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The Wisconsin Law Journal honored its 2015 Women of the Law on Thursday at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee. More than 300 people turned out to celebrate this year's field of outstanding women.

Denasha Scott never assumes she knows what a client wants. In large part because of her willingness to listen, Scott, who specializes in estate-planning and business law, has risen to team leader of Stafford Rosenbaum LLP’s Business Law Practice Group and is now a member of the firm’s board of directors.

Karen Tidwall didn’t think girls became lawyers. Her high school English teacher changed that.

Ellen Brostrom’s passion for service started with a summer job at a soup kitchen.

After working for the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s office for more than 20 years, DeeDee Watson hears the same two questions time and time again: How is she able to defend her indigent criminal clients, and how can she do it for so long?

For Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Elisabeth Mueller, working at the DA’s office isn’t just a job. It’s who she is.

Amy Shapiro often finds herself working with clients in their darkest hours — whether they’re going through a divorce or dealing with child support or custody concerns.

Kristin Bergstrom has spent a lot of time being the only woman in the room. “It’s no longer true,” said Bergstrom, one of the first female shareholders at Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren.

Gail McCarthy didn’t have anyone telling her to lean in when she became an attorney 35 years ago. She just did.

Ann Ustad Smith’s secret weapon is her friendly demeanor. Ustad Smith, chair of Michael Best & Friedrich LLP’s banking and financial services industry group, specializes in helping distressed businesses and meeting clients’ needs regarding bankruptcy, commercial transactions and constitutional litigation.

For Andrea Murdock, every case is something different. Working in insurance and construction litigation, the managing shareholder at Halloin & Murdock S.C. in Milwaukee said she enjoys the challenges each new case brings.

Jennifer Allen remembers saying she would never go to law school or become an attorney. Fortunately for her clients, it turns out she was wrong.

Nancy Bonniwell is dedicated to serving her clients, colleagues and community. A main factor in her success as partner at Weiss Berzowski Brady LLP, where she practices estate planning and business law, is her ability to build relationships with clients and understand their motivations.

Pamela Pepper grew up in the middle of nowhere — the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta to be exact.

Maria Gonzalez Knavel remains as determined in retirement as she was when working as a partner for Foley & Lardner.

After practicing law for more than 10 years, Freya Bowen knows of a little advice she would love to have received in her first year.

Martha Heidt stumbled upon a book — and a new career. As a struggling dairy farmer in the late 1980s near Eau Claire, she came across a book on agricultural law while cleaning a barn basement.

Rebecca Coffee always knew she would work in the law. She just wasn’t sure she’d be a lawyer. But after working as a paralegal, she was convinced.

Miriam Fleming almost became a chef. Starting in seventh or eighth grade, she started working for chef Ferdinand Metz at H.J. Heinz Co.

Cheryl Weston wants to help her students to think as deeply about the law as she does. That means they should be able to recognize the intersection of substance and procedure, to understand rules and use them tactically. “If they learn the tools of being a good litigator, they always can pick up the substance of ... Subscribe Login Digital ...

When Susan Sheeran began working as an attorney focused on construction, labor and employment laws, she often found herself the only woman in the room.

Women really can have it all. Just ask Maria Kreiter.

Maura McMahon wants to know every client’s story. Throughout the past 12 years in the State Public Defender’s Waukesha office, she has advocated for women, children and the mentally ill, but the often-troubling details of those cases have done little to dim her bright outlook.

Debby Tomczyk balances the tangible and intangible in her practice. A shareholder at Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, Tomczyk specializes in business law and real estate, which she says provides here with an uncommon means of tracking her own success.

Jodi Arndt Labs was nine years old the first time she dealt with the court. “I had a light-bulb moment that said, ‘I could do better than those guys,’” Arndt Labs laughed.

When Patricia Gibeault was starting out as a bankruptcy attorney, she was sometimes mistaken for someone’s secretary. Times have definitely changed.

Courtroom TV shows such as “The Young Lawyers” gave Mancoske a sense of what lawyers could do in an altruistic way.

A few weeks ago, a graduate of Polk County drug court waited outside of Molly E. GaleWyrick’s Circuit Court chambers.

Ann Murphy is no longer mistaken for a secretary, but she certainly remembers those days.

Sheboygan County Judge Angela Sutkiewicz was looking for a way to help military veterans who were suffering from treatable behavioral-health conditions and found their way into her courtroom after committing a crime.