Gov. Tony Evers makes first judicial appointment, will need 71 more to match Walker

Gov. Tony Evers has made his first judicial appointment, naming a woman from a major law firm to fill a seat on the Court of Appeals in Madison.

Rachel Graham, a litigator at Quarles & Brady's Madison office, will replace Gary Sherman, who is retiring after nine years on the appellate court.

Graham, an associate at the firm, graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 2008. Before joining Quarles & Brady, Graham served as a law clerk to state Supreme Court Justice Anne Walsh Bradley.

Graham is also a graduate of Northwestern University and Stevens Point Area Senior High School.

She was among the attorneys who sued on behalf of teen inmates over conditions at Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls. As a result, the state agreed to reduce its use of solitary confinement and pepper spray at the long-troubled facility north of Wausau.

“Wisconsin deserves fair judges who respect the law and understand the people that come before them. Rachel A. Graham has the temperament, experience, and ability to do just that for the people of Wisconsin,” Evers said in news release.

Evers will soon be making several more appointments, including to fill the spot on the Waukesha office of the Court of Appeals, where Judge Brian Hagedorn beat his colleague, Judge Lisa Neubauer, in the Supreme Court election in April.

He's also been soliciting applications for appointment to fill circuit court openings caused by retirements in Milwaukee, Outagamie and Washburn counties and to replace Judge Kitty Brennan on the District I Court of Appeals in Milwaukee. Brennan also has announced her retirement.

Many more judges will have to retire for Evers to leave a mark on the judiciary anything like his predecessor. During his two terms, Scott Walker appointed 72 judges, more than double those appointed by past governors Jim Doyle (30) and Tommy Thompson (24).

Evers already has appointed two district attorneys. In May he named Brenda Yaskal in Columbia County to replace Tristan Eagon who resigned in April after three months on the job. She had been appointed in December by Walker to take over from the retiring Jane Kohlwey.

This month he named Matthew Allen to the office in Iowa County, where the prior DA, Larry E. Nelson, died in his office in April from a blood clot.

Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Contact Bruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187 or bvielmetti@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.