I am grateful to have started my career clerking for Chief Justice Abrahamson. She was a generous mentor and maintained incredibly good humor despite the intense demands and challenges of the job. I was inspired by her passion for reaching a fair, defensible result in every case and by her boundless commitment to serving the public. Chief Justice Abrahamson inspired me to become a judge and I was lucky to know her.
I worked late with the Chief (always “the Chief” to me) 5-6 days a week, except when she was traveling. As she joked more than once, by day, she was the Chief Justice Abrahamson. At night she was Justice Abrahamson. Most of her case work gone done after hours. At least in those days, her clerk’s office had two desks. During the days, the externs from University of Wisconsin, Marquette and Northeastern would rotate sitting in the other desk because it was nicer and gave them better access to the justices than the windowless extern office upstairs, though it was […]
My clerkship year with Chief Justice Abrahamson was fascinating and challenging. It was fascinating because the Wisconsin Supreme Court has discretion over which appeals to hear. Every case the Court takes involves issues of first impression, with many important doctrinal and policy choices for the court to make. It was challenging because the workload was intense. We had around 90 cases that term, and I was the only law clerk in the Chief’s chambers. We had a lot of help from interns, though. Working for Chief Justice Abrahamson taught me the meaning of hard work. She typically worked from 9 a.m. […]
My clerkship with Shirley was both inspiring personally and foundational to my legal development. She stood as a living example of how to navigate a career dedicated to public service and built on a bedrock of ethics. To this day, I keep of photograph of her in my office that I can see from my desk as a reminder that she is both watching me, and watching over me. In addition to a foremost legal mind, Shirley was tough as nails, and all business in the courtroom, often displaying a rather stern demeanor with the litigators. For instance, during the […]
Twenty-six years after my clerkship, it’s the small things I remember, including: The power of red grapes: I didn’t know that they were Shirley’s secret manna. How many nights and weekends did we together feed on those little red things, which kept us going…
I clerked for “the Boss,” as I still call Shirley in my mind to this day, during Justice Day’s lone year as Chief (Shirley’s nickname was bestowed by her assistant during my year there: Sue Fieber). Legends (and fables) be damned: what I saw, all year, was a lovefest between Chief Justice Day and the Boss, who would become Chief upon Justice Day’s retirement. For all their disputes and differences, ideological and philosophical, these two long-serving Justices shared an abiding commitment to the Court as an institution that’s been MIA during the ensuing quarter century, during which one of the […]
“I hope you seek a world where our constitutional rights to freedom of speech, press, and litigation are protected. I hope you are committed to a world free from discrimination, a world free from poverty, and a world filled with justice and peace. Learning to live in a diverse society free from bias and prejudice might be the biggest challenge we face in this century.” -Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson
“Most of us began law school or entered the practice of law picturing ourselves as Atticus Finch, the fictional lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird, whose representation of an unpopular criminal defendant required him to take a fresh look at legal services and at society. We saw ourselves, like Atticus, advocating for or in some way assisting people regardless of race, religion, financial status, unpopularity of the cause, or financial consequences to ourselves. . . . Let us reawaken the spirit of Atticus Finch in each of us. Let each of us take a fresh look at the justice system. And let all of us recommit ourselves to the ideal of making access to justice a reality for all.” -Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson
“To ensure a truly just legal system, one that reflects the history and hopes of this state, there must be greater public participation in the justice system.” – Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson
“The future of the justice system depends largely on the public’s continued confidence in the courts. When the courts truly serve the community, public trust in the justice system will grow.” -Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson