State Bar welcomes 142 new members, U.W. Law School class sworn in
at Capitol
Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson welcomes one more lawyer to a
three-generation lawyer family. From left George K. Steil Jr. (father),
new lawyer Bryan George Steil, Karen R. Schaefer (sister), and former
State Bar president George K. Steil Sr. (grandfather).
On June 19, 142 U.W. Law School graduates were admitted to practice.
The new lawyers were welcomed to the profession by the Wisconsin Supreme
Court justices, U.W. Law School Dean Kenneth B. Davis, then State Bar
President Steve Levine, and Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners Director
John E. Kosobucki.
Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson presided over the four
ceremonies. Justices Ann Walsh Bradley, N. Patrick Crooks, David Prosser
Jr., and Jon P. Wilcox administered the oath in the supreme court
hearing room.
Following each swearing-in ceremony, Justice N. Patrick Crooks spoke
to the new lawyers. “I urge you not to become so involved in the
academic practice of law that you forget the purpose that law serves in
our society. Communicate with persons other than lawyers. Keep your eyes
and ears open. Read, listen, discuss, converse, be interested and
concerned, there is more to being a lawyer than being named one. Law is
not an end in itself, but is a means to an end. Our legal system is
simply an attempt to institutionalize our sense of justice and to free
us from the care of the unpredictability of arbitrary force.
Quoting Washington D.C. lawyer Edward Bennett Williams, Crooks told
the new lawyers, “constructing the peace is the most important
task that confronts mankind in this era. It can only be built with law.
For peace is the tranquility of order and without law there can be no
order.”
Speaking to judicial independence, Crooks said, “What judicial
independence means to me is neutral, fair, impartial, and nonpartisan
judges and justices – who are accountable, who make decisions
based on precedent on the basis of the U.S. and the Wisconsin
constitutions, not decisions made by whim, not decisions made by holding
your finger up to the wind to see which way the wind is blowing in terms
of popular opinion. We need you as lawyers to convey the importance of
judicial independence. We need judges and justices that are neutral,
fair, impartial, and nonpartisan. I assure you the great majority of
judges and justices that I know strive to meet that description. Please
help us to get out the message.”
The State Bar welcomes the following attorneys:
This brings State Bar membership to 22,641.
