Susan R. Steingass, former Dane County Circuit Judge and President of the State Bar of Wisconsin, has been named Director of the University of Wisconsin Law School's Communication and Advocacy Program. Steingass will direct the reshaping and broadening of the Law School's existing program for the teaching of Legal Writing and Research into a program with a wider scope, encompassing oral communication and advocacy skills as well as writing.
The reconfiguring and expanding of the program is the UW Law School's response to an in-depth survey of recent graduates and their employers, in which the strong opinion of both groups was that oral and written communication skills join legal reasoning as the most important skills to be learned by today's law students.
Ms. Steingass, a shareholder in the firm of Habush Habush & Rottier, received her undergraduate degree from Denison University in 1963, her master's degree from Northwestern University with honors in 1965, and her J.D. degree, magna cum laude, from the UW Law School in 1976. As a law student, she was Note and Comment Editor of the Wisconsin Law Review. After graduation from law school, Ms. Steingass served as law clerk to the Honorable Nathan S. Heffernan, Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
From 1977 to 1985, Ms. Steingass was an associate and then partner at Stafford, Rosenbaum, Rieser & Hansen in Madison. From 1985 to 1993 she was a Dane County Circuit Judge, and in 1993 was elected Wisconsin Trial Judge of the Year by the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.
Ms. Steingass, who is currently President of the Wisconsin Law Alumni Association, has been named one of the "Best Lawyers in America," and is co-recipient of the Marygold Melli Achievement Award of the Legal Association for Women. She is a member of the American Law Institute, and an adviser to its work on the Restatement (Third) of Torts, Apportionment of Liability, as well as editor/author of Wisconsin Civil Procedure Before Trial, and co-editor of The Wisconsin Rules of Evidence: A Courtroom Handbook.
Ms. Steingass has taught at the UW Law School in the areas of civil procedure, evidence, environmental law, negotiation, and trial advocacy. She has taught and served as team leader at numerous programs of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) around the country and internationally, and also taught at the National Judicial College. She is a member of the Order of the Coif, President of the Fund for Equal Justice, former board member for the United Way of Dane County, an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Wisconsin Law Foundation, and a member of the Board of Trustees of NITA. She is also a member of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association and a founding member of the James E. Doyle chapter of the American Inns of Court.
"We are truly delighted to have Susan Steingass joining us at the UW Law School," comments Dean Kenneth B. Davis, Jr. "She is a person of impressive accomplishments, background, commitment and sheer energy, and I know that we are about to embark on a groundbreaking project in shaping our Communication and Advocacy Program under her guidance. Her work will positively affect our students, faculty, alumni and employers."
Ms. Steingass, who will remain of counsel to Habush Habush & Rottier, will join the UW Law School in her new position in August.
"I'm very excited about this position," Ms. Steingass has stated. "I look forward to working at the Law School -- building on the excellent work that has already been done and moving into the future."
Submitted by on May 1, 2003
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