Fall 2014 Volume 3 Messenger The Milwaukee Justice Center Comes Home to G-9 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 Fall 2014 • Volume 3 5 Volunteer Spotlight 5 Member News In This Issue: 6 Message From the President 5 Tom Hruz Appointed to Appellate Bench 8 CLE Calendar 8 New Members 6 Beth Hanan Wins Mentoring Award 11 The Reel Law 7 2014 Milwaukee Bar Association Law and Technology Conference 21 Pro Bono Corner 9 Back to the Future: Wisconsin’s Revised Informed Consent Law Eases Burden on Health Care Providers Be Part of the Messenger by Attorney Kelly L. Centofanti, Centofanti Law Please send your articles, editorials, or anecdotes to [email protected] or 10 Grand Reopening Marks New Era for Milwaukee Justice Center mail them to Editor, Milwaukee Bar by Justin A. Metzger, Milwaukee Justice Center Association, 424 East Wells Street, Milwaukee, WI 53202. We look forward 12 26th Annual MBA Foundation Golf Outing to hearing from you! 13 MJC 5K Run Breaks Records Once Again If you would like to participate, we by Justin A. Metzger, Milwaukee Justice Center have seats available on the Messenger Committee. Please contact James 15 11th Annual State of the Court Luncheon Temmer, [email protected]. 16 Mobile Legal Clinic Recognized as Wisconsin Innovation 17 Milwaukee Courts Join in County-Wide Continuity of Operations Planning by Beth Bishop Perrigo, Deputy District Court Administrator, Milwaukee County Circuit Court 18 U.S. Justice Department Strives to Fulfill Diverse Mission by James L. Santelle, U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Wisconsin The MBA Messenger is published 20 Are Union-Free Strikes Protected? The NLRB Thinks So. quarterly by the Milwaukee Bar by Attorneys David W. Croysdale, Robert W. Mulcahy, and Benjamin T. Johnson, Michael Association, Inc., 424 East Wells Street, Best & Friedrich Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202. Telephone: 414-274-6760 20 Status of Same-Sex Marriage in Wisconsin Is Complicated, but Not for Long E-mail: [email protected] by Attorney Christopher S. Krimmer, Balisle & Roberson 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 he Milwaukee relative or friend. For want of a few hundred Justice Center bucks, her car was gone forever, along with her Executive Committee dedicated its new subsistence-level job to which she could no David G. Peterson, President T quarters in Room G-9 of longer get. Marcia F. Drame, President-Elect the county courthouse When you finish your shift at the MJC, you Andrew J. Wronski, Vice President in a Grand Reopening ceremony on September think about the mass of people you saw in Patricia A. Hintz, Secretary/Treasurer 15. (See page 10.) The the waiting area. You think of the people who Beth E. Hanan, Past President Charles Barr, Editor MJC, as most of you were turned away, because the MJC still lacks know, is the MBA’s signature public service the capacity to serve everyone who needs it. Directors project, in partnership with Milwaukee County, You think of those who need it but can’t get Shannon A. Allen Marquette University Law School, and the to it or don’t know about it. You think of a Fox, O’Neill & Shannon MBA Foundation. Conceived in honor of the major American city—one of many—filled MBA’s sesquicentennial anniversary, the MJC with block after block, neighborhood after Honorable Timothy G. Dugan neighborhood, of people who live on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court dispenses basic, practical guidance to those who must navigate the civil legal system without an knife-edge of poverty. Matthew Robert Falk attorney because they cannot afford one and Falk Legal Group Yes, the Milwaukee Justice Center is a heroic cannot obtain publicly funded legal aid. undertaking, and our community needs it. But Nadelle Grossman that community and thousands of others across Marquette University Law School The MJC started its life in G-9, then moved to the fifth floor temporarily while the county remodeled the nation ultimately need much more: the Ann S. Jacobs the space as a permanent home for it to share with political will to address the poverty epidemic Jacobs Injury Law the Legal Resource Center and a dramatically broadly, systematically, and effectively. Until the day we rise up and instill that motivation in our Maria L. Kreiter downsized Records Center. The MJC’s refurbished leaders—local, state, and national—America Godfrey & Kahn digs are functional and not at all posh, but will never fulfill its promise. Susan E. Lovern evidence of intelligent design abounds. von Briesen & Roper This is a big step in the MJC’s evolution, one What’s in this edition of the Messenger? We explore the complications arising from the flux Thomas H. Reed that significantly enhances its capacity to serve of same-sex marriage litigation in Wisconsin, State Public Defender, Milwaukee Criminal its clients. The Grand Reopening cements a truly which has resulted in marriages with varying Trial Office groundbreaking cooperative venture between a community’s government, law school, and prospects of validity, as well as varying Honorable Maxine Aldridge White bar association. It certainly is an occasion for packages of rights and obligations, depending Milwaukee County Circuit Court celebration. on when and where they occurred. We review changes to Wisconsin’s informed consent law MBA Staff But not one for complacency. To discover why that arguably swing the pendulum away from James D. Temmer, Executive Director that is so, pull a two-hour shift as a volunteer patient autonomy and toward a supposedly Katy Borowski, Director of Projects attorney at the MJC’s Brief Legal Advice Clinic. bygone era of paternalism in deference to It is an eye-opening experience. In terms of the physicians. Our article from the ever-constant Sabrina Nunley, Director of Continuing vicissitudes of day-to-day life, the MJC’s clients Michael Best looks into the new phenomenon Legal Education are not unlike the rest of us. The difference is of union-free strikes. Dorothy Protz, Accountant that people who live in poverty, even those The aforementioned Milwaukee Justice Center is Molly Staab, Office Manager who scrape by just beyond the jaws of poverty, simply can’t afford a mistake or a bit of bad in the news, not only for the dedication of its new Britt Wegner, Director, Lawyer Referral & luck. What would be a minor hassle for you home but also because it has won a Wisconsin Information Service or me is for them real economic cataclysm. Innovation Award for the unique service model of its Mobile Legal Clinic. The Milwaukee Milwaukee Justice Center Staff There is not a dollar in reserve for the slightest mishap. There is no one to whom they can County Circuit Court reveals its emergency Dawn Caldart, Executive Director turn for assistance; all their friends and family, preparedness plan, known as the Continuity Mary Ferwerda, Legal Director however well-meaning, are in the same boat. of Operations Plan (COOP). The Office of the United States Attorney details its multi-faceted Omar Mallick, Attorney Supervisor One case in particular stays with me. A young mission and the sources that inspired it. The woman lent her beater of a car to a relative, “Reel Law” examines a law-themed film in an Contact Information who used it to visit a friend in an apartment unlikely sub-genre—the musical! complex. The relative accidently parked the Milwaukee Bar Association, Inc. car in another tenant’s reserved spot—a tow- We hope you enjoy this edition of the 424 East Wells Street away zone. And the car was towed. Some of Messenger, as we leave the summer doldrums Milwaukee, WI 53202 us have had that unpleasant experience, and behind and our pulses quicken along with Phone: 414-274-6760 have cursed, but nonetheless paid without our dockets. Here’s to another resplendent Fax: 414-274-6765 further ado, the exorbitant ransom charged Wisconsin autumn. If you can squeeze in the www.milwbar.org by the towing company. Well, this woman time to bang out that article percolating in simply didn’t have the ransom. Nor did the your subconscious, we’d love to hear from you. 4 Fall 2014 relative who made the mistake, or any other —C.B. Member News Volunteer Kevin J. Spexarth joined Andrus Intellectual Property Law as an associate. Kevin focuses his practice on domestic Spotlight and international patent and trademark prosecution and enforcement. Elizabeth K. Miles ttorney Elizabeth K. Miles is Hansen & Hildebrand announced that a 2009 Marquette University Hannah A. Rock has joined the firm as an Law School graduate. She associate. She concentrates in family law, A is an associate at Davis & Kuelthau mediation, and collaborative practice. Kevin J. Spexarth practicing commercial litigation with experience in environmental, Hupy and Abraham announced Tyler C. construction, and appellate litigation. Patrick as a new addition to the firm in the Liz grew up in Wasilla, Alaska. (Does Hannah A.