Bradley elected chief justice

Listen to this article

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley was elected to serve as chief justice, effective May 1, 2025.

She succeeds Chief Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler in this role. Bradley was first elected to the court in 1995 and will leave after serving three full 10-year terms on July 31, 2025. Bradley has indicated she will step down as chief on June 30, 2025, after two months in the role.

“It is a tremendous honor to be elected by my colleagues as the leader of this great court,” Bradley said. “It has been my life’s goal to honor the rule of law, enhance access to justice, and serve the 5.9 million people who call Wisconsin home. Serving as chief justice enables me to further those goals. The court system is full of wonderful staff and justices, from the circuit court to the appellate court to our Supreme Court. So, I deeply appreciate the opportunity to serve as the administrative head of this august institution.”

In anticipation of Bradley’s retirement, the court elected Justice Jill J. Karofsky to become chief justice as of July 1, 2025. She was elected to the court in 2020 and will serve the remainder of the two-year chief justice term until April 30, 2027.

“I deeply appreciate the confidence my colleagues have placed in me, and I will continue to work respectfully with every member of this court to ensure the administration of court business is conducted in a fair and efficient manner,” Karofsky said.

Ziegler, who has served as chief justice for the past four years, said she wished her colleagues “all the best” in their new roles.

Bradley began her judicial career as a circuit court judge in Marathon County. She was first elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 1995, becoming the first woman in the state’s history to join the court by being elected rather than appointed to the position. She was twice re-elected in 2005 and 2015.

Bradley is a native of Richland Center. She was a high school teacher before entering the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she earned her law degree.

Karofsky was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2020 and served as a judge on the Dane County Circuit Court before that.

Prior to becoming a judge in 2017, Karofsky was the executive director of the Office of Crime Victim Services for the state Department of Justice. She previously served as an assistant state attorney general and Wisconsin’s first Violence against Women Resource Prosecutor, an adjunct professor at the UW Law School, the general counsel and director of education and human resources for the National Conference of Bar Examiners, and as an assistant district attorney and deputy district attorney for Dane County.