Please provide a brief description of your professional background and your legislative district.
I am a 2001 Marquette Law graduate. I practiced law in a large firm setting representing hospital and physician practices, and later started my own general practice in Wauwatosa while serving as an alderman in that city. My district includes Wauwatosa, West Allis, West Milwaukee, Elm Grove and parts of Milwaukee and Brookfield. It is a district of the moderate center, one that values ideas over ideology.
How has your legal career/legal studies shaped your experience in the state legislature?
The practice of law involves listening, service, and problem solving. The legislature benefits from these qualities when they are expressed. Training as an attorney is also enormously beneficial in considering, drafting, and redrafting legislation.
What current pieces of legislation are you working on that might be of interest to the State Bar of Wisconsin?
Senate Bill 182, which increases the statute of limitations on intentional torts from two years to three years, making it consistent with the three year negligence limit. In 2004, two people who were injured on a motorcycle when delinquents stretched plastic wrap across a road had their case thrown out of court. This bill addresses that. I have also been strongly against any effort to tax legal services.
What would you identify as the major issues/challenges facing the justice system?
Overall lack of funding and neglect of the court system. High turnover of ADAs and inadequate commitment to state public defenders.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Go Brewers.
Rotunda Report is a new newsletter, issued once every two weeks, from the State Bar of Wisconsin that highlights legislative, judicial and administrative developments that impact the legal profession and the justice system. It is produced by the Bar’s Government Relations Team and is distributed free to attorneys, public officials and others who help shape public policy in Wisconsin. We invite your suggestions to make the Rotunda Report more informative and useful and we encourage you to visit our website for the most current information about justice-related issues.
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