Evers chooses 14 lawyers, 1 law professor for judicial selection committee

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Gov. Tony Evers on Monday announced his picks for a committee that interviews and recommends candidates for appointments to judicial vacancies.

The committee includes the following members:

• Jeanne Armstrong, a litigation attorney at Middleton-based Fuhrman & Dodge;
• Christine Bremer Muggli, chief shareholder of Bremer & Trollop Law Offices in Wausau and past president of the Wisconsin Association for Justice, the state plaintiff’s bar association;
• Truscenialyn Brooks, a labor and employment, commercial-litigation and patent-litigation lawyer at Perkins Coie;
• Michael Brose, a civil litigator who focuses on personal injury law at Doar, Drill & Skow in New Richmond;
• Kristen Hardy, legal counsel at Rockwell Automation, Inc. and president of the Wisconsin Association of African-American Lawyers;
• Rebeca López, an employment attorney with Godfrey & Kahn;
• Craig Mastantuono, a criminal defense attorney and partner at Mastantuono & Coffee;
• Ryan Nilsestuen (co-chair), Evers’ chief legal counsel and former chief legal counsel for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction;
• Odalo Ohiku, founder of the Law Office of Odalo J. Ohiku in Milwaukee and a trained mediator and arbitrator;
• Deputy State Public Defender Jon Padgham, who has been a public defender since 1996 and previously was manager of the SPD’s Appleton/Green Bay region;
• Trempealeau County District Attorney John Sacia of Galesville, who has served his county as a prosecutor since 2015;
• Miriam Seifter, an assistant professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, former litigator and former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit;
• Dana Wachs, a civil litigator and partner at Gingras, Cates, and Wachs. He represented Eau Claire for six years in the Wisconsin State Assembly;
• Benjamin Wagner, a civil trial lawyer and a shareholder at Habush, Habush & Rottier S.C.; and
• MaiVue Xiong, a partner at Weld Riley in Eau Claire, where she practices in business, real estate, copyright and trademark, and banking law.