The Wisconsin Equal Justice Fund would like to congratulate the past recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award and Distinguished Service Award, and we thank them for their dedicated service to Wisconsin's low-income residents.

To nominate someone for the Howard B. Eisenberg Lifetime Achievement Award, please email Administrative Director Melissa Sullivan or call (715) 212-7585.

 

Howard B. Eisenberg Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients

2006	John F. Ebbott Legal Action of Wisconsin Milwaukee Attorney John Ebbott began his legal education at the New York University Law School, where he worked for Mobilization for Youth, one of the first OEO experimental legal services firms. Upon returning to Wisconsin, he graduated from UW Law School and began work for Freedom Through Equality. Inspired to continue his service to teh poor, John spent the 1970s and 1980s working for organizations like the Southside Office of Milwaukee Legal Services, the Migrant Legal Action Program, and the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin. In 1990, John became Executive Director of Legal Action of Wisconsin. He has been involved in numerous noteworthy cases, including Joni B. v. State, which obtained the right to a court-appointed attorney for low-income parents in CHIPS (Child In Need of Protective Services) cases. In addition to his tireless representation of low-income clients, John is a zealous advocate for increased funding for low-income legal services, and played a lead role in the founding of WEJF, Inc.
2005	Richard P. Perry Hawks, Quindel, Ehlke & Perry, S.C. Milwaukee Attorney Richard Perry's dedication to pro bono legal work spans a career nearly four decades long. After returning to Milwaukee from the Chicago area in 1965, Mr. Perry became involved in the civil rights movement, providing pro bono representation to freedom schools during the desegregation period. In the late 1960's, Mr. Perry and fellow attorneys Lloyd Barbee and Jim Shellow submitted a proposal to the federal Office of Economic Opportunity for an aggressive legal services program in Milwaukee. Thus was born Freedome Through Equality, Inc., the forerunner of Legal Action of Wisconsin (LAW). Mr. Perry was an active member of the Board of Directors of LAW for 29 years. For three decades, he provided pro bono legal services to those in need, while working tirelessly to oppose funding cuts for legal services programs. Today, Mr. Perry is a shareholder in the Milwaukee law firm of Hawks, Quindel, Ehlke & Perry, SC.
2004	Honorable Patricia D. McMahon Circuit Court Judge Milwaukee Judge McMahon began her career as an associate at Foley & Lardner, providing pro bono representation to low-income clients. She left Foley in 1970 to become a staff attorney at Freedome Through Equality, the forerunner of Legal Action of Wisconsin (LAW). In 1978, she became Executive Director of LAW. In 1983, she asked to step down to Associate Director in order to engage in more direct client representation. She has served on the Board of Directors for Rosalie Manor, Migrant Legal Action Program, and the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation. Judge McMahon has served as a Circuit Court Judge in Milwaukee since 1985.
2003	John S. Skilton Heller Ehrman LLP Madison Mr. Skilton, a 1969 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, has worked for nearly 40 years as a trial attorney in the commercial, antitrust, and intellectual property areas. In September 1994, Mr. Skilton formed a statewide cooperative effort to address the changing financial needs of Wisconsin's civil legal services programs, called the Commission on the Delivery of Legal Srvices. Part of the commission's recommendation included creating the Equal Justice Coalition, now the Wisconsin Equal Justice Fund. Mr. Skilton served as President of the Board of Directors from 1996 to 2000, overseeing WEJF's initial campaign which raised $1.2 million for our member programs. John Ebbott, Executive Director of Legal Action of Wisconsin, said of Mr. Skilton, "John has raised thousands of dollars from his own law firm and from other attorneys. He has advocated in the halls of Congress for increased funding for legal services. He has cultivated relationships with our state's key policymakers. John has been an unbelievable force for equal justice."

Distinguished Service Award Recipients

2006	Marka A. Henkelman Pro Bono Director Wisconsin Judicare, Inc. (Wausau) Twenty-eight years ago, Marka Henkelman came to Judicare looking for a part-time job. Instead, she found a lifetime career. Now, as Pro Bono Director, she serves as the pivot-point for Judicare's unique system of legal service delivery as she coordinates representation for low-income clients. Marka began at Judicare in 1978 as an intake specialist. Within a short time, her interest in the program and the people it served helped her make a decision to become a full-time employee. Her promotions to progressively more responsible positions over teh years resulted in the building of a large panel of almost 300 volunteer private attorneys who rely on her to approve cases, coordinate coverage, and oversee case-coverage policies. Marka has devoted her career to providing legal services to the poor and exemplifies the ideals of the Judicare system - making it possible for disadvantaged clients to choose their own attorneys in the areas in which they live. Marka displays an uncanny ability to find a pro bono attorney for a deserving client when everyone else has given up looking.
2005	Kevin Magee Managing Attorney Legal Action of Wisconsin (Madison) Mr. Magee has represented clients in civil legal services for 25 years. After graduating from Lewis & Clark Law School in 1979, he worked for the Dubuque Northeast Regional Office of Legal Services Corporation of Iowa (LSCI). He joined Legal Action of Wisconsin (LAW) in 1990 to direct their Migrant Law Project. In 1997, he assumed the position of Managing Attorney of LAW's Madison office, while continuing to serve as Director of the Migrant Law Project. He has served in both positions for the past eight years. Mr. Magee is so dedicated to serving his clients that he attended a Spanish-immersion program in Mexico at his own expense in order to improve his client communications. In addition to his work at LAW, Mr. Magee works on behalf of the poor through his service on the boards of the Dane County Unemployment Compensation Clinic and the Consumer Litigation Clinic, and on the Wisconsin Migrant Coalition. He is frequently consulted by the Governor's Committee on Migrant Labor.
2004	Jeffrey Spitzer-Resnick Managing Attorney Disability Rights Wisconsin (Madison) As a Managing Attorney on the Schools and Civil Rights Team at DRW, Mr. Spitzer-Resnick oversees the work of a number of attorneys and other advocates in a wide range of legal services areas, including deinstitutionalization, right to appropriate services, Americans with Disabilities Act, abuse and neglect, and wrongful death investigations. He is a leader in Special Education law, representing countless clients in due process hearings. He has also been involved in federal and state litigation related to the educational rights of students with disabilities, including the class action on behalf of 17,000 students with disabilities in Milwaukee Public Schools. Mr. Spitzer-Resnick plays a lead role in a number of education and disability-related coalitions, task forces, and councils in Wisconsin, and has been a strong voice in the legislature and the Governor's office on budgetary and legislative issues affecting people with disabilities. He is part of the teaching team for the Law and Disability course at UW Law School, and supervises law students in field placements at DRW and CPR. He is author of a number of publications on Medicare, elder law, and nursing home residents' rights. Before joining DRW, Mr. Spitzer-Resnick was involved in private practice with a major emphasis on civil rights and health law. He is a cum laude graduate of Boston College of Law.