New Hires, Promotions, Partners
Jarrett M. Adams, Loyola-Chicago 2015, has joined Birdsall Obear & Associates LLC, Milwaukee, as of counsel. Adams focuses on criminal defense and practices in both state and federal courts across the country. He also owns and operates the Law Office of Jarrett Adams PLLC.
Jason Brasch, U.W. 2015, and Paul Mahler, Hamline 1986, have been promoted to shareholders at Bakke Norman S.C. Brasch focuses on commercial and residential real estate and assists individuals with wills, estates, and trusts from the Menomonie office. Mahler advises municipalities and business clients in all aspects of due diligence and entitlement processes from the New Richmond office.
Paul W. Connell, Marquette 1998, has joined Cozen O’Connor as a member of the State Attorneys General Group and works from the firm’s Chicago and Washington, D.C., offices. Connell previously spent several years in the Wisconsin Attorney General’s office and as a federal prosecutor during the preceding decade in the Western District of Wisconsin. His practice encompasses matters involving state attorneys general and the U.S. Department of Justice in consumer protection, privacy, and environmental law.
Mary Dean, Marquette 2011, has become executive director of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer. She previously was associate executive director.
Leah Derusha, Marquette 2015, has been promoted to shareholder at Everson, Whitney, Everson & Brehm S.C., Green Bay. She primarily practices family law, focusing on divorces, child custody, and physical placement disputes, and also provides representation to children as a guardian ad litem.
Makda Fessahaye, Marquette 2014, has become head of the Milwaukee Department of Employee Relations, serving as the city’s human resources director. She previously was administrator of the Division of Adult Institutions at the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.
Five Wisconsin lawyers have been elected partners with Foley & Lardner LLP.
Madison office: Rebecca L. Hays, Minnesota 2010, Ph.D. (molecular biology, cell biology, and genetics) Northwestern,is an intellectual property attorney and member of the chemical, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical practice in the Madison office. She counsels clients on a wide range of biotechnologies, including novel therapeutic and diagnostic platforms.
Milwaukee office: William R. Hughes, Iowa 2008, is a member of the estates and trusts practice. His experience includes life insurance planning with beneficiary designations and irrevocable life insurance trusts; planning for retirement accounts; complex estate administration; fiduciary income tax planning for estates, trusts, and beneficiaries; and planning for closely-held business owners for business succession, buy-sell agreements, and deferred compensation arrangements.
Eric G. Pearson, Marquette 2007,is a member of the business litigation and dispute resolution, securities enforcement and litigation, tax controversy, appellate, and government enforcement defense and investigations practices, focusing on regulatory and corporate governance and enforcement matters and federal and state tax controversies.
Morgan J. Tilleman, Northwestern 2011, is a member of the insurance and health care practices and the health care industry team. His practice is concentrated on representing insurers and reinsurers in mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, reinsurance transactions, shell transactions, affiliations, joint ventures and insurance program arrangements.
Nick J. Welle, U.W. 2010,is a member of the employee benefits and executive compensation practice. He focuses on issues affecting group health and welfare benefit plans and works with members of the transactions practice to advise clients on potential liabilities regarding federal laws governing group health plans.
Amy M. Freiman, St. Thomas 2011, has been promoted to shareholder with Hills Legal Group Ltd., Waukesha. Her practices focuses on civil trial litigation with an emphasis on insurance defense.
Kelly Condon, Marquette 2013, and Trevor Lippman, U.W. 2013, have been elected shareholders withO’Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong & Laing S.C., Milwaukee.
Condon focuses on estate planning, succession planning, probate administration, trust administration, and inheritance litigation. Lippman, a member of the litigation practice group, focuses on litigation relating to wills, trusts, fiduciary disputes, and inheritance disputes.
Three Wisconsin lawyers have been elected partners with Michael Best & Friedrich LLP. Justin M. Mertz, Marquette 2008, Milwaukee, is deputy to the banking and financial services industry group and focuses his practice on business law, with a particular emphasis on business bankruptcy, commercial loan negotiation, and real estate. Kirk A. Pelikan, Marquette 2004, Milwaukee, focuses on legal issues related to all aspects of the employment cycle, from hiring through termination and severance.
Jeffrey D. Peterson, U.W. 2000, Madison, assists clients with protecting intellectual property assets, including patents, trademarks and copyrights, as well as for strategic counsel on all aspects of intellectual property licensing.
Corissa Pennow, Minnesota 2020, has joined Ogletree Deakins’ Milwaukee office as an associate and practices employment law.
Nicole Ruggirello, Notre Dame 2011, has been named a shareholder with Plunkett Cooney, Bloomfield Hills, Mich. She continues to practice primarily in insurance coverage law.
Kurt Simatic, Marquette 2012 cum laude, has been named a partner at Stafford Rosenbaum LLP and is based in the firm’s Madison office. He focuses on litigation, appellate law, government law, election and political law, dealership and franchise law, and business law, and he regularly defends clients such as Wisconsin municipalities, school districts, and law enforcement.
Max T. Stephenson, Marquette 2013, has been promoted to partner with Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, Milwaukee. He focuses exclusively in all areas of family law.
Adam R. Finkel, Marquette 2010, and Ryan T. Siehr, U.W. 2013, have been promoted to shareholders with von Briesen & Roper s.c., Milwaukee. Finkel is a member of the firm’s real estate group and focuses on commercial real estate matters, representing clients in the purchase, sale, development, and leasing of real property and in landlord-tenant matters, business disputes, and commercial litigation. Siehr is chair of the health information privacy and security section. He advises hospitals, multi-institutional health care systems, physician groups, and specialty providers regarding transactional health care-related matters including negotiating technology-related agreements.
Julia T. Walsh, U.W. 2019, has joined Murphy Desmond S.C. and serves clients in the Madison, Janesville, and Dodgeville offices. She focuses on estate planning and probate and trust administration, including powers of attorney, living wills, marital property agreements, transfers of property, and fiduciary disputes.
James J. Wawrzyn, Marquette 2006 magna cum laude, has joined Meissner Tierney Fisher & Nichols S.C., Milwaukee, and focuses on commercial contract negotiation, mergers and acquisitions, supply-chain alternatives, financing, risk management, and general corporate matters. He previously was a shareholder at von Briesen & Roper s.c., Milwaukee.
Mergers, Relocations, New Offices
Murphy & Prachthauser S.C. has opened a new office, at 111 N. Main St., Suite 101, West Bend. Counsel at the new office assist with matters including personal injury, motor vehicle accidents, trucking accidents, and motorcycle accidents.
von Briesen & Roper s.c. has opened a new office, at 310 Pinnacle Way, Suite 201, Eau Claire. The Eau Claire location is von Briesen’s first office in northwest Wisconsin. Michael J. Happe, Creighton 1989, and Bryan T. Symes, Chicago-Kent 2004 with honors, have joined the firm as shareholders. Happe is with the litigation and risk management practice group. He focuses on insurance defense and civil litigation including the defense of medical malpractice, personal injury, and premises liability claims; and business and commercial litigation, including shareholder disputes, fair dealership, and noncompete agreements. Symes is with the labor and employment section and focuses on employment and traditional labor law issues for private- and public-sector employers. He also represents churches and other religious organizations. Also working in the new office are Mindy K. Dale, Indiana Univ.-McKinney 1987, Lindsey S.M. Minser, U.W. 2012, and David A. Richie, Marquette 2018.
Milwaukee-based Lindner & Marsack S.C., a management-side labor, employment, and worker’s compensation firm, has joined The Gavel - your claims defense network®, a nationwide network of defense firms and insurance specialists.
Appointments, Elections
Joseph Miotke, Marquette 1999 magna cum laude, and Harry Van Camp, Oklahoma City Univ. 1974, have been named co-chairs of the intellectual property litigation practice group at DeWitt LLP. Miotke, with the Metro Milwaukee office, has worked across a wide spectrum of patent, trade secret, copyright, and trademark matters involving technologies ranging from artificial intelligence and machine learning to energy production and hydraulic fracturing. Van Camp, with the Madison office, focuses on patents, copyrights, trademarks, computer software, trade secrets, major business disputes, and environmental litigation.
Pete Faust, Marquette 1994, has been elected managing shareholder and president of O’Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong & Laing S.C., Milwaukee. Faust succeeds Dean Laing, Marquette 1983, who remains a member of the firm’s board and continues his litigation practice.
Faust works primarily in mergers and acquisitions and has been the head of the firm’s transactional practice.
Authors, Speakers
Authors of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s new publication, Wisconsin Landlord & Tenant Manual (State Bar of Wis. 2020), are the following: Kristin K. Beilke, Loyola-Chicago 2010, and Robert A. Pasch, U.W. 1972, Murphy Desmond S.C., Madison; Carol A. Chapman, Marquette 2006, State Bar of Wisconsin, Madison; Steven C. Harvey, Marquette 1993, Steven Harvey Law LLC, East Troy; Jennifer M. Hayden, Marquette 2005, and Tristan R. Pettit, Marquette 1995, Petrie + Pettit S.C., Milwaukee; Mitch, U.W. 2003, U.W. Law School, Madison; Brian A. Schuk, Marquette 2001, Schuk Law LLC, Lake Geneva; and David R. Sparer, U.W. 1979, Carlson Black O’Callaghan & Battenberg LLP, Madison.
Awards, Degrees, Honors
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.W. 1989, received the Stonewall Award from the American Bar Association Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity during a virtual ceremony at the ABA Midyear Meeting in February. The award recognizes lawyers who have considerably advanced lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals in the legal profession and successfully championed LGBT legal causes. Baldwinis the first openly LGBTQ woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (in 1999) and to the Senate (in 2013). She began her career as a lawyer in private practice, then became the first openly lesbian member of the Wisconsin Assembly and one of a very few openly gay politicians in the country at the time. In 1994, Baldwin proposed legalizing same-sex marriage in Wisconsin and in 1995 proposed domestic partnerships in Wisconsin.
John Miller Carroll, Marquette 1987, received the 2020 Martin Hanson Homicide Award fromthe Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He was honored for his defense in State v. Krueger, a Shawano County case. Carroll practices in the Fox Valley area and handles cases statewide.
Kevin Croninger, Marquette 2009, Monroe County district attorney, was named the 2020 Wisconsin Prosecutor of the Year by the Wisconsin District Attorneys Association.
Steven E. Hendrix, U.W. 1987, LL.D. Univ. of San Andres (Bolivia, 1994), SJD San Carlos Univ. (Guatemala, 1997), Post Call Professional Program - Ghana School of Law (Ghana, 2020), was sworn in as Barrister in the Republic of Ghana in December 2020. He has also been reappointed as research fellow at the DePaul University College of Law, International Human Rights Law Institute. After 12 continuous years of diplomatic service abroad, including Iraq, Paraguay, Nigeria, and Ghana with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), he is now based in Washington, D.C., with USAID, which has named him its senior program advisor for South America in its Latin America and Caribbean Bureau.
In Memoriam
Robert G. Blazek, U.W. 1955, West Palm Beach, Fla., Feb. 21, 1928 – Dec. 20, 2020.
Michael A. Bowen, Harvard 1976, Milwaukee, July 16, 1951 – Jan. 19, 2021.
Dennis M. Burgy, Valparaiso 1973, Eagle River, Feb. 22, 1947 – Jan. 22, 2021.
Michael M. Cassidy, U.W. 1975, Madison, Feb. 2, 1946 – Jan. 3, 2021.
Charles Martell Cochrane, Illinois 1981, Roseville, Minn., Jan. 26, 1956 – Dec. 20, 2020.
Gilbert W. Harries, Minnesota 1955, Duluth, Minn., Jan. 15, 1932 – Jan. 1, 2021.
James C. Hartwig, U.W. 1962, Milwaukee, Oct. 1, 1935 – Oct. 8, 2020.
Michael J. Herbert, Michigan 1977, Roanoke, Vir., Aug. 15, 1952 – Dec. 23, 2020.
Kenneth N. Holland, U.W. 1953, Silver Spring, Md., Dec. 26, 1928 – Jan. 10, 2021.
John H. Priebe, U.W. 1980, Rhinelander, March 22, 1951 – Jan. 21, 2021.
Robert Schneider, U.W. 1967, Kenosha, March 8, 1941 – Nov. 30, 2020.
Timothy J. Scott, Minnesota 1988, Hammond, July 28, 1958 – Jan. 20, 2021.
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) 250-6139.
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.
