Welcome to 11 New Wisconsin Lawyers | Welcome to 11 New Wisconsin Lawyers (2024)

April 18, 2024 – A business lawyer from California, a journalist turned lawyer, a lawyer representing the third generation of lawyers in her family, and the first lawyer in her family.

These describe some of Wisconsin’s newest lawyers, taking the final steps after passing the bar exam – becoming Wisconsin lawyers in a ceremony before the Wisconsin Supreme Court on April 16, 2023, taking the Attorney’s Oath and signing the Wisconsin Supreme Court Roll book.

The State Bar of Wisconsin welcomed 11 new attorneys to its rolls.

Jacquelynn B. Rothstein, director of the Board of Bar Examiners, said 36% of the 61 individuals who took the bar exam in February passed it, and 57% of those taking the exam for the first time passed the exam. “The Board extends its congratulations to these men and women here today,” she said.

Chief Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler, in welcoming the new Wisconsin lawyers, recommended that they print a copy of the Attorney’s Oath to review every so often to “remind yourself of the great day that is today, and the promise, dreams, and thoughts you have for your future.”

A Passion for Justice

This moment, said Emma Loney, is impossible to describe. “I’ve been really overwhelmed ever since finding out I passed – because I was mentally prepared to not pass.”

Raised in Madison and a graduate of DeForest High School and Edgewood College, Loney went to Northern Illinois University Law School. She is now the first lawyer in her family. “My whole family is in the medical field, but it just wasn’t for me,” she said.

Instead, she chose law because of her passion for justice and advocating for people “ever since I can remember.” She plans to “be the change that I really want to see in policy and the criminal justice system,” she said.

With experience in family and criminal law, “hopefully one day I’ll be a judge,” she said.

Family joined her at the ceremony.

Family Tradition

Jane V. Evans comes back home to Madison after attending Hofstra University School of Law in New York – she has now passed the bar exam in both states.

Both her parents and her paternal grandfather were lawyers. Her father, Frank Evans, is now retired as chief counsel for the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. Grandfather John Vernon Evans practiced in Kenosha, and was a military lawyer in Hawaii during World War II.

John Evans acted as movant when Frank Evans became a lawyer, and now Frank is movant for his daughter. He is “very proud” to see his daughter become a Wisconsin lawyer. “It’s very, very moving for me,” Frank said.

Journalist and Lawyer

Folks in Rhinelander may know Benjamin Greenlaw Meyer. For more than seven years, he did news with WJFW television – following the Badgers in 2012 to the Rose Bowl and reporting on local events and politics. Listeners to Wisconsin Public Radio may recall his voice, when he was special topics correspondent at WXPR in Rhinelander.

Recently (and proudly) he’s been a stay-at-home dad for his young son, while attending Mitchell Hamline School of Law, while still a “recovering and periodically still active” journalist at WXPR.

He grew up in Mount Horeb, graduated from U.W.-Madison in 2010 as a political science and history major, “and then I sidestepped into journalism.” Now, he’s “sidestepped again” into law.

While a journalist, “I covered a lot of hearings and trials,” he said. He very much enjoyed covering them, but one day thought that he would enjoy doing it. “And I thought I’d be pretty good at it.” With the encouragement of his family to “go for it,” he did.

Via Mitchell Hamline’s hybrid program, he attended part-time and graduated in 3 ½ years. He will practice in Rhinelander, where attorneys are badly needed. “I've had a number of very generous people that have reached out to me and wondered what my plan was,” he said.

Becoming a lawyer “has been a team effort” with his family – he and his wife, Erika, have a 2 ½-year-old. “We just welcomed our second boy 10 days ago and it's been an exciting time,” he said.

California and Wisconsin

Craig Rashkis is a lawyer in Los Gatos, California – in the San Francisco area – where he’s practiced for about 24 years with Farwell Rashkis, LLP. He is a 2000 graduate of Santa Clara University Law School.

It was family that brought him to Wisconsin. “We wanted a change from California,” he said.

It was a Wisconsin friend’s legal issues that inspired him to finally apply for foreign license admission. “I always knew I wanted to get licensed here … and I thought now’s the time,” he said. He applied in January. “It all happened very quickly.”

Rashkis practices business law. “The bulk of my practice is representing manufacturers of alcoholic beverages.” He represents many California breweries, wineries, cideries and distilleries. “This would be a great state to pursue that practice,” although he has plans for his Wisconsin practice to take a different direction.

He wants to do “limited scope representation on a model I haven’t seen anyone else do,” he said. He will offer consultations for those who “just want to have a conversation” without making a large financial commitment, to determine whether they need an attorney or to learn their next steps in their business. “Over the past year, I’ve been doing more of this type of work,” in California, he said.

Welcome to These New Wisconsin Lawyers

Via Bar Exam

Jeremy DeLong

Joseph H. Detrick

Jane Victoria Evans

Kathleen Marie Hanco*ck

Andrew Allen Heisz

Hirsh M. Joshi

Emma Suzanne Loney

Benjamin Greenlaw Meyer

Clara A. Nerby

Jacob Pyle

Via Foreign License

Craig Benjamin Rashkis