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Back to State Bar 2020 Election Officer Candidates.


Cheryl Furstace Daniels Candidate for President-elect

Cheryl Furstace Daniels

Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Trade & Consumer Protection, Madison
Email: cheryldanielswisbar@gmail.com

Platform Statement

When I accepted the nomination to run for President of the State Bar of Wisconsin, I thought about the experiences I bring that connect me to each one of you in your diverse practices, demographics and geography, and that will help me to make informed decisions on the many issues coming before the Bar.

  • I have volunteered in the State Bar throughout my career: Young Lawyers and Government Lawyers Division Boards, Board of Governors, many committees, and your Wisconsin Law Foundation, serving as President of the Foundation twice during needed restructuring periods. Working for government all my career, I am always aware that I am working with other people’s money and try as hard as I can to find economical solutions for which everyone can find some support, and have always tried to be a good steward of the Bar’s resources.
  • Although I have practiced most of my 35-year career with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, my job responsibilities have varied widely, including:

    1. Developing a mediation and legal information program for distressed farmers where I worked closely with private practitioners to develop many avenues of legal support. The Wisconsin Farm Center, begun over 30 years ago, is still in operation.

    2. Practicing as an administrative law judge for the agency, where I worked hard to assist parties in settling the issues for the approximately 100 contested cases per year before the Department. If cases needed to be tried, parties were given fair, impartial treatment and proposed decisions as quickly as possible.

    3. Working now as an agency counsel, where I am responsive to my Department clients, the numerous licensees and others with their counsels coming before the Department, the legislature, other agency staff, and the people of Wisconsin, to assist with the gaining and maintaining of compliance with applicable Wisconsin and federal statutes and rules in the fairest and most transparent way possible, throughout the entire state.
  • Although I am a very experienced attorney, I have been a “newbie” at different stages of my career and understand the need to have mentors, excellent CLE, and easily accessible information that helped me develop my experience and expertise.
  • Although I am now working full-time, I have worked part-time in the past and been a single parent, juggled raising my children and kept myself part of State Bar and community activities, as so many younger attorneys continue to do.
  • Although I have always devoted my career to public service, my husband, Michael Rosenberg, had a career in complex tort litigation and is now as a managing attorney for a non-profit law firm, representing low and moderate income persons. My late husband, Chris Daniels, was a business attorney working for both large and small business clients. I have gained a great deal of knowledge from them, and many other attorney friends and colleagues, about the issues facing attorneys in private practice.
  • Although I am now an established attorney, I was a first-generation college and law school graduate, coming from recent immigrant and working-class roots; and the public school system from kindergarten through law school supported my success. I have never forgotten the lessons that the State Bar needs to welcome, listen to, and support the many diverse voices of our membership. The State Bar must push to have the profession be inclusive and sensitive to the issues of all attorneys, who each come with a wide-ranging background and perspective, to make the State Bar a more intelligent and resilient organization, ready to be a true partner with its members.

If you are interested in supporting me, have more questions, or wish to discuss your ideas, please contact me. And please remember to vote in April. As a long-time League of Women Voters member, I believe that the democratic process for any organization is strongest when as many of its members as possible participate in voting.

Biography

I am currently an Assistant Legal Counsel with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, working almost eleven years working on behalf of the citizens of Wisconsin primarily on issues of food, lodging and recreational safety, veterinary licensing and practice, appeals on large livestock operation siting, and public records requests, but assisting as needed in all other Department responsibilities, such as animal health, trade and consumer protection, and agricultural marketing. I believe in finding common ground and working find solutions for all parties that come before the Department. Prior to this position, I worked for eighteen years as the administrative law judge for the Department, working directly with the Secretary to hear contested cases. I began at the Department as one of the founding employees in the Wisconsin Farm Center, working to bring needed legal information and assistance to the agricultural community.

I came to Wisconsin to earn both a law degree and master’s degree in public policy, as I wanted to use my talents to serve the public. My first position after earning my degrees was as legal counsel to the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau, having clerked with the League of Wisconsin Municipalities and the Wisconsin Waste Facility Siting Board, as well as an independent public mediator/arbitrator. 

Professional/Bar Leadership

  • Wisconsin Law Foundation (1992-2020) – Served as President (16-18 and 02-04)
  • Board of Governors (94-95 and 96-00)
  • Government Lawyers Division Board (96-00)
  • Young Lawyers Division Board and Leadership (87-95)
  • Agricultural Agribusiness Law Section Board and Leadership (11-12)
  • Committees over the Years – Public Education/Law-Related Education, Section Leaders Council, Convention, Group & Prepaid Legal Services, Encourage Placement of Minority Lawyers, Public Trust & Confidence in the Courts, Consumer Information & Protection, Facilities, Grassroots Members, Project Vision, Strategic Planning, Executive Search, Local Bar Grants, BAPR Study, Mentor Council

Education

  • University of Wisconsin Law School - J.D. cum laude. (05/85)
  • University of Wisconsin La Follette Institute of Public Affairs - M.A. with high honors (12/83)
  • State University of New York at Buffalo- B.A. magna cum laude Sociology and Legal Studies (5/81)

Personal

I live in Madison with Michael and we have 4 adult children between us – Marianna, Katie (with husband, Ben), Owen and Ryder. I have continued to serve my community, acting as host parent (for 13 exchange student teenagers), liaison and associate support coordinator with AFS World Flags Chapter. I am serving this year on the Board of the Madison Civics Club, a local civic engagement organization, and have served in leadership in the past. I have served in leader​ship with League of Women Voters of Dane County, the Madison Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Altrusa International of Madison, Inc. I grew up as a Girl Scout and became a leader and try to live by the motto “Always try to leave a place better than when you found it!

 

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