Neenah lawyers to face off for bar leadership position

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Two attorneys from Neenah are vying for the top leadership position at the State Bar of Wisconsin.

President-Elect Jill Kastner announced at the Board of Governors’ meeting on Friday that Grant Birtch, of the Neenah office of von Briesen & Roper, and Kathleen Brost, of the Neenah-based firm Legacy Private Trust Co., have accepted nominations to run for president of the state bar.

Birtch, who earned his law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1990, is a shareholder in von Briesen’s business practice group and represents clients in estate-planning, probate, real-estate and corporate matters.

Brost, who earned her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1992, is a trust and financial adviser on Legacy’s client-relationship team. Before that, she had worked in private practice as a corporate counsel, according to her company profile.

The winner will serve out one year as president-elect starting on July 1, 2019, before spending a year-long term as bar president.

Others who accepted nominations for the election in April include the attorney Eric Andrews of McCoy, Leavitt Laskey in Waukesha and Kathryn Bullon of Deerhaven Consulting Services in Ontario, Canada. Andrews and Bullon are running to be bar treasurer, a position which has a two-year term.

Howard Bichler of Wausau-based Wisconsin Judicare and Sarah Zylstra of the Madison-based firm Boardman & Clark have accepted nominations to serve a three-year term as the bar’s representative on the Judicial Council, a 21-member body that recommends and studies changes to the state’s court procedures and policies.

The bar will distribute election ballots by April 12, and the ballots must be returned by April 26. Follow @erikastrebel