Branks goes above and beyond for SPD

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For the past 22 years, Michael Branks has served in the State Public Defender’s office, where he has used his ambition and initiative to go above and beyond what’s required.

His dedication to the people he works alongside has been evident throughout his career, and his vision for the agency has made an undeniable difference.

The past two decades have seen him working on countless complex felony investigations, putting his expertise to use by training other investigators as well as student interns. Not only has he proved to be an outstanding investigator; Branks has also managed to become a polygrapher, an accomplishment requiring a lot of his own time and money.

After becoming interested in a polygrapher role and learning that there was no budget in the office for training, he used his personal leave to enroll in polygraph school and bought his own equipment. He obtained his license and refined his technique through years of training. He has since put all this to use in the hope of benefiting the agency at large. Branks now regularly conducts polygraph examinations for agency clients with staff attorneys as well as private bar attorneys.

“The single greatest honor of my life has been the opportunity to serve my boss, Sam Benedict, the attorneys of the Office of the State Public Defender and their clients,” he said.

Branks has also put in innumerable hours providing investigative support to the Wisconsin Innocence Project, as well as the Wisconsin Supreme Court, through the Office of Lawyer Regulation.

“He is truly an Unsung Hero in the legal profession and I am proud to work with him,” Benedict said.