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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    July 01, 1998

    Wisconsin Lawyer July 1998: Letters to the Editor

     


    Vol. 71, No. 7, July 1998

    How to Submit a Letter to the Editor

    Letters


    Remembering Daniel R. Tuchscherer Jr.

    Until the last year or two, I did not know Dan Tuchscherer well. Our work with the Equal Justice Coalition changed that.

    Dan got me involved with John Skilton's Equal Access to Justice Task Force, which led to forming the Equal Justice Coalition Inc. Dan and I shared many rides to Milwaukee, Madison, and points between, for meetings of the Coalition's Board of Directors. During those rides, Dan discussed his wife and children, of whom he was justly proud. He spoke of how good it was that, in recent years, he had been able to spend some happy days hunting and fishing with his father. Dan was a great outdoorsman, and spending that time with his dad was a great joy to him. He spoke of visits to people and places in Massachusetts, some of whom were familiar to me. Most of all, Dan spoke of the legal problems of poor people in Wisconsin, and what we could do to help them deal with the issues facing them.

    Dan died unexpectedly while working in his yard on June 14. As I look back on my friend, the memory that I will cherish is that of a man of great compassion and regard for people of all walks of life, and a man whose dedicated advocacy on behalf of disadvantaged people made better our northeastern Wisconsin region and our state.

    For the past eight years, Dan had been the executive director of Legal Services of Northeast Wisconsin Inc. Previously he had been in private practice in Pittsfield, Mass., and had served as the managing attorney for Western Massachusetts Legal Services Inc. and as the executive director of the Berkshire County Regional Housing Authority. His work on volunteer boards included the United Way of Brown County, the Homeless Task Force in Pittsfield, Mass., and the Berkshire County Area Agency on Aging.

    Dan's primary volunteer energies, in the last several years, were focused on the Equal Justice Coalition (EJC), which was organized to design a more permanent support base for providing legal services to the poor of Wisconsin. In recognition of that involvement, Dan's family has suggested that donations in lieu of flowers could be sent by friends and family to the Equal Justice Coalition, 3505 N. 124th St., Brookfield, WI 53005. How fitting it would be if all State Bar members who have ever thought about supporting the Equal Justice Coalition would now act in Dan's memory.

    Bert Liebmann, Green Bay

    On June 14, 1998, Dan Tuchscherer unexpectedly passed away. Dan had served as the executive director of Northeastern Wisconsin Legal Services from 1990 to his death. Dan also was an active member of the State Bar, serving, for example, on the Bar's Commission on the Delivery of Legal Services. Most recently, Dan served as a vital member of the Equal Justice Coalition Board of Directors, the entity formed as a result of the Commission's recommendation that the Bar find a way to provide long-term, adequate funding for our legal service agencies that provide legal services to the poor.

    Dan's loss is keenly felt on a personal level by his friends and colleagues. But the timing of his death is particularly poignant givin his life-long commitment to the delivery of legal services for the poor.

    Our legal services community is literally fighting for its life. Every year there is a battle in Congress just to maintain reduced funding to the Legal Services Corporation, the federal agency that provides more than half of the funding to our four Wisconsin legal services firms (of which Dan's agency is one). In 1994 available funds were reduced by a third of our legal services lawyers in this state.

    Two days after Dan's death, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, using a "property rights" (Fifth Amendment) rationale, put into question the constitutional underpinnings of IOLTA (interest on lawyers trust accounts), the source of more than $1 million in funds that are distributed by WisTAF (Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation) to Wisconsin providers of legal services to the poor.

    Dan, of course, was leading the charge to find alternative sources of funding, but we did not assume that the IOLTA base also was in jeopardy.

    What is at risk here is our in-place legal services delivery system. Dan's untimely death underscores the potential mortality of this system.

    The Equal Justice Coalition hopes to keep alive both Dan's memory and the system he so well served. But we need your help.

    John S. Skilton, President
    Equal Justice Coaltion

    When attorneys need confidential help
    with abuse or depression ...

    May Wisconsin Lawyer CoverOn behalf of all the active members of the Wisconsin Lawyers Assistance Program (WisLAP) Committee, we thank Wisconsin Lawyer for the informational article, "WisLAP Combats Career Killers," published in May. The article makes everyone aware of WisLAP programs to assist lawyers with abuse/depression problems. Studies have shown that the more our services are published and disseminated throughout the legal community, the better response we will receive from afflicted persons. We strongly emphasize the anonymity that is afforded those who will ask for our assistance, and we believe your article highlighted that feature while still emphasizing the one-on-one approach taken in these situations.

    Thank you again for your continued assistance. We hope this article will prompt more individuals to seek assistance when needed.

    C. Michael Hausman and James E. Collis
    Cochairs, WisLAP


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