Ball devotes career to ensuring representation.

Byline: Alison Henderson

In her more than 26 years of experience in the legal field, Colleen Ball has obtained the sort of foresight that lets her identify unspoken needs and deficiencies in a system that is often over-complicated.

Ball, an attorney in the appellate division of the State Public Defender's Office, is often praised for the way she tenaciously applies herself to pro bono work for herself and for others.

"Colleen gives tirelessly of herself both in time and in careful and creative thought to create and move programs forward," said Melissa Love Koenig, the chairwoman of the appellate practice section of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

This has given her an opportunity to work on programs to provide better appellate legal services. These include the Brief Assistant App, Appellate Help Desk, State Bar Appellate Practice Section and a program that connects Wisconsin lawyers with litigants who need pro bono appeals services. In the last 10 years of the pro bono program, attorneys have donated more than 16,000 volunteer hours and more than $4 million in fees.

"The thing the unrepresented need the most is a lawyer," Ball said, "but if we can't give them a lawyer you can tell just by listening to their questions the next best thing is a few minutes...

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