Winter 2013 Volume 4 Messenger The Plot Thickens: Archives Offer Glimpse Into MBA’s Past PERMIT NO. 3207 NO. PERMIT MILWAUKEE, WI MILWAUKEE, Milwaukee, WI 53202-3746 WI Milwaukee, PAID 424 E. Wells St. Wells E. 424 U.S. POSTAGE U.S. Milwaukee Bar Association Bar Milwaukee PRSRT STD PRSRT Messenger 1 Regular Features Contents 4 Letter From the Editor Winter 2013 • Volume 4 5 Volunteer Spotlight 5 Member News In This Issue: 6 Message From the President 8 Bidding on Competitors’ Law Firm Names in Google Advertising: Too Aggressive? Attorney Ken Matejka, LegalPPC 7 CLE Calendar 9 Community Justice Council Takes Broad Approach to Improving Criminal Justice System 8 New Members Attorney Thomas H. Reed, State Public Defender, Milwaukee Criminal Trial Office, and Beth Perrigo, Deputy Court Administrator, Milwaukee County Circuit Court 11 The Reel Law 21 Pro Bono Corner 10 Annals of Election Night Reporting Attorney Douglas H. Frazer, DeWitt Ross & Stevens Be Part of the Messenger Please send your articles, editorials, 12 Milwaukee Justice Center Mobile Legal Clinic or anecdotes to [email protected] or mail them to Editor, Milwaukee 13 Evening at the Courthouse Bar Association, 424 East Wells Street, Milwaukee, WI 53202. We look forward 14 MBA Fetes 2013 Pro Bono Publico Award Winners at State of the Court Luncheon to hearing from you! 15 Wells, That’s the Way It Goes: MBA’s Burial Plot Yields Its Secrets If you would like to participate, we James Temmer, Executive Director, Milwaukee Bar Association have seats available on the Messenger Committee. Please contact James 16 Inherited IRAs in Wisconsin Not Protected by Federal Bankruptcy Laws From Creditors Temmer, [email protected]. Attorney Ann Ustad Smith, Michael Best & Friedrich 16 In Memory of Bob Friebert — a Tireless Advocate Attorneys Shannon A. Allen and Matthew W. O’Neill, Fox, O’Neill & Shannon 17 MBA Gavel Was Worthy Predecessor of Messenger 18 Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in Perspective Robert H. Skilton The MBA Messenger is published quarterly by the Milwaukee Bar 21 MBA Law and Technology Conference Returns December 5 Association, Inc., 424 East Wells Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202. Telephone: 414-274-6760 E-mail: [email protected] The opinions stated herein are not necessarily those of the Milwaukee Bar Association, Inc., or any of its directors, officers, or employees. The information presented in this publication should not be construed as formal legal advice or the formation of a lawyer-client relationship. All manuscripts submitted will be reviewed for possible publication. The editors reserve the right to edit all material for style and length. Advertising and general information concerning this publication are available from Britt Wegner, telephone 414-276-5931. Messenger 3 Letter From the Editor MBA Officers, Board of Directors, and Staff You’d expect the and the specter of the Civil War that in turn nation’s fifth oldest bar resulted from resolution of those proceedings. Executive Committee association to have Beth E. Hanan, President a keen sense of legal Of course, we can’t dwell totally in the past. history. So if you’re We assess the advertising gambit of bidding David G. Peterson, President-Elect a legal history buff, on a competitor’s law firm name as an Marcia F. Drame, Vice President you’re in luck. This Internet search term. The “hard law” article from our friends at Michael Best examines Patricia A. Hintz, Secretary/Treasurer edition of the Messenger is absolutely full of the developing issue of whether an inherited Charles H. Barr, Past President Charles Barr, Editor it—legal history, that is. IRA account can be protected from creditors. MBA Board member Tom Reed reports on Directors This year marks the sesquicentennial the ground breaking work of the Milwaukee Shannon A. Allen anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. County Community Justice Council. We Fox, O’Neil & Shannon The Messenger is proud to celebrate that remember the late Bob Friebert, one of the Honorable Timothy G. Dugan milestone by presenting a previously most energetic, creative, and politically savvy Milwaukee County Circuit Court unpublished article by the late Robert H. lawyers to grace our courtrooms in recent Skilton, “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in Matthew Robert Falk times. Regular contributor Doug Frazer Perspective,” which he completed shortly before Falk Legal Group reflects on the emotional tumult produced by his death. The author was a distinguished an election-night reporting mix-up. Ann S. Jacobs professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Jacobs Injury Law Law School for almost three decades, and had We hope you enjoy this edition of the Maria L. Kreiter a special interest in Lincoln. Professor Skilton’s Messenger, and from all two of us in our Godfrey & Kahn article, brought to us by his son, Madison cacophonous pressroom, here’s to a joyous attorney John Skilton, is an in-depth study, holiday season and a healthy, prosperous New Susan E. Lovern phrase by phrase, of the philosophical and Year. We’d like to express our gratitude to those von Briesen & Roper political underpinnings of the immortal words who have contributed their talents to our Thomas H. Reed Lincoln spoke on the Pennsylvania battlefield. humble publication throughout the year, and State Public Defender, Milwaukee Criminal We are publishing this scholarly work in two warmly invite the rest of our readers to join Trial Office installments, with the second installment to the fun in 2014. —C.B. Honorable Maxine Aldridge White follow in our spring edition. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Not to be outdone, our own executive director, Andrew J. Wronski Jim Temmer, travels even further back in time Foley & Lardner to unearth some startling local legal history. He recently discovered what is undoubtedly the MBA Staff most obscure of the MBA’s member benefits: Mission James D. Temmer, Executive Director a burial plot in Forest Home Cemetery for Katy Borowski, Director of Projects members who die in penury. Jim’s investigation Statement plumbs the lives of several MBA members who Sabrina Nunley, Director of Continuing were interred there as far back as the 1850s. Established in 1858, the mission of the Legal Education His quest leads him to the sad and curious Milwaukee Bar Association is to serve the Dorothy Protz, Accountant tale of Milwaukee’s second mayor, a highly interests of the lawyers, judges and the people Molly Staab, Office Manager revered trial lawyer and veteran politician in of Milwaukee County by working to: Wisconsin’s pre-statehood days, who fell so Britt Wegner, Director, Lawyer Referral & • Promote the professional interests far from grace that he came to rest, completely Information Service of the local bench and bar forgotten, in the MBA’s burial plot. • Encourage collegiality, public Milwaukee Justice Center Staff The Messenger, inspired by these fearless service and professionalism on Dawn Caldart, Executive Director treks into the past, examines its own history the part of the lawyers of Mary Ferwerda, Legal Volunteer Supervisor by dusting off an issue of the MBA Gavel Southeastern Wisconsin Ayame Metzger, Legal Director published in 1946 and recently discovered in • Improve access to justice for the MBA’s archives. Its pages introduce us to those living and working in Contact Information some interesting facts about the MBA and a Milwaukee County Milwaukee Bar Association, Inc. few mildly amusing mysteries about life in the • Support the courts of Milwaukee 424 East Wells Street post-war Milwaukee legal community. County in the administration Milwaukee, WI 53202 Our inveterate film critic, Fran Deisinger, of justice Phone: 414-274-6760 gets into the historical spirit with his review • Increase public awareness of the Fax: 414-274-6765 of Amistad in “The Reel Law.” This Steven crucial role that the law plays in www.milwbar.org Spielberg film tells the stirring story of an 1839 the lives of the people of African slave revolt aboard a Spanish ship, the Milwaukee County. tangle of U.S. legal proceedings that ensued, 4 Winter 2013 Volunteer Spotlight Ted Hertel ed Hertel has served on the Milwaukee Bar Association’s Fee T Arbitration Committee continuously since 1980, first as a panel member, and then as a panel chair. He has been chair or co-chair of the committee for two terms, including his current term. The purpose of the Fee Arbitration Committee is to resolve in a fair and equitable manner disputes between attorneys and their clients Ted Hertel regarding the payment of fees and expenses. This is a service to both the attorneys involved and to members of the public. The parties are assured of a prompt, binding, and enforceable decision from the panel. Ted is semi-retired after more than 41 years of practice. He serves a small group of clients, most of whom are of modest means, at his office in Mequon, and concentrates in the areas of estate planning, probate, and real estate. Ted has been a sole practitioner since 2000, and was previously with the firms of Saichek & Hertel, and Gaines & Saichek. He is a 1972 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School. In the 1970s, Ted served on the Milwaukee Junior Bar Association (now known as the Milwaukee Young Lawyers Association) Community Relations Committee. From 2000 through 2012 he served on the Board of Directors of American Baptist Homes of the Midwest, an organization that owns and Upcoming Events operates senior living facilities in six states between Milwaukee and Denver. Ted is currently serving on the national Board of February 4 Directors of Mystery Writers of America, and was president of Judges Night the Midwest Chapter of MWA for two years. In his spare time, Ted plays the hand bells at his church, writes June 10 mystery stories and essays, and is a frequent speaker and panelist at mystery conventions.