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  • Press Release
    November 06, 2014

    State Bar Honors Wisconsin's Top 5 Legal Innovators for 2014

    Madison, WI – In recognition of the Wisconsin lawyers who are responding to the rapidly changing legal marketplace by trying fresh ideas and novel ways of providing legal services to their communities, the State Bar of Wisconsin is showcasing legal innovators through its initiative “That’s a Fine Idea! Legal Innovation Wisconsin.” The innovators are featured in this month’s cover story of the Wisconsin Lawyer magazine.

    Members of the legal community nominated colleagues for their efforts to:

    • use technology in new ways to improve client services or serve a new market
    • create best practices to promote workplace diversity
    • develop new strategies for marketing and business development
    • provide pro bono or reduced-cost legal services in new ways
    • create greater internal efficiency through operational changes

    “The innovations took all kinds of approaches, from ways to deliver legal services, to improving law firm culture, to developing brand new products,” said Susan Schaubel, a court commissioner in Sheboygan County and chair of the Communications Committee’s Innovations Subcommittee. “There are so many wonderful projects out there, and we hope this effort spawns other creative solutions."

    Andrea GageFor more information contact Attorney Andrea Gage, public relations coordinator, State Bar of Wisconsin. She can be reached at agage@wisbar.org, or by phone at (608) 250-6025.

    The five top legal innovators for 2014, as selected by the State Bar, are:

    Mike Gonring: Mobile Legal Clinic Takes Access to the Streets

    Attorneys Frank Daily and Julianna Ebert wanted to honor fellow Quarles & Brady partner Michael Gonring for his career-long pro bono service by donating funds to the law school to launch some sort of project. Gonring then approached the Marquette University Law School. The work resulted in the Milwaukee Justice Center’s Mobile Legal Clinic. The Mobile Legal Clinic, which opened in September 2013, provides pro bono or reduced-cost legal services in new ways. The Justice Center is a collaborative endeavor of Marquette University Law School, the Milwaukee County Bar Association, and Milwaukee County.

    The Mobile Legal Clinic opens one Saturday a month for four hours at various locations around Milwaukee County. Two or three attorneys and three or four law students typically are on site for each two-hour shift when the clinic is open. In the first year, 30 volunteer lawyers and 27 law students worked with 94 clients on 98 different legal matters.

    Anne Smith: Where Law Students and Start-up Entrepreneurs Meet

    Small businesses in Wisconsin need guidance through a maze of complicated legal issues. Law students at the UW Madison need real-world experience to shape them into practice-ready business lawyers. The Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic at UW Law School meets both needs. Anne Smith is the co-founder and co-director of the clinic, along with fellow attorney Eric Englund.

    The clinic is the result of a collaboration of the law school with the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and several Wisconsin law firms. Since the clinic opened in 2009, more than 100 law students have gained hands-on experience in business legal matters. And nearly 600 start-up entrepreneurs, small business owners, and nonprofit organizations around the state have received free legal guidance.

    Karen Christenson: Family Drug Treatment Court Puts Broken Families Together

    Karen Christenson is the circuit court judge (now retired) who led the planning and was the first presiding judge in the Milwaukee County Family Drug Treatment Court, which began working with parents in April 2011.

    As part of the program, parents with substance abuse problems meet weekly with a team of legal professionals, drug treatment counselors, service coordinators, and child welfare professionals. They work as a team toward a common goal: returning the child to the parent if possible. During the sessions, the various professionals confront parents with their problems. The result is a dynamic problem-solving session that engages everyone, including the parent, who volunteers to participate in the program. The Family Drug Treatment Court aims to help parents not only get clean, but also to change long-standing behaviors that led to substance abuse and could lead to a relapse.

    Beth Ann Richlen: Online Legal Clinic Reaches 33 Counties

    Beth Ann Richlen is a staff attorney and development director for Wisconsin Judicare, whose online clinic, the Northern Wisconsin Legal Advice Project, provides consumers with ready access to legal help. The project launched in July 2013 with the help of a startup grant from the State Bar’s Pro Bono Initiative. Originally serving 13 counties in the 10th judicial district, the clinic extended its coverage to all 33 counties in the Wisconsin Judicare service area as of Jan. 1, 2014.

    The clinic answers an average of three legal questions a week from clients who must fulfill Judicare’s eligibility requirements. Many of the inquiries come from people who have transportation or other issues that make it difficult to access legal services. Richlen and volunteer attorneys answer clients’ questions, which typically require about an hour’s worth of research. Volunteer lawyers can log in from anywhere at any time to view the questions online and pick those they’d like to answer. Enough information is shown to enable the attorney to do a conflict check before proceeding. A new partnership just getting under way will bring in additional volunteers from the Marquette University Law School’s Volunteer Legal Clinic.

    Kelly Twigger: Yes, There’s an E-discovery App for That!

    Twigger left her job at Quarles & Brady in Milwaukee in 2009 to launch her own company, ESI Attorneys, based in Boulder, Colo. The company’s goal was to help clients better leverage their electronic discovery practices and procedures.

    In July 2013, ESI started selling an iPad app called eDiscovery Assistant™. The app has six major content areas: e-discovery rules, case digests, templates, checklists, a glossary of terms, and resources to consult to learn more. Content gets updated weekly, which is essential in this rapidly changing area. The eDiscovery Assistant aims to be easy to use. Lawyers, judges, and other legal professionals can search content by judge, jurisdiction, or specific issue tags.

    *Photos of honorees available upon request.*

     

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