E. Harold Hallows
In a March 1994 article in this series, Moses M. Strong (1810-1894)
was profiled as the archetypal 19th century Wisconsin lawyer. Strong was
a politician and entrepreneur as well as a lawyer, and played important
roles in founding Wisconsin, its legal culture and the State Bar.
Because the 20th century bar is so much larger and more diverse, it is
more difficult to identify an archetypal 20th century Wisconsin lawyer.
Chief Justice E. Harold Hallows of the Wisconsin Supreme Court comes as
close as anyone.
Hallows was born in Fond du Lac in 1904. He went to college at
Marquette University and received his law degree from the University of
Chicago in 1930. After graduation, Hallows rapidly rose to prominence in
the bar: He established a successful career in private practice in
Milwaukee, taught law for many years at Marquette and became a leader of
the State Bar.
When the Judicial Council was formed in 1951, Hallows was appointed
one of its first members. He became one of the most forceful advocates
of reorganization of Wisconsin's court system. When Hallows was elected
president of the State Bar in 1953-54 he made reorganization a top
priority and was instrumental in increasing support for court reform
among the bar.
In 1958 Hallows was appointed to the supreme court; he became chief
justice in 1968 and served until shortly before his death in 1974. When
Hallows joined the court, a tort reform movement advocating the
elimination of many common-law immunities and the liberalization of
recovery rules was reaching its peak in Wisconsin and many other states.
Hallows gained a reputation as a leading supporter of this movement and
an authority on tort reform. Hallows also was the author of one of the
court's first important environmental law decisions, Just v. Marinette
County (1972), in which the court upheld the state's authority to
regulate a landowner's rights to alter or modify ecologically fragile
property.
Wisconsin Lawyer
