The great purge: A longstanding and annual tradition, Nancy Kopp purges old files and climbs in the recycling bin for a photo op.

April 16, 2025 – Most lawyers, regardless of their field of practice, are aware that circuit courts have commissioners who assist the judges in processing cases. Far fewer lawyers and even fewer non-lawyers know that the Wisconsin Supreme Court also has four commissioners. For the last 37 years, there has been one constant in the Supreme Court Commissioners' office – Nancy Kopp. After all of those years of dedicated service, Nancy called it a career on March 14, 2025.

Nancy grew up just outside Footville, located a few miles west of Janesville. After graduating near the top of her U.W. Law School class, she spent a year clerking for former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Bill Callow. She then took a litigation position with Foley & Lardner's Madison office. In 1987, after a former Commissioner passed away, Chief Justice Heffernan, on behalf of the Court, asked Nancy to fill the role.

Supreme Court Commissioners fulfill a different role than commissioners in the circuit courts. One of their primary tasks is to review and prepare memoranda with a recommendation to the court for all of the filings that seek to invoke the Supreme Court's discretionary jurisdiction (petitions for review, bypass petitions, original action and writ petitions, and certifications from the court of appeals). Over the last 37 years, Nancy wrote 10,101 of those memoranda, covering every facet of Wisconsin law. (Yes, she kept a numbered record of each case in which she wrote a memorandum to the Court.) Commissioners also write memoranda and draft per curiam opinions in attorney disciplinary and judicial disciplinary proceedings. Over the last nearly 25 years, Nancy has written scores of those draft opinions for the Court.

Although lawyers and the public do not see the names of Supreme Court Commissioners on any orders or opinions, Nancy worked behind the scenes over the last three decades on many of the Court's highest-profile cases, providing legal analysis and preliminary recommendations to the Court on whether to grant review. Nancy has also served, to a considerable degree, as the Court's institutional memory, often remembering how the Court had previously decided to handle some similar, but unusual situation. Chief Justice Annette Ziegler made the following comment about Nancy's impact: "Nancy has been a great asset to the Supreme Court, writing hundreds of concise and thoughtful memoranda every year. While the Court wishes her well in retirement, we will greatly miss her."

In addition to her full-time Commissioner position, Nancy has also worn several other hats during her career. She served for a number of years on the board of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Appellate Practice Section. In her “spare time,” Nancy also published several murder mystery novels. Since 2018, Nancy (in collaboration with Colleen Ball) has added historian to her repertoire, researching the life of Lavinia Goodell, Wisconsin's first woman lawyer. Her research resulted in a website devoted to Attorney Goodell: laviniagoodell.com.

Nancy plans to continue her research and writing on Attorney Goodell during her retirement. She has also already begun a new role, volunteering at the Kelch Aviation Museum in Brodhead, where a 1928 Packard that Nancy and her late father, Rudy Kopp, restored is also on display. In addition, Nancy plans to continue her travels to various parts of the globe, although, despite her colleagues' encouragement, she will not be trekking in Nepal.

Nancy's retirement has left a vacant Commissioner position for the Court, which it is currently endeavoring to fill. In addition to the preparation of recommendations and memoranda on petitions to the Court and the drafting of per curiam disciplinary opinions, the position will also provide assistance with the Court's rule-making process. If you have substantial legal experience and exceptional analytical and writing skills, you are encouraged to apply. If you know someone with those skills, you might want to encourage them to consider applying. For more information and to apply, go to wicourts.gov/courts/employment/openings.htm.​