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Hickey gives back to the legal profession and her community

By: Jack Zemlicka, [email protected]//June 23, 2011//

Hickey gives back to the legal profession and her community

By: Jack Zemlicka, [email protected]//June 23, 2011//

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(Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)

Attorney Margaret Wrenn Hickey could use a clone. In addition to practicing full time as a partner at Becker, Hickey & Poster SC in Milwaukee, the veteran family and elder law practitioner lends her time to about a dozen professional and community organizations.

“People always ask, ‘Why do you do all these things?’” Hickey said.

Her answer is simple: She wants to broaden her horizons as a lawyer and as a person, even after 25 years in practice.

One of the endeavors she said she is most proud of is co-developing the Elder Law Workshop in 1999. Initially, the interactive program attracted a handful of practitioners to an area that didn’t get a lot of attention.

But the workshop has evolved during the past 12 years from a one-day experience to a sold-out, two-day event, crammed with elder law attorneys who trade advice and absorb insight from guest speakers.

“It’s in demand,” Hickey said, “so that means we must be doing something right.”

With a practice that includes elder, family and estate and trust law, Hickey said, she relishes the opportunity to shape the future of each of those areas in Wisconsin.

She also has a family member afflicted with mental illness, which has given Hickey more than just a professional interest in such areas as transitional living services and disability rights.

“I really gravitate toward things that have meaning to me personally,” she said.

That interest extends to her law partners as well, said attorney Heather Poster, who joined the firm in 2001.

Poster said one of the attractions in coming to the all-female firm was the early encouragement she received from Hickey while clerking with the firm in law school.

“She told me, ‘I don’t want you to be an ordinary lawyer, I want you to be an exceptional lawyer,’” Poster said.

Hickey has never been shy about sharing her opinion.

As a veteran member of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s board of governors, she is a vocal advocate of issues that affect her constituency and her profession.

While some attorneys who serve on the board do so for a two-year term or stagger their service, Hickey has been a fixture since 2005 and was re-elected in spring.

“One thing about lawyers is they are pretty smart, and it’s really fun to be on different boards and interact,” she said.

“So I’ve always viewed those as extracurricular activities rather than obligations.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FWZbNhh-u8

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