New Hires, Promotions, Partners

Jamie B. Barwin, Chicago-Kent 2013, has joined the Milwaukee office of von Briesen & Roper s.c. as a shareholder in the Trusts and Estates Section. Barwin is also a licensed CPA in Wisconsin and Michigan. She focuses her practice on estate planning, probate and estate administration, business and corporate planning, special needs planning, and tax matters.

Corey Swinick, Marquette 2017, and Drew Trevino, Marquette 2017, have been elected as partners with Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, both in the Milwaukee office. Swinick is with the Labor and Employment Practice Group and advises businesses on all aspects of the employment relationship. He assists human resources professionals, in-house counsel, and managers on matters from hiring through termination, including disability leave, misclassification issues, employee misconduct, and other disciplinary matters. Trevino is with the Personal Injury and Property Damage/Product Liability Practice Group and handles commercial disputes, professional negligence, personal injury, and product liability matters. He represents clients in trial and appellate courts and is often appointed as panel counsel for complex cases. He also manages cases related to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Benjamin W. Jonas, Indiana Univ.-McKinney 2013, has been promoted to shareholder with Borgelt, Powell, Peterson & Frauen S.C., Milwaukee. Jonas continues to concentrate in automobile liability, construction defect litigation, insurance coverage, premises liability, professional liability defense, and tort litigation.

David P. Hollander, U.W. 2017, and Clementine Uwabera, Florida State University College of Law 2014, have been promoted to partner at Stafford Rosenbaum LLP, Madison. Hollander is a trial and appellate litigator who has represented clients in a variety of complex disputes in several states. His practice focuses on shareholder, insurance coverage, real estate, intellectual property, and election and political law litigation. Uwabera is an experienced litigation and government attorney who focuses on municipal defense, insurance defense, products liability, commercial disputes, personal injury matters, and wrongful death claims.

Mason A. Higgins, U.W. 2022, and Scott J. Smith, Valparaiso 1996 magna cum laude, have joined Stafford Rosenbaum. Higgins is a litigator with a focus on representing businesses, financial institutions, municipalities, and their insurers through civil and bankruptcy disputes. Smith practices business law with a special emphasis on contracts, transactions, tax law, and real estate.

Christopher Vandeventer, Marquette 2022 magna cum laude, has joined Milwaukee-based Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown LLP with the firm’s civil litigation team. Previously, Vendeventer represented insurance companies and their insureds in litigation throughout Wisconsin.

Mergers, Relocations, New Offices

MacGillis Wiemer LLC has opened offices at 507 Bruce St. #201, Verona, Wis., and 130 W. Wisconsin Ave., Kaukauna, Wis. The following attorneys have joined the firm. Marisol González Castillo, U.W. 2018, is an associate at the Madison office and practices personal injury law. Brendan P. Matthews, U.W. 2009, is a partner at the Milwaukee office and represents first responders.

Danielle M. Schroder, U.W. 2011, is a partner at the Madison office and practices personal injury law. Tom C. Sucevic, Marquette 2021, is an associate and focuses his practice on representing police officers.

Carley N. Windorff, St. Thomas 2012, is a partner in the firm’s northeast Wisconsin locations and represents first responders, including police and firefighter unions.

Sean E. Lees, Marquette 2015, and Kimberly A. Reklau, Univ. of Illinois Chicago 2007, have been promoted to partner at MacGillis Wiemer. Lees represents firefighters, police officers, and other first responders throughout Wisconsin. Reklau represents clients in a wide variety of family law matters.

Menn Law Firm Ltd. has affiliated with the Chilton law firm, Twohig Rietbrock Schneider Halbach S.C. Their joined operations, under the Menn Law Firm name, will operate from the law offices located at 102 N. Madison St. in Chilton, the principal office of Twohig Rietbrock Schneider Halbach S.C. for over 40 years. Twohig Rietbrock Schneider Halbach S.C. has focused on the business, real estate, title insurance, estate planning, and probate needs of clients, which include farms and agribusiness.

Appointments, Elections

The Hon. Audrey K. Skwierawski, Georgetown 1992, has been appointed Director of State Courts by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. She was in this position on an interim basis starting in August 2023. Previously, Skwierawski was a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge. She began her law career in a private law firm and then served in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office for 14 years, supervising the domestic violence unit. In 2008, she became the coordinator for the city of Milwaukee’s Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. In 2011, she joined the Wisconsin Department of Justice where she served as the Violence Against Women Resource Prosecutor under Attorneys General J.B. Van Hollen and Brad Schimel. In the attorney general’s office, Skwierawski also co-led a statewide effort to develop protocols for processing Wisconsin’s untested sexual assault kits.

Peter M. Young, Marquette 2009, was installed as the president of the Wisconsin Association for Justice during the association’s annual meeting in Milwaukee in December. Young is the managing partner of the Wausau, Stevens Point, and Rhinelander offices of Habush Habush & Rottier S.C. He represents clients injured as a result of automobile accidents, defective and unreasonably dangerous products, nursing home negligence, premises liability, and general negligence. Young has held a Wisconsin commercial driver’s license with various endorsements for over 20 years, which gives him unique insight concerning personal injury claims involving commercial motor vehicles, dump trucks, and semi tractor-trailers.

Authors, Speakers

Authors of the recently revised Wisconsin Discovery Law and Practice (State Bar of Wis. 6th ed. 2023) are the following: Ryan M. Billings, Harvard 2004, Kohner, Mann & Kailas S.C., Milwaukee; David S. Blinka, U.W. 2012, Habush Habush & Rottier S.C., Madison; Bryan Cahill, U.W. 2005, Godfrey & Kahn S.C., Madison; Stuart J. Check, Marquette 2015, Kravit, Hovel & Krawczyk s.c., Milwaukee; Timothy W. Feeley, Marquette 1992, Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman P.C., Milwaukee; Robert L. Gegios, U.W. 1981, Gegios Law, Milwaukee; C. Kai Hovden, U.W. 2017, DeWitt LLP, Madison; Robert L. Jaskulski, Marquette 1988, Habush Habush & Rottier S.C., Milwaukee, Waukesha & West Bend; David E. McFarlane, U.W. 1976, Bell, Moore & Richter S.C., Madison; Laurel C. Montag, Marquette 2022, DeWitt LLP, Brookfield; Richard Orton, U.W. 2012, Gass Turek LLC, Milwaukee; and Matthew Stippich, Marquette 1997, Digital Intelligence, Milwaukee.

Awards, Degrees, Honors

Christine Rew Barden, Indiana Univ.-McKinney 1995, has earned the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP®) designation from the American College of Financial Services. Barden is a shareholder in the Trusts and Estate Practice and chair of the Family Office Services Group with Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c., Madison. Barden focuses her practice on working with individuals to plan for the ultimate disposition of wealth according to the goals and ambitions they have for their families and communities and incorporates in her estate planning practice strategies for clients to use philanthropic tools, including charitable trusts, private foundations, donor-advised funds, and charitable gift annuities.

Jesse Blocher, Marquette 2006 summa cum laude, received the President’s Award at the Wisconsin Association for Justice’s (WAJ) annual meeting in Milwaukee in December. The President’s Award is given to a lawyer whose advocacy has resulted in an outstanding state-wide impact on the practice of law. Blocher is a shareholder with Habush Habush & Rottier S.C. and practices in the Waukesha office. He is dedicated to representing people injured by the negligence of others in a wide variety of cases from automobile collisions to complex product liability claims. Blocher volunteers with several organizations, and he is a member of the board and co-chair of the amicus committee of the WAJ.

Jason Knutson, U.W. 2000, received the Marcus S. Miles Volunteer Award at Centro Hispano’s 40th annual celebration in December. Centro Hispano is a nonprofit organization committed to strengthening the Latinx community in southern Wisconsin, by helping youth and families achieve personal and professional goals and foster connections within the community. Knutson is a shareholder with Habush Habush & Rottier S.C., practicing in the Madison office. His primary initiative with Centro Hispano is a free monthly legal clinic that provides legal guidance to community members. Habush staff members who are fluent in Spanish often help in translating, and the other Madison law partners help manage the caseload when needed.

Two articles that appeared in Wisconsin Lawyer in 2023 were recognized with TopLaw 50 awards (the top 10 articles from each TopLaw newsletter in 2023): Jesse Blocher, The Pugilist’s Guide to Brief Writing, May 2023; and John Fuller, Is It Time to Adopt Generative AI Into Your Legal Writing?, July 2023. Both appeared in the LitigationWorld Newsletter.

Retirements

James C. Herrick Jr., U.W. 1968, retired in September 2023 after practicing law for 55 years in Fond du Lac.

Ronald Hofer, Marquette 1981, has retired as the NJC Distinguished Professor Emeritus after 30 years’ teaching at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada. In that time, he taught more than 220 courses in 40 states as well as in Jamaica, Panama, the Russian Republic, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Switzerland, Guam, and the Federated States of Micronesia. He is the first faculty member to have been denominated a distinguished professor in the college’s 60-year history.

Aviva Kaiser, Buffalo 1979, retired as ethics counsel with the State Bar of Wisconsin in December 2023.

In Memoriam

John A. Bach, Marquette 1962, Milwaukee, Dec. 16, 1937 – Aug. 24, 2023.

Ralph M. Cagle, U.W. 1974, Madison, June 19, 1945 – Dec. 1, 2023.

Diane M. Ciskowski, Marquette 2004, Saint Francis, Dec. 27, 1935 – Aug. 29, 2023.

William F. Fox, Marquette 1961, Milwaukee, Nov. 4, 1936 – Dec. 10, 2023.

Steven R. Kohn, Univ. of Puget Sound 1977, Nov. 4, 1952 – Dec. 23, 2023.

Stanley L. Lind, Marquette 1966, Mequon, Sept. 15, 1941 – Sept. 20, 2023.

Gerry M. Miller, Yale 1960, Mequon, Aug. 14, 1935 – Dec. 27, 2023.

Gregory A. Ruidl, Marquette 1978, Jan. 19, 1952 – Nov. 21, 2023.

How to Place your Announcement

If you have moved, become a partner or an associate, or received a promotion or an award, let us know! Email announcements to: MembersOnly@wisbar.org. Notices about State Bar members in good standing are printed as space is available, and subject to editing. Writing guidelines are available here. Questions? Email us or call (608) 250-6127.

Photo placement: Submit a professional-quality photo. If the photo is used, the State Bar will issue an invoice ($35 each). Group photos are not accepted. High-resolution electronic photos are preferred.

Deadline: The first of the month preceding publication. For example, to place an announcement in the May issue, it must be received before April 1.

Ineligible announcements: Talks, speeches (unless they are of national stature), honors from other publications, and political announcements are not accepted.