Contact: Kristen Durst
State Bar of Wisconsin
608.250.6025
[email protected]
Lake Geneva, WI – Madison attorney Christopher Rogers was sworn in as the State Bar of Wisconsin’s 63rd president on Wednesday at the State Bar’s Annual Meeting & Conference in Lake Geneva. Dane County Circuit Court Judge Rhonda Lanford emceed the event.
During his term as State Bar of Wisconsin President, Rogers says he’ll continue to move forward the State Bar’s Mass and Disparate Incarceration project, which is working to help find legal solutions to the state’s overwhelming problem of disproportionate confinement of minorities. He also says he’ll focus his attention on continuing to push legislative efforts to increase the private bar rate for state public defenders.
“The Bar will continue to advocate for an increase in the private pay rate for our state public defenders which now sits at $40 an hour, the lowest in the country. The rate needs to change. That’s really no longer in debate. We need to lobby and advocate for a system to be created and implemented that is fair not just for the public defenders and the citizens who they represent, but also for the system itself.”
Rogers also has a lengthy list of member service related goals, including addressing the growing problem of access to justice in rural, northern counties, continuing the Bar’s efforts to increase diversity and inclusion within the organization and profession, bridging the gap between unmet legal needs and new lawyers looking for employment, and the changing legal services delivery industry and new forms of unregulated competition.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Patience Roggensack administered the oath of office. Rogers assumes a one-year term July 1, succeeding outgoing State Bar President Paul Swanson of Oshkosh, who becomes immediate past president.
Rogers, who graduated from U.W. Law School, is a partner in firm of Habush Habush and Rottier S.C. ® in Madison. He primarily represents clients who have been injured by product defects, automobile accidents and general negligence. Rogers has a long history of working with and advocating for people with disabilities. He is a current Dane County Branch 16 Court Commissioner and serves on the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Board of Governors and Executive Committee.
