Who’s Doing What: Firms support summer food programs; Radler to become Quarles managing partner

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Firms unite with Hunger Task Force to support summer food programs

Tenants of the 411 East Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee — including Quarles & Brady, Lindner & Marsack and von Briesen — recently kicked off the first-ever 411 Fights Summer Hunger initiative.

Several building tenants have united in a partnership with Hunger Task Force to support Milwaukee-area summer food programs for kids. Tenant employees raised donations and collected jars of peanut butter.

According to Hunger Task Force, 83 percent of Milwaukee Public School students qualify as low-income for free or reduced-price meals. The nonprofit organization serves 35,000 people each month, and more than half of those served are children.

Quarles & Brady’s Radler to become firm’s managing partner

Quarles & Brady’s Daniel Radler will become the firm’s managing partner on Dec. 1. Fredrick Lautz, who has served in the position since its inception in 2007, will continue to support growth initiatives, including lateral recruitment, following the transition.

Radler will be the second managing partner in the firm’s history. Lautz was the first to assume the role after the death of Firm Chair Pat Ryan.

A former engineer, Radler has been with Quarles for 19 years. He has served in leadership roles that include national chair of the Intellectual Property Practice Group and a member of the Executive Committee.

WHD adds attorneys to offices; Giftos elected to Madison board

Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek has announced the additions of Rodney Carter to its Real Estate Practice Group and Samantha Skenandore to its Corporate and Finance Practice Group.

Carter is a shareholder in the Milwaukee office of WHD where he is a member of the Real Estate Practice Group. He is experienced in providing legal counsel on a wide variety of business and real estate transactions to corporate clients of all types and sizes.

Skenandore is an attorney in the Madison office of WHD where she is a member of the Corporate and Finance Practice Group and Indian Law Team. She represents and advises tribal and corporate clients on a variety of issues facing Indian country with a focus on tribal governance/governmental affairs, corporate transactions, Indian gaming and litigation.

• WHD also announced that Mindi Giftos, managing shareholder of the firm’s Madison office, has been elected to the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors.

Giftos leads the firm’s Technology Law Team and is a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group.

Krukowski, Sacks join Mallery & Zimmerman

Debby Krukowski and Jonathan Sacks have joined Wausau-based Mallery & Zimmerman.

Krukowski joins the firm as a shareholder and will continue her practice of employment law and related litigation.

Sacks joins the firm as an associate and will add depth to the firm’s litigation team.  He concentrates his practice on commercial and other civil litigation.

Killoran re-elected to the ABA’s House of Delegates

O’Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong & Laing’s Grant Killoran has been re-elected by the State Bar of Wisconsin Board of Governors to serve another two-year term as one of the bar’s five delegates to the American Bar Association House of Delegates.

Killoran has served as a delegate to the ABA House of Delegates since 2014. He also served as a delegate from 1997 to 1999 and from 2003 to 2009.

Killoran is a shareholder with O’Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong & Laing, where he is the chair of the firm’s Litigation Practice Group.

Reinhart attorneys earn spots on boards

Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren attorney Andrea Davenport has been appointed to the Legal Action of Wisconsin’s Board of Directors. Legal Action of Wisconsin provides free legal services to low-income people who would be denied justice without the organization’s help. Legal Action emphasizes legal work with a broad reach, aimed at systemic changes that will help more people achieve a decent quality of life.

Davenport is an attorney in Reinhart’s Litigation Practice.

Laura Brenner has been elected to the Eastern District of Wisconsin Bar Association’s Board of Directors.

Brenner is a shareholder in Reinhart’s Litigation Practice and chair of the firm’s Product Distribution and Franchise Team.

Hupy promotes Plier

Hupy and Abraham attorney Kyra Plier recently became a new attorney for the firm.

Plier joined Hupy and Abraham in August 2013 as a law clerk, and was recently promoted to an associate attorney for the firm. She will be representing Hupy and Abraham clients in various personal injury areas.

Plier, who graduated from Marquette University Law School in 2014, recently assisted on a motorcycle accident case where a client was severely injured. The case settled for $3.1 million.

Godfrey & Kahn makes Power Rankings list

Godfrey & Kahn Named to Strongest Firms for Banking Work listing By BTI Consulting in its 2016 Power Rankings Report

BTI Consulting has named Godfrey & Kahn to its Strongest Firms for Banking Work listing in the BTI Power Rankings 2016 report. Godfrey & Kahn’s Banking and Financial Institutions Practice Group was one of only 11 firms listed nationally and the only Wisconsin law firm listed.

The BTI Power Rankings 2016 report is compiled based on interviews with corporate counsels at several organizations. The listing was based on two main factors: being a “go-to” firm for bank legal services and obtaining unsolicited recommendations from existing clients.

McGaver, Strohbehn promoted to partner

Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown has announced that Steven McGaver and Erin Strohbehn, both 2006 graduates of Marquette University Law School, have been promoted to partner.

DeWitt elects Garson to serve on executive committee

DeWitt Ross & Stevens, and its affiliate DeWitt Mackall Crounse & Moore, recently elected Peter Garson to serve on its Executive Committee. Garson will join other committee members in assisting with the governance and strategic direction of the firm.

In addition to Garson’s election, current committee members William McCardell, Michele Perreault and Timothy Stewart were elected to serve additional three-year terms.

Bechler elected to Fellows of the American Bar Foundation

Murphy Desmond attorney Lawrence Bechler has been elected as a member of the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.

Only 1 percent of lawyers in each jurisdiction are eligible to become Fellows. Fellows are nominated by peers and elected by the Board of the American Bar Foundation.

Bechler’s legal practice emphasizes municipal law, probate, estate planning, property tax law and litigation.