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Morales dedicates life to Milwaukee firm (and Bloody Marys)

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//December 1, 2016//

Morales dedicates life to Milwaukee firm (and Bloody Marys)

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//December 1, 2016//

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Maria Morales – Weiss Berzowski – Firm Administrator

Maria Morales has put in 45 years at her firm, the Milwaukee-based Weiss Berzowski. And 35 of those have been spent as firm administrator.

The role’s name is short, but the list of hats Morales wears to keep the place running is not.

Her duties range from arranging social events and purchasing equipment to hiring and working with legal assistants, as well crunching numbers for the firm’s retirement and profit-sharing plans.

Morales, who started at the firm as a receptionist and secretary, has watched attorneys rise up the ranks and watched the place expand from a four-attorney operation to one that now employs 21 lawyers.

What makes Morales stand out is her service to the firm, says Mike Berzowski.

“She’s loyal, dedicated, tenacious and renders what I would call selfless services,” he said. “If someone asked me to sum up the whole thing, the only thing she ever did was to dedicate her life to this law firm for 45 years.”

One of the biggest changes she’s witnessed at Weiss Berzowski is the firm’s transition into the digital age.

“We went from lawyers telling me there was no way a guy could get computers on their desk,” she said. “Now those same attorneys have a real problem if there’s a problem with the network and we’re down for a short time. We had to get them to buy into the fact that we all had to learn to use computers, and it’s gotten easier as technology has advanced. ”

Outside work, Morales volunteers for the Wisconsin Association of Legal Administrators. The work has brought her many life-long friends.

She also enjoys fishing. Every August, Morales spends a week fishing with friends at a cottage on Bass Lake. But that’s not all they do. Morales and her friends also make a year’s supply of tomato juice for Bloody Marys – about 80 quarts in all.

Morales’ other pastimes include cultivating roses and traveling. Besides various cities in the U.S., she has been to London, Paris, Scotland, the Bahamas and Mexico. Next year, she hopes to make it to Italy.

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