Nov. 12, 2009 – Madison lawyer Jacquelynn Rothstein will be the next Board of Bar Examiners director, starting Jan. 4.

Rothstein succeeds John Kosobucki who left the BBE this spring.

The BBE is an agency of the Wisconsin Supreme Court charged with evaluating the skills, character, and fitness of lawyers seeking to practice law in the state. The BBE writes and grades the Wisconsin bar examination and it monitors lawyers’ compliance with continuing legal education (CLE) requirements. The supreme court directs the BBE to suspend law licenses of those who do not comply with CLE obligations.

Rothstein has previously served as legal counsel and an administrative law judge with the Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing. For approximately 17 years, Rothstein has worked for that state agency, which licenses and regulates 132 different types of credentials in more than 58 professional fields ranging from accountants to funeral directors. Lawyers are one group of professionals not licensed by the Department of Regulation and Licensing; that is the role of the BBE.

Describing the directorship “an exciting opportunity,” Rothstein said her new job will allow her to put her skills developed at the Department of Regulation and Licensing to use in a different way. The supreme court is responsible for the employment of the BBE director.

Work to do

In May, BBE Chair James A. Morrison outlined the work ahead for the next director.

Morrison noted the challenge of reducing the delays in approval of courses for CLE credit. He said that the approval process should also heighten the scrutiny of courses to ensure that they actually improve a lawyer’s professional competence, as mandated by   SCR 31.07.

The BBE is also examining the bar exam process – from the nature of the test, the sources of the questions, and the manner of grading – to ensure that its reliability in assessing applicants’ minimum competence to practice law, Morrison said.  Potentially affecting the BBE’s work on the bar exam could be the outcome of a federal lawsuit brought by graduates of out-of-state law schools alleging that the Constitution’s commerce clause forbids graduates of Wisconsin’s law schools from gaining a license to practice under SCR 40.03 without taking the bar exam required of them.  The suit, Wiesmueller v. Kosobucki, 07-CV-211, names the BBE as a defendant.

Background

Rothstein had taught English and social studies at a high school in Germantown, a suburb north of Milwaukee. But Rothstein said that her father, grandfather, uncle, and other family members were lawyers so it was not too surprising when she ended up at Marquette University Law School. After all, she notes, she had predicted in her eighth grade yearbook that she would ultimately be a lawyer.

Following graduation from Marquette where she was a John Hicks Research Fellow, Rothstein worked in private practice in Milwaukee with a focus on family, juvenile, and criminal law. She began working at the Department of Regulation and Licensing in 1992. From 1993 to 1999, she was also an administrative law judge at the Wisconsin Department of Administration-Division of Hearings and Appeals.

Among her civic activities, Rothstein has been a member of the board of directors for the Mental Health Center of Dane County and a member of the Walk for Research committee at the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Dane County.  She is presently a public commission member of the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education and a member of the board of directors at Friends of Yahara House.

Rothstein has also held many positions with the American Bar Association and the State Bar of Wisconsin. She is currently a deputy chair on the bylaws committee for the American Bar Association’s Government and Public Lawyers Division. She is a past member of the State Bar Board of Governors and past president of the State Bar Government Lawyers Division.