CONTACT: Teresa Weidemann-Smith
State Bar of Wisconsin
(800) 444-9404, ext. 6025
twsmith@wisbar.org
Wisconsin Law Foundation Awards Honor Public Service
MADISON, May 3, 2005 -- Wisconsin
Law Foundation President John Stevens announces attorneys Irene Wren of
Madison, Richard Gallagher of Milwaukee and Michael Remington of
Washington DC as recipients of the Foundation's Public Service Awards.
The annual awards recognize those who have helped make the legal system
more accessible to the people of Wisconsin by providing pro bono legal
services, public service and law-related education. The awards will be
presented at the State Bar of Wisconsin's annual convention on
Wednesday, May 4 from 6-8 p.m. at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center, 509
West Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee.
The Wisconsin Law Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated
to supporting charitable and educational programs that promote public
understanding of the law and improvement of the administration of
justice.
The Gordon Sinykin Award of Excellence recognizes a
lawyer or organization for work on an individual law-related educated or
public service project. This year's recipient is Irene Wren of
Madison. Wren graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law
School in 1983 and in 1984 she began working for the UW assisting
international faculty, staff and students with immigration issues
through community outreach. Her outreach efforts included other UW
campuses and non-profit organizations, such as Catholic Charities and
Lutheran Social Services. She also began to work with Dane County
Advocates for Battered Women, now DAIS and has been a member of the
American Immigration Lawyers Association since 1984.
In 1993, she began her own practice, now Wren & Gateways Law
Group, LLC, focusing on immigration law. She continues to provide legal
services to clients of DAIS and assisting survivors of domestic abuse by
providing information on legal options available where immigration
issues are a concern. She guides individuals through the maze of
government agency regulations and bureaucracy on immigration matters.
She also provides consultation and mentoring to workers at Jewish Social
Services in the area of immigration law, providing free immigration law
advice to their refugee clients and to the counselors. In 2004, she was
the recipient of the Dane County Individual Pro Bono Award.
The Donald O'Melia Local Service Award recognizes a
lawyer who has made a significant public service contribution in his or
her local community. Richard S. Gallagher of Milwaukee
is the recipient of this year's award.
Gallagher graduated from Harvard University Law School (J.D., 1967)
and from Northwestern University (B.S. in business administration, with
distinction, 1964). As a partner in the Milwaukee office of Foley &
Lardner, he is chair of the firm's Tax and Individual Planning
Department and is a member of the Taxation Practice Group. His practice
focuses on business and tax matters for family-owned companies;
corporate planning and reorganizations; trust and estate administration;
the qualification of tax-exempt organizations; tax, estate and gift
planning for philanthropists, foundations and charitable trusts.
He is the former chairman of the Exempt Organizations Committee of
the American Bar Association (ABA) Section on Taxation, past chairman of
the Committee on Administration of Estates and Trusts of the Real
Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of the ABA, former chairman of
the Milwaukee County Performing Arts Center, past president of the
Donors Forum of Wisconsin, a director of Jones Dairy Farm and Marion
Body Works, managing trustee of the Elizabeth Elser Doolittle Charitable
Trusts and the Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital Trust, and a fellow
of the American Law Institute, the American College of Tax Counsel, the
American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and the Milwaukee Bar
Association Foundation, over which he presided as president from 1977
until 1983. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America®
under Tax Law and Trusts and Estates. He currently serves as a director
of the Blood Center of Southeast Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Youth Arts
Center.
The Belle Case La Follette Outstanding Professional
Award recognizes a lawyer who has made an outstanding
contribution to the advancement of the profession. This year's
recipient is Michel J. Remington of Washington,
D.C.
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he received his B.S. in
1967 (with a major in political science) and his law degree with honors
in 1973. He is a partner in the law firm of Drinker Biddle & Reath,
LLP where he focuses on intellectual property law, court reform,
government relations and lobbying. Prior to entering private practice,
for 13 years he was Chief Counsel of the Judiciary Subcommittee of the
U.S. House of Representatives on Intellectual Property and Judicial
Administration and Counsel to the House Committee on the Judiciary. In
the judicial branch, he served as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge
John W. Reynolds and as Deputy Legislative Affairs Officer to the
Judicial Conference of the United States. In the executive branch, he
was a prosecutor in the Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice,
where he specialized in criminal appeals.
He is admitted to practice in Wisconsin and the District of Columbia,
and is a member of the Intellectual Property Section of the American Bar
Association and the Copyright Society of the United States. He is an
adjunct law professor at the George Mason School of Law and the Columbus
School of Law, Catholic University of America. He has served as a
consultant to the United Nations, The World Intellectual Property
Organization, The Asia Foundation, and the Library of Congress.
He is Chairman of Forgotten Children, a non-profit organization that
helps remove children from bonded labor, a long-time member of the Board
of Trustees of the Wisconsin Law Foundation and a member of the National
Board of Trustees for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law.
He has devoted time to numerous projects associated with the State Bar
of Wisconsin, serving on the Board of Governors and the Board of the
Non-Resident Lawyers Division, the Wisconsin Law School's Kastenmeier
Fund Advisory Committee, the Wisconsin Supreme Court History Committee,
and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
The State Bar of Wisconsin is the mandatory professional
association, created by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, for attorneys who
hold a Wisconsin law license. With more than 21,000 members, the State
Bar aids the courts in improving the administration of justice, provides
continuing legal education for its members to help them maintain their
expertise, and assists Wisconsin lawyers in carrying out community
service initiatives to educate the public about the legal system and the
value of lawyers.
For more information about the Wisconsin Law Foundation Awards,
contact Laura Emerson, State Bar of Wisconsin Staff Liaison at (608)
250-6015 or via email at lemerson@wisbar.org.
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