Issues, timing helpful in Steven A. Levine's election as president of State Bar of Wisconsin.

• Author: Pribek, Jane

Byline: Jane Pribek

"Astounded."

That's how veteran Madison lawyer Milo G. Flaten Jr. describes his reaction to the news last week that his friend and colleague, attorney Steven A. Levine, won the race for president-elect of the State Bar of Wisconsin.

It's not that Flaten, a sole practitioner, didn't have confidence in Levine's abilities. But as an "outsider" of sorts, Levine took on a fairly sizeable challenge in entering the race - and he won.

Levine was considered an outsider because he did not enter the race via the customary route. More often, the way candidates are put forth for members' votes is after their selection by the bar's nominating committee and approval by the association's Board of Governors. However, Article II of the State Bar's bylaws provide that a member may run for an officer position by submitting a petition signed by 100 members. According to the State Bar, in the past 25 years, only three individuals before him have entered the race for president-elect via petition.

Levine, of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, made bar history last week, by becoming the first "petition" candidate to win the race. He defeated Dean R. Dietrich, of Wausau's Ruder Ware, and G. Jeffrey George, of La Crosse's Moen Sheehan Meyer Ltd.

"It's unprecedented, to the best of my knowledge," observes fellow Madison lawyer Kevin J. Palmersheim, of Haley Palmersheim S.C.

How did Levine pull it off? From Wisconsin Law Journal's discussions with Flaten, Palmersheim and a handful of other bar leaders, it appears that Levine identified a pair of hot issues and ran with them. He also employed a few novel campaign strategies that won him support.

Mandatory Bar

Levine's campaign literature gave top billing to his desire to convert Wiscon-sin's mandatory bar association into a voluntary organization. His opponents, in contrast, were both strong supporters of the mandatory bar.

It's an issue with which Levine has great familiarity; he brought two lawsuits challenging the mandatory bar in the late 1980s. Levine v. Heffernan, et al., 864 F.2d 457 (1988). The bar was voluntary from 1988 until the mandatory bar was reinstated by the state Supreme Court in 1992.

Flaten, a former State Bar treasurer and former Dist. 9 representative to the Board of Governors, thinks this was a persuasive issue for voters, and is hopeful that Levine can lead efforts to return to a voluntary bar.

The only benefit a mandatory bar offers, in his opinion, is strength by...