertaining to confidentiality, communications, legal fees, competence, and other related rules.
What Is GAI?
First, it is important to know what generative artificial intelligence is, to understand the context of the ABA opinion.

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) has…
Continue Reading ABA Issues Formal Opinion on Use of Generative AI

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Byron B. Conway

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​Sept. 25, 2024 – By a vote of 58-37, the U.S. Senate today confirmed Green Bay attorney Byron B. Conway as a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Conway, who previously served on the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Board of Governors (2013-18), is a personal injury attorney and a shareholder at Habush Habush & Rottier.

He graduated from Marquette University Law School in 2002 and holds a…
Continue Reading U. S. Senate Confirms Byron Conway to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin

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New admittees take the oath in the 1:30 p.m. ceremony.

Sept. 26, 2024 – They are from Wisconsin and across the country – and the world, with one thing in common: On Sept. 23, 2024, all 66 individuals became Wisconsin lawyers.

In two separate ceremonies before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Sept. 23, they took their final steps, taking the Attorney’s Oath and signing the Supreme Court Roll Book.

Chief Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler and the other justices hosted…
Continue Reading Admissions: Welcome to 66 New Wisconsin Lawyers

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Former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Richard Sankovitz, a member of the Wisconsin Access to Justice Commission Board, requests the State Bar’s support for a petition that would increase the amount that lawyers must annually pay towards the Public Interest Legal Services Fund (PILSF), a Wisconsin Supreme Court assessment established in 2005.​ Sept. 24, 2024 – The State Bar of Wisconsin’s 53-member Board of Governors recently discussed a petition – filed by eight organizations – that would increase the annual court…
Continue Reading State Bar Board Discusses Petition to Increase Annual PILSF Assessment

Just about every business lawyer will negotiate commercial contracts on behalf of their clients. This can be daunting for a new lawyer, particularly because the client will frequently know more about what needs to be in these contracts than they do.

This article aims to demystify the process, providing practical tips and insights to empower new lawyers and attorneys new to business law to negotiate and counsel on commercial contracts with confidence and competence.
What is a Commercial Contract?
Continue Reading 101: How to Negotiate a Commercial Contract for Your Client

When my child, born female, entered the ninth grade in 2015, he began to experience profound feelings of gender dysphoria. This condition arises when there is a significant incongruence between an individual’s gender identity and their assigned sex at birth, resulting in substantial discomfort or distress. In less than a year, he was certain he was meant to be male. Many people have asked me if I saw this coming, and the truth is, I did not. My child…
Continue Reading What Parenting a Transgender Child Taught This Lawyer

In May 2024 in this blog, 1 my co-author Jenni Spies Karas and I warned that practitioners and judges should be mindful to cite the authority by which they are requesting or entering default judgment, pending the outcome of the Wisconsin Supreme Court case State v. R.A.M.

That caution has become a reality.

Courtney L.A. Roelandts, Marquette 2018, is the assistant managing attorney of the Children’s Court Guardian ad Litem Division of the Legal Aid Society of…
Continue Reading State v. R.A.M. and a Parent’s Right to Counsel in TPR Cases

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Sept. 10, 2024 – A party seeking health insurance coverage for autism-related medical treatment has lost an appeal at the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Midthun-Hensen v. Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, No. 23-2100 (Aug. 5, 2024). Beginning in 2017, Angela Midthun-Hensen and Tony Hensen asked their insurer, Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin, Inc., (Group Health) to cover speech therapy and sensory integration therapy for their autistic son. Group Health decided that neither therapy…
Continue Reading Seventh Circuit Upholds Decision Denying Coverage for Autism-related Treatment

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Sept. 9, 2024 – A county zoning ordinance requiring cellphone towers to be at least one-half mile apart is preempted by state law, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals (District IV) has ruled in
Savich v. Columbia County Board of Adjustment, 2023AP78 (July 18, 2024). In August 2020, Tillman Infrastructure, LLC (Tillman) and AT&T Mobility (AT&T) applied to the Columbia County Planning and Zoning Department for a permit to build a cellphone tower at a specific site on farmland…
Continue Reading Cellphone Tower Separation Ordinance Preempted by State Law

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Farm bankruptcies are down. Way down. The Numbers Wisconsin
led the nation in Chapter 12 reorganization cases in 2017, 2018, and 2020.
But no more. This reduction in filings is not limited to Wisconsin, however.
Chart 1, based on data from
uscourts.gov, shows Chapter 12 filings nationwide over the last five years.​



Chart 1: National Chapter 12 filings, 2019-23, from a high of 599 in 2019 to 139 in 2023.
Source: uscourts.gov. Click on image to…
Continue Reading Farm Bankruptcies Reach Record Low

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Sept. 6, 2024 – A plaintiff’s failure to honestly and meaningfully address a question of appellate jurisdiction under
28 U.S.C. section 2107 rendered his appeal frivolous, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled in
Upchurch v. O’Brien, 22-2541 (Aug. 6, 2024). As a result, the Seventh Circuit held, sanctions under
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 38 were appropriate. The Great Outdoors Timothy O’Brien and his wife Margaret owned a resort on Catfish…
Continue Reading Failure to Address Jurisdictional Issue Rendered Appeal Frivolous

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Aug. 29, 2024 – Whether the right to counsel had attached at a probable cause hearing wasn’t a settled matter of law, meaning an attorney wasn’t deficient when he failed to object to a lineup identification that occurred without counsel present, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals (District I) has ruled in

State v. Robinson​, 2020AP1728 (Aug. 6, 2024). On Dec. 18, 2017, a man walked into a U.S. Bank branch on West Capitol Drive in Milwaukee and slipped…
Continue Reading Failure to Object to Post-hearing Lineup Identification Not Deficient

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Aug. 29, 2024 – The FBI was not required to seek a warrant before obtaining cell phone data on an armed man heading toward the site of civil unrest because of exigent circumstances, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has held in
U.S. v. Karmo, No. 23-1082 (July 31, 2024). Civil unrest broke out in Kenosha on Aug. 23, 2020, after the police shot a Black man while attempting to arrest him. Michael Karmo and…
Continue Reading No Warrant Required for Cell Phone Data of Armed Man Heading Toward Unrest