Wisconsin lawyers reach out to the public on Law Day, May 1

Seventy Wisconsin lawyers will celebrate Law Day by making one-hour classroom presentations in more than 100 schools in Wisconsin. The State Bar, Young Lawyers Division, in cooperation with Gannett Publishing Inc.’s Newspapers in Education program – Partners in Literacy, and the Brown, Winnebago, and Outagamie county bar associations, have developed a 16-page newspaper insert that focuses public attention on the checks and balances that protect citizen rights by distributing key powers among three distinct branches of government.

“Both our federal and state constitutions are designed to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power by assigning separate governmental powers to the legislative, executive, and judicial branches,” explains Attorney Jessica King, who is coordinating 2007 Law Day activities on behalf of the State Bar’s Young Lawyers Division. “Our goal on Law Day will be to explain why this system of checks and balances is essential to the operation of democracy through a 16-page newspaper insert in Gannett’s Wisconsin newspapers and through in-class programs for grades 2 through 12 in many schools. Students will participate in role-playing exercises that demonstrate how these checks and balances work and why they’re needed.”

Law Day was inaugurated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958 to strengthen our great heritage of liberty, justice and equality under the law. Law Day programs across the nation are designed to help people of all ages understand how this heritage safeguards both our freedom and our access to justice. Counties participating in the Wisconsin Law Day program are: Brown, Winnebago, Sheboygan, Marathon, Fond du Lac, Wood, Portage, Manitowoc, Outagamie, Kewaunee, and Oconto.

The State Bar thanks the following members for volunteering:

The insert is part of Gannett’s Newspapers in Education program. Read the insert.

Read Press Release.