Daniels, new State Bar president-elect, ready to listen, lead (VIDEO).

Byline: Rick Benedict

The Madison attorney Cheryl Daniels is the newest member of the State Bar of Wisconsin's leadership team in what has proved to be a historic election for the organization.

Daniels defeated Michael May, Madison city attorney, in the April race for president-elect. Her victory marked the first time in State Bar history that three women will serve as the top leaders of the organization.

Starting July 1, Daniels will support Kathy Brost, the next State Bar president, as part of a three-woman leadership team that will also include Jill Kastner, as past president. The role of president-elect will help Daniels prepare to serve as president and spokesperson for the State Bar in 2021.

Daniels also plans to put her career experience to work as a leader of the State Bar. She's been an assistant legal counsel at the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection for about 11 of her 35 years at the agency.

Since mid-March, Daniels has been guiding DATCP's stakeholders through legal challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. She's going to apply many of the same strategies like holding listening meetings and finding ways to alleviate clients' stresses to the State Bar's pandemic response.

"I've had to sit in on meetings and work with my staff to figure out ways within the statutes that we can assist in a time like this," Daniels said. "What I hope to do is use that exact same kind of thinking to do the same thing with the lawyers of Wisconsin."

Daniels recently talked to the Wisconsin Law Journal about her vision for the State Bar's continued response to the pandemic and how she'll serve lawyers practicing in Wisconsin.

https://youtu.be/12zQHCZ-0xw

WLJ: What are some of the biggest issues the State Bar will be faced with in the next one or two years?

Daniels: If we look at what is happening with the pandemic, we are looking at the issues of the health and wellbeing of the membership, and the financial wellbeing of the membership. That comes into the wellbeing of the organization as a whole. We don't really know where things are going in the next one or two years, and the Bar is going to have to be nimble to deal with the fact that everyone is looking at financial stresses in the next year.

Interestingly enough, the Chief Justice had asked the bar to put together a wellness task force. I think as the next one or two years are unfolding, that task force is going to have a lot of work to do.

How are we going to deal with the...