Stephen Sawyer was trained and certified to fly the H-3, a helicopter model long associated with presidential transport. From 1984 to 1993, he served on active duty as a Navy officer and pilot, including in a helicopter squadron supporting the commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet. He also volunteered to serve as the squadron’s non-lawyer legal officer.

He served two six-month deployments: one to the Persian Gulf to fly the commander of Middle East Forces and another to the Mediterranean to fly the commander of the Sixth Fleet. He later transferred to Naval Air Station Key West in Florida, where he flew search-and-rescue (SAR) missions and trained SAR pilots and rescue swimmers while earning a master’s degree in business management with a 4.0 GPA.

Today, Sawyer practices criminal defense at Sawyer Law LLC in Stevens Point. This year, he has stepped into a new role: president of the State Bar of Wisconsin for 2026-27.

From Fox Point to Stevens Point

Stephen Sawyer grew up in Fox Point and was co-captain of Nicolet High School’s boys’ swim team. He earned his undergraduate degree in business marketing from Colorado State University, where he served on the student council. Shortly after graduating, he became a Navy pilot in honor of his grandfather, who had been a World War II Navy flight surgeon.

It was Perry Mason, the fictional criminal defense attorney, who first shaped Sawyer’s sense of what the legal profession could be. That influence later inspired his shift in practice, from business and financial law to criminal defense. A second inspiration came during his undergraduate years. While serving on the student council at Colorado State University, Sawyer defended an engineering school representative during impeachment proceedings. He successfully argued that the representative’s exact words in testimony before the Colorado state legislature did not constitute misrepresentation. “From that point on, I wanted to become a lawyer,” he said.

After serving on active duty with the Navy, Sawyer attended Notre Dame Law School, graduating in 1996 with honors. His early years of practice focused on finance and financial institutions law, first at Foley & Lardner’s Milwaukee office, then at Case Corporation in Racine, and later at Quarles & Brady.

Then came Sept. 11, 2001. Sawyer was in his Milwaukee law office, high above Wisconsin Avenue, watching planes approach Mitchell Field from the north along the lakeshore. Then, suddenly, the planes stopped. In that moment, he remembered wondering, “Is one of those going to hit a building in Milwaukee?”

The attacks felt close in more ways than one. About 10 months earlier, Sawyer had been in New York, staying in a hotel room “right across the street from the World Trade Center” while closing a major bank financing deal. He also thought about his years flying helicopters out of Norfolk, Virginia, transporting the commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet and his staff to the Pentagon. On those trips, he would pass through a particular entrance to the Pentagon after landing near the helicopter pad. Sawyer said that the plane that hit the building on Sept. 11 struck “right up above the top right corner of that door,” wiping out an area he had once passed through regularly.

Those memories forced Sawyer to reconsider the direction of his life and work. “I took a step back and thought life is fleeting,” Sawyer said. “When I was in the Navy, I had the great fortune to save 30 lives, through rescues at sea or medical evacuations. You don’t get a sense of satisfaction better than saving somebody’s life.”

It was time for a change. Sawyer left finance law for criminal law, seeking work in which he could look someone “eye to eye” and know he was making a real difference in that person’s life.

Sawyer spent about a year and a half with the district attorney’s office before striking out on his own in 2003 as a criminal defense attorney. He now practices at Sawyer Law LLC in Stevens Point with his wife, focusing on direct, client-centered work. “Julie handles CHIPS and TPR cases, while I practice criminal defense across much of the northern half of the state,” he said. To date, he’s handled cases in at least 33 counties.

For Sawyer, criminal defense means standing beside people in some of their worst moments, ensuring they have “an advocate in their corner” and that they do not suffer consequences they do not deserve.

The biggest problem that I see as an attorney who practices in rural Wisconsin is access to attorneys. There are not enough attorneys practicing in rural counties to handle all the cases.

‘An Exceptional Lawyer’

“Steve is a really exceptional lawyer. He has a sharp intellect, but also a remarkably deep character,” said Portage County Judge Michael Zell, who first knew Sawyer as a fellow defense attorney and later as an opponent when Zell worked as a prosecutor. After both moved to Stevens Point, they got to know each other better and, over the years, became good friends.

Zell said Sawyer’s work reflects a “deep commitment to the rule of law and the rights of every citizen” because Sawyer holds the role of defense counsel and the integrity of the legal system in high regard. Zell describes him as a “complete professional” who is “always well-prepared, understands the issues in his cases, and communicates well with opposing counsel.” Even in difficult cases, Zell said, Sawyer “never shows anything but a professional and capable demeanor in his work life.”

Zell also pointed to Sawyer’s decision not to run against him after Zell was appointed to Branch 1 in Portage County in 2022. Sawyer told Zell he believed Zell would serve the people of Portage County and the legal system well. “Steve made the decision about running based on what was good for the legal system,” Zell said.

“Steve will be a great State Bar president because he has the character, intellect, and emotional intelligence to lead the organization through anything,” Zell said.

The Challenges Lawyers Face

His experiences shape how Sawyer sees the profession’s challenges – not as abstract issues but as questions that affect lawyers, clients, and communities across Wisconsin. During his year as president, Sawyer aims to sustain momentum for initiatives and programs that address those concerns.

Sawyer identifies four major challenges facing the profession: local and regional lawyer shortages, the need to adapt to artificial intelligence, declining civility, and a troubling erosion of respect for the rule of law and for the legal system’s role in a free and democratic society.

Sawyer acknowledges that the primary challenge is the lack of representation in Wisconsin’s rural areas. As a lawyer who transitioned from practice in Milwaukee to the smaller communities of northern Wisconsin, Sawyer has seen the issue firsthand. “The biggest problem that I see as an attorney who practices in rural Wisconsin is access to attorneys. There are not enough attorneys practicing in rural counties to handle all the cases. Fewer attorneys are going out on their own in smaller communities, and more attorneys are joining medium and larger firms in the bigger cities.”

If this trend continues, small communities will need to have lawyers appear remotely or have legal services provided by people who are not lawyers, he said. “This will create an imbalance in the quality of legal services between rural and urban communities.”

“It will also mean that smaller communities will not have lawyers serving as volunteers on government and charitable organization boards. Because lawyers are top-notch problem solvers, the lack of attorneys in these communities will negatively impact volunteer contributions to these entities.”

He hopes that young lawyers, especially, will look beyond the big cities and recognize the value of rural practice in places with real opportunities, strong communities, and a life that can feel “a little bit more balanced toward life than work.”

For Sawyer, rural practice is about more than geography: It is about belonging and being where a lawyer can truly become part of the fabric of daily life. He served five years on the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Stevens Point – an experience that allowed him to be not only a lawyer but also “a problem solver,” helping local organizations think through challenges and move their community forward.

His own transition from Milwaukee to central Wisconsin wasn’t difficult. Stevens Point has become home. “I love this place, with lots of great outdoor activities,” he said. He and Julie are “big dog people,” and with a county dog park they visit almost every day, the place seems to fit them and their dogs just about perfectly.

What I would like to accomplish most this year is to promote a culture at the State Bar and in the practice of law in our state that is based upon kindness and humility as well as knowledge and intelligence.

Kindness Is Strength

For Sawyer, the law is not only about rules, arguments, or institutions. It is about standing beside people in difficult moments, helping communities solve problems, and reminding lawyers that kindness and humility are strengths, not weaknesses.

Becoming a lawyer is “a great accomplishment,” he says, something to take pride in, but it doesn’t make anyone “better than everybody else.” What matters most is staying humble, treating people well, and remembering that “being kind to other people is not a weakness. It’s a strength.”

“What I would like to accomplish most this year is to promote a culture at the State Bar and in the practice of law in our state that is based upon kindness and humility as well as knowledge and intelligence,” Sawyer said. “We can and should bring all of those characteristics to the law. Discourteous, offensive bullies should not be the model to which we aspire.”

“Being humble does not mean that we think less of ourselves, but that we think of ourselves less often. When we think of the needs and feelings of others more than we think of our own, we create a better place to live and work. We must strive to take care of our clients and ourselves, but not to forget about the humanity of all people. A kind word or a thoughtful deed makes all the difference,” Sawyer said.

It Takes a Village

Sawyer offers a final message: “I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to serve the lawyers of Wisconsin, the legal system, and our communities. Thank you to everyone who made this possible and to all those who participate in giving back to the legal profession.”

It is a fitting message from a lawyer whose career has progressed from rescue missions to criminal defense to State Bar leadership: service matters, and so does the way lawyers treat the people they serve.