Building on a Rock

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Hannah Rock helped to create her current job while still in law school.

Rock, who graduated from Marquette University Law School in 2014, worked as a law clerk for Milwaukee-based Hansen & Hildebrand after hearing a lawyer, Sue Hansen, speak during a class lecture.

“That was my lightbulb moment, and I thought, ‘This is where I belong,’” Rock said.

While working as a law clerk, Rock helped develop the Milwaukee Mediation Center, which opened in the city’s Third Ward in 2015 and specializes in providing mediation services to separating or divorcing couples. Rock established mediation processes and developed public-education materials for users of the center. She also met with court commissioners and judges in various counties to learn about procedures both for pro se litigants and for those with lawyers.

“I want them to be comfortable and satisfied that they have a resolution that is livable for them and that they felt that they’ve focused on their children and are able to co-parent,” she said.

The mediation process Rock helped establish relies on the assistance of lawyer-mediators, child and family specialists, and neutral financial advisors. These experts are called on to promote the development of divorce or separation agreements that place a priority on the needs of children.

“Collaboration is such a better approach, a holistic approach, to separation and co-parenting,” Rock said.

She now works as a mediator at the center and is looking for opportunities for expansion into other counties. Beyond that work, Rock is a full-time lawyer at Hansen & Hildebrand, where she specializes in family law. Among the types of cases she handles are those involving divorce, paternity, child support, child placement and estate planning.

Whether working at the center or representing a client, Rock said, she places an emphasis on compromise and cooperative decision-making over litigation.

“I don’t want to be seen as an attorney who’s just going to be a weapon but as an attorney who’s going to be helping families,” she said.