Sankovitz dives back into complex commercial cases

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One of the things Richard Sankovitz misses most about being a judge is being in court.

“There’s no theater, there’s no Netflix, no play stage with real drama on it like there is in a courtroom — and the judge has the best seat,” he said.

For example, during jury-selection procedures for one particular breach-of-contract case, the parties decided to ask the potential jurors if they knew anyone on the case. One juror said she recognized one of the defendants but couldn’t quite say why until that defendant leaned over and whispered in her ear.

“And the juror puts her hand over her mouth and says, ‘Oh, you’re in the same belly-dancing class!’” Sankovitz said. “That was a daily benefit of my job. … being able to see the human spirit unedited, undirected, unscripted.”

Sankovitz left the Milwaukee County Circuit late last year after spending 22 years on the bench, presiding over thousands of cases as well as helping develop information technology for judges.

He wanted to get a steadier diet of complex commercial cases and took a mediator position at Milwaukee-based Resolute Systems LLC, a dispute-resolution and consulting firm. In many ways, his views have changed little from what they were before Sankovitz took to the bench, when he was a business and civil-litigation lawyer at Jenner & Block as well as then-Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek.

“Judges’ work, a lot of times, is piecework—one motion at a time, one ruling at a time, one scheduling conference at time, one trial at a time.” Sankovitz said. “When you mediate a case, you take the deep dive, and you study the case from top to bottom to try to find that resolution that both parties will benefit from.”

Yet the transition from judge to a mediator is not as easy as it might seem, he said. Trial judges, Sankovitz said, are often used to having the last word, at least until the court of appeals steps in.

“But in mediation, I can’t tell people what to do,” Sankovitz said. “I have to persuade them that it’s in their best interest to do what is necessary to settle the case. That’s more challenging, which is why I think I’ll be more fulfilled by it. But I have to say, it’s a lot easier being a judge.”