Oct. 20, 2016 – Humility over hubris. Honesty, integrity, professionalism, and service to the community. Those were the messages to lawyers and judges Oct. 18 in Milwaukee as 65 new Fellows were inducted into the Fellows of the Wisconsin Law Foundation.

The Fellows are lawyers recognized by their peers, who join by invitation as a result of their service to the profession, to their communities, and to justice.

Distinguished Lifetime Service

The celebration honored the two recipients of the 2016 Wisconsin Law Foundation’s Charles L. Goldberg Distinguished Service Award, John Skilton and Hon. Ness Flores. The award is given for a lifetime of service to the profession and the community.

“I was blessed,” said John Skilton of early mentors who taught him that honesty, integrity, and professionalism are necessary traits for lawyers. “If you have those, you are going to succeed as a lawyer,” Skilton said. Read more about John Skilton.

Hon. Flores, a former circuit court judge and a pioneer in crafting Wisconsin’s migrant farmworker laws, also accomplished a lifetime of service to various community and legal organizations. He spoke of his past, including a secret: Educated at Baylor Law School in Waco, Texas, he failed the first time he took the Wisconsin Bar Exam.

But the person who helped him pass on his second try was none other than Charles Goldberg. “It’s ironic that here I am accepting an award named after my old mentor,” Hon. Flores said. Read more about Hon. Ness Flores.

Hubris and Humility

Attorney Dean Strang, a trial lawyer at Strang Bradley, LLC, as well as a lecturer and author, was a featured speaker at the event.

Strang served five years as Wisconsin’s first Federal Defender and has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, five federal circuits, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

He recently gained international attention as defense counsel in the trial of Steven Avery, accused and later convicted of murder. The Avery story was featured in Making a Murderer, a documentary series on Netflix.

Strang spoke about the justice system, and about the possibility – even probability – of errors or omissions that lead to defendants sentenced to the death penalty or life in prison on wrongful convictions.

Impoverishment ensnares people disproportionately into involvement in the courts, he said. More than 80 percent of defendants are unable to afford a lawyer. “The poverty of hope infects much of our criminal justice system,” he said.

Strang urged lawyers and judges to acknowledge that no case is free of errors and mistakes, even after a jury trial and conviction. The belief that all the details in a case are correct to prove a defendant guilty without question is hubris. “I see daily more hubris than humility,” Strang said.

Lawyers, judges, and police should keep the value of humility, because errors do exist. “We (prosecutors and defense attorneys) could be wrong in the end,” Strang said.

Such errors can lead to wrongly convicted defendants. The stakes are high, he noted, with more than 2,500 facing the death penalty in the U.S.

Even more people – around 49,000 – face the “social death” of a life prison sentence without parole, which, Strang says, “consigns a person to a hopeless existence forever.”

When those are the stakes, it is important that lawyers maintain proper humility – the idea that details could be wrong.

And when those are the stakes, “it may be time to rethink clemency.” An executive branch of government – either a governor or the U.S. president – who makes it a policy never to consider clemency, never acknowledging the humility that admits that mistakes can occur, “insults the dignity of the office,” Strang said.

“I don’t offer answers,” he said. “I am just asking questions.”

The Fellows of the Wisconsin Law Foundation

The Fellows program recognizes members of the profession who are known by their peers for high professional achievements and outstanding contributions to the advancement and improvement of the administration of justice in Wisconsin. New Fellows are elected by the Fellows Board of Trustees.

The program supports the mission of the Wisconsin Law Foundation, the State Bar of Wisconsin’s charitable and educational organization that promotes public understanding of the law, improvement of the administration of justice and other law-related public service through funding of innovative and creative programs that improve the vision of the American justice system.

Hon. Louis Butler Jr., president of the Fellows of the Wisconsin Law Foundation, said the Fellows program has seen tremendous growth in recent years

Visit the State Bar’s Facebook page for more photos of this event, or go directly to the album.

Welcome to the following Wisconsin Law Foundation Fellows:

Eric L. Andrews, Milwaukee Amanda K. Ashley, Westminster, Colorado Colleen D. Ball, Milwaukee Karen Marie Bauer, Milwaukee Darrell W. Behnke, Madison Ryan Anthony Blay, Madison Daniel D. Blinka, Milwaukee Bernard J. Bobber, Mequon Truscenialyn Brooks, Madison Kathleen A. Brost, Neenah Kathryn M. Bullon, Sombra, Canada Katherine L. Charlton, Milwaukee Christine Davies D'Angelo, Waukesha Thomas M. Domer, Milwaukee Timothy D. Edwards, Madison Brandon J. Evans, Marquette, Michigan Edward A. Fallone, Milwaukee Noah Alexandre Fenceroy, Milwaukee John W. Galanis, Milwaukee Martin P. Gagne, Milwaukee Jeff Goldman, Madison Erik R. Guenther, Kenosha Kimberly K. Haines, Waukesha Christopher G. Hanewicz, Madison Patricia A. Hintz, Milwaukee Eric E. Hobbs, Milwaukee Christopher B. Hughes, Madison Daniel A. Idzikowski, Madison Jesse S. Ishikawa, Madison Ann S. Jacobs, Milwaukee Dera L. Johnsen-Tracy, Madison Mark Todd Johnson, Fitchburg

Kathryn A. Keppel, Milwaukee Maureen L. Kinney, La Crosse Charles D. Koehler, Appleton Dean P. Laing, Milwaukee Lisa M. Lawless, Milwaukee Craig A. Mastantuono, Milwaukee Michael P. May, Madison Susan K. Miller, Waupaca Steven L. Nelson, Milwaukee Daniel A. O'Callaghan, Madison Thomas M. Olejniczak, Green Bay Carmen M. Ortiz-Babilonia, Milwaukee John R. Orton, Mauston Robert A. Peterson, Madison Justice David T. Prosser, Jr., Madison Margaret Raymond, Madison Joseph M. Rivas, Milwaukee Christopher Earl Rogers, Madison Anne E. Ross, Madison Matthew D. Rowe, Wausau Charles S. Sara, Madison Paul M. Schmidt, Madison Michael S. Siddall, Appleton Rebecca Rapp, Madison Dean Arthur Strang, Madison Robert B. Teuber, Milwaukee Laura Skilton Verhoff, Madison Anne Taylor Wadsack, Madison David M. Werwie, Saint Paul, Minnesota Janice K. Wexler, Middleton Nicholas C. Zales, Milwaukee Jessica A. Zolp, Milwaukee