THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
2026ANNUAL
LUNCHEON ITALIAN COMMUNITY CENTER
PROGRAM OF EVENTS Welcome to Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee’s 110th Anniversary Luncheon! Thank you for celebrating this moment in time with us and for your continued partnership! WELCOME
STACY C. GERBER WARD | BOARD PRESIDENT, LEGAL AID SOCIETY REFLECTIONS
COLLEEN FOLEY | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LEGAL AID SOCIETY FEATURED GUEST REMARKS
• HON. CARL ASHLEY | CHIEF JUDGE, MILWAUKEE COUNTY • CAVALIER JOHNSON | MAYOR, CITY OF MILWAUKEE EQUAL JUSTICE MEDAL PRESENTATIONS
• ANNE MARIE ABELL | MANAGING ATTORNEY, GAL CHILDREN’S COURT DIVISION, LEGAL AID SOCIETY • LO NENG KIATOUKAYSY | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HMONG AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT: CONSUMER PROTECTION KEYNOTE ADDRESS
MARY CATHERINE FONS | CONSUMER PROTECTION ATTORNEY, FONS LAW OFFICE MUSICAL INTERLUDE
DEREK BYRNE | “THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND” RECOGNITIONS | CLOSING
COLLEEN FOLEY | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LEGAL AID SOCIETY
THANK YOU, SPONSORS PRESENTING | $25,000
PLATINUM | $20,000
THANK YOU, SPONSORS
GOLD| $15,000
SILVER| $10,000+
THANK YOU, SPONSORS BRONZE | $5,000+
FRIEND | $2,500+ COLBY ABBOT & RAILWAY EXCHANGE BUILDINGS HALLORAN LAW OFFICES
THANK YOU, SPONSORS
TABLE| $1,000+ Linda Anick Tom and Nancy Cannon Community Advocates First, Albrecht & Blondis, s.c. Colleen Foley & Kent Redding Gass Turek, LLC Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLP Michael and Robin Gonring Greater Milwaukee Foundation Gruber Law Offices, LLC Hmong American Friendship Association Hupy & Abraham Marquette University Law School Milwaukee Bar Assn. Foundation / Milwaukee Justice Center Milwaukee Judges Office of Applied Gerontology at UW-Milwaukee O’Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong & Laing, s.c. State Bar of Wisconsin The Polan Family - In Memory of Ronald & Linda Polan The Difference Principle, Inc. Wipfli Molly Zillig
110 YEARS OF GROUNDBREAKING LEGAL PRACTICE 1916 Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee opens its first office 1921 Spearheads the state’s first small claims court 1927 Wages a campaign against advancing money on workers’ salaries 1939 Initiates clinical education program with UW Law School 1943 Launches a Lawyer Referral Service with the Milwaukee Bar Association 1950 Pioneers the state’s 1st all-female law firm 1957 Leads the development of the state’s first Public Defense program 1967 Files the state’s first class action lawsuit for low income citizens 1984 Creates an anti-discrimination practice for AIDS clients 1998 Founds the SOLACE project to provide legal services for battered women 2001 Establishes an anti-predatory lending initiative (A-LINE) 2005 Champions Wisconsin’s response to Hurricane Katrina 2019 Launches a Public Interest Justice Initiative with the District Attorney’s office 2021 Co-founds a right-to-counsel eviction defense and prevention practice (EvictionFreeMKE) 2023 Launches an immigration practice to support those seeking a new beginning in MKE 2026 | Wins BMO Cornestone MANDI Award recognizing 110 years of service to Milwaukee residents
EQUAL JUSTICE MEDALISTS THE THOMAS THE THOMAS G. G. CANNON CANNON EQUAL EQUAL JUSTICE JUSTICE MEDAL MEDAL HONORS THOSE HONORS THOSE INDIVIDUALS INDIVIDUALS WHO WHO MAKE MAKE EXEMPLARY CONTRIBUTIONS EXEMPLARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO TO EQUAL EQUAL JUSTICE. JUSTICE.
ANNE MARIE ABELL
MANAGING ATTORNEY, LEGAL AID GUARDIAN AD LITEM - CHILDREN’S COURT DIVISION
Attorney Anne Marie Abell is a Cum Laude Graduate of St. Norbert College and the University of Wisconsin Law School. After starting her career in private practice, she joined the Children's Court Guardian ad Litem office of the Legal Aid Society as a staff attorney in 1985, promoted to Managing Attorney in 2022. In her 40+ year career with Legal Aid, Attorney Abell has represented the best interests of children in countless jury and court trials and appellate proceedings, including oral argument before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. She has led State Bar of Wisconsin trainings – most recently Guardian ad Litem training in 2023 – and presented at Marquette University Law School on Chapter 48, the Children’s Code. She also participated in the Children’s Rights Project / ACLU federal class action lawsuit, which resulted in transformation of the Milwaukee child welfare system, including implementation of uniform standards, funding of services for families to enhance family reunification efforts, and timely permanency placements for children in out-of-home care.
Recent Equal Justice Medal Recipients
EQUAL JUSTICE MEDALISTS LO NENG KIATOUKAYSY
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HMONG AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION
Lo Neng Kiatoukaysy was born in a small village in Laos during the Vietnam War. When communists took over the country in 1975, Kiatoukaysy’s father, who had worked for the CIA, feared that he would be killed. He fled with his wife and children—including his son Lo Neng—across the Mekong River to Thailand, where the family lived in a refugee camp from 1975 to 1979. When he was eight years old, Kiatoukaysy moved to Little Rock, Arkansas with his mother and siblings; it would be two years before his father was permitted entry into the U.S. At that time, the family moved again—this time to Minneapolis. Kiatoukaysy was the first of his ten siblings to graduate from college, earning a B.A. from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1992 Kiatoukaysy started Minnesota’s first Hmong chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), where he worked as a community organizer for five years. Kiatoukaysy moved to Milwaukee in 1996 to become the Executive Director of the Hmong American Friendship Association (HAFA). During his tenure, he has overseen tremendous growth in the agency. From a staff of only three and a budget of $75,000 per year, HAFA has grown into an agency with an annual budget of $1.5 million and a staff of almost 12—serving over 40,000 people each year through programs designed to increase the self-sufficiency and preserve the culture of the Hmong community in Milwaukee.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER MARY CATHERINE FONS
CONSUMER PROTECTION ATTORNEYAT-LAW, FONS LAW OFFICE
Mary Catherine Fons has dedicated her law practice to fighting unfair, deceptive, and abusive sales, marketing, debt collection and other business practices on behalf of consumers. She founded Fons Law Office in 1994 to speak and fight for economic justice on behalf of consumers who have been defrauded or mistreated in the marketplace. Attorney Fons received her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1980 and her law degree from Marquette University Law School in 1984. She was a staff attorney at the UAW Legal Services Plan, providing personal legal services to union employees and retirees of American Motors and Chrysler in Kenosha, Wisconsin from 1984 to 1988, and to union employees and retirees of General Motors in Janesville, Wisconsin from 1989 until January of 1994. In January of 1994 Attorney Fons left the UAW Legal Services Plan to open the Fons Law Office. Attorney Fons has been repeatedly honored by her peers. In every year since 2006 she has been voted a consumer law “Super Lawyer” by her fellow Wisconsin lawyers, as acknowledged in Wisconsin Super Lawyers Magazine. In 2011, Attorney Fons was the recipient of the Dan Tuchscherer Public Interest Lawyer of the Year Award by the Public Interest Law Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin. In addition to representing individual consumers with claims of abusive, unfair, and deceptive business practices, Attorney Fons has also advocated in the Wisconsin legislature and the United States Congress for strong consumer protection laws.
BOARD MEMBERS & STAFF Stacey C. Gerber Ward, President | von Briesen & Roper Nora M. Platt, Vice President | Northwestern Mutual Guy R. Temple, Secretary | Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren SC Patrick O. Dunphy, Treasurer | Cannon & Dunphy, S. C. Anthony J. Anzelmo | Husch Blackwell Honorable Louis B. Butler, Jr. Joshua L. Gimbel | Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, LLP Jacob Hamburger | Marquette University Law School Colin Looney | Johnson Controls Christopher J. Schreiber | Michael Best & Friedrich LLP Peter J. Stone | Foley & Lardner LLP Timothy S. Trecek | Habush Habush & Rottier SC Danielle White | Rockwell Automation Anne Marie Abell Linda Anick Monika August Allis Lisa Bennett Andrew Boden Alana Borman Mary Castro Jack Ceschin Lillian Cheesman Riad El-Azem Chelsea Fischer Sophia Flood Elyafi Mary Beth Geiger Jourdan Glenn Connor Gorrell Norma Guerra Grace Hagerman Alexandria Harper-King
Aszree Hill Markie Jacobson David Kachelski Benjamin Karasch Joshua Kather Brian Kemper Julian Lacera Donna Lee Michael Longworth Alexandra Maron Caitlin Martin Vasilia Mavraganis Susan Mouthey Yaneli Olmos Stephen Olson Alyssa Paulus Jenna Proudfit Mitchell Rickmeier
Ezra Riley Courtney Roelandts Cheyenne Rupert Candice Sobczak Latsami Sysouvanh-Fluno Abby Tschimperle Brendaliz Valdes Gonzalez Emma Van Der Loop Mirian Velazquez Francesca Voci Aisha Ware Mitchell Yurkowitz -VOLUNTEERSMichael Carter Lynn Kristensen James Santelle
Thank You! See You in 2027!