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Hunger Task Force announced the receipt of $135,000 from the partners, associates and staff at Foley & Lardner LLP’s Milwaukee office and Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Dave Bush, as part of the Foley K’s for a Cause partnership with Brewers Charities. This is one of its most significant donations this year and comes at a time when the demand for hunger relief services is rising.

For more than 30 years, Hunger Task Force has been promoting socially sound policies aimed at ending hunger in the community. This was the second year that Foley selected Hunger Task Force to be involved in the K’s for a Cause program.

Hunger Task Force reports that from August 2008 to August 2009 the usage of food pantries in Milwaukee went up 54 percent.

K’s for a Cause is a four-year partnership between Foley and the Brewer Charities that began in March 2008 and will benefit a local charity each year. This year, Foley partners, associates and staff donated $200 to Hunger Task Force for every regular-season strikeout recorded by a Brewers pitcher at Miller Park. During each home game, strikeouts were highlighted on a K’s for a Cause strikeout meter in right field. Additionally, Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Dave Bush donated $15,000 to this year’s K’s for a Cause program, bringing the total donation to Hunger Task Force to $135,000.

Hunger Task Force is an anti-hunger organization which believes that every person has a right to adequate food obtained with dignity. Hunger Task Force works to prevent hunger and malnutrition by providing food to people in need today and by promoting social policies to achieve food security tomorrow. For more information visit hungertaskforce.org.

The firm also announced that Sharon R. Barner, chair of its Intellectual Property Department, has been named the new Deputy Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Her appointment by Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke puts her in a leadership position to work under Under Secretary David J. Kappos and the USPTO leadership to modernize and strengthen a federal agency with more than 6,000 professional employees dealing with administration of the U.S. patent system.

Barner received her J.D. in 1982 from the University of Michigan Law School

DeWitt Ross & Stevens announces the addition of Olivia M. Kelley to the Litigation, Business and Tax groups. Kelley joins the firm as an associate in their Brookfield office.

Kelley received her Juris Doctorate from Marquette University Law School in 2009, where she graduated cum laude.

The law firm of Godfrey & Kahn, SC announces the addition of nine associate attorneys:

Milwaukee Office: Daniel J. Blinka, Litigation (University of Wisconsin); Shannon L. Brusda, Estate Planning (University of Wisconsin); Erin “Maggie” Cook, Litigation (University of Wisconsin); Jessica A. Franklin, Environmental (Marquette University); Rufino Gaytán III, Labor & Employment (University of Wisconsin); Peggy L. Heyrman, Business Finance & Restructuring (University of Wisconsin); Rebecca J. Lauber, Corporate (Loyola University); Joshuah R. Torres, Financial Institutions (Marquette University); Appleton Office: Christopher G. Smessaert, Litigation (Marquette University).

Hupy and Abraham, SC sponsored a multi-media motorcycle awareness campaign in 2009 that reached over 2 million people. The campaign included electronic billboards, public service announcements on television paid for by the law firm and featured David Clarke, Sheriff of Milwaukee County and Dave Mahoney, Sheriff of Dane County in separate 30-second segments, bumper stickers, letter stickers, an airplane banner on July 3rd at the Milwaukee Lakefront and full-page newspaper ads in ten cities the last week of April.

Haley Palmersheim SC announced that Cathleen A. Dettmann has joined the firm as an associate. Dettmann is a 2009 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School. Her practice will focus primarily on business law and business litigation.

Shay A. Agsten, formerly a clerk for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Pamela Pepper, has accepted a position as an associate with von Briesen & Roper SC. Agsten received her J.D. from the University of Minnesota in 2005.