Judge, Waukesha County Circuit Court
Judge Michael J. Aprahamian serves as a judge on the Waukesha County Circuit Court. Prior to taking the bench in 2014, Judge Aprahamian was a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP, where he was a civil trial lawyer and the firm's partner in charge of ethics training. Prior to joining Foley, he clerked for the Honorable Richard D. Cudahy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1992 and a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin in 1989.
Deputy Counsel, Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty
Dan Lennington serves as Deputy Counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), where he directs the Equality Under the Law Project. Started in early 2021, the EUL Project has represented dozens of individuals and businesses nationwide, successfully advocating for race neutrality in both public and private programs.
Before joining WILL, Dan served as Assistant Deputy Attorney General in Wisconsin and Assistant U.S. Attorney in Oklahoma. He is a graduate of Hillsdale College.
Dan can be reached at [email protected]. More information about the EUL Project can be found at www.defendequality.org.
Partner, Perkins Coie
Sopen Shah is an award-winning writer and experienced oral advocate. She has handled appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court, ten federal circuit courts, and the Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Washington, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Idaho Supreme Courts. She won the State Bar of Wisconsin's biennial “Best Brief” award in 2020. In addition, Sopen has argued before the Seventh and Second Circuits, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the California Court of Appeal, and the Washington State Board of Tax Appeals.
Sopen also litigates complex trial court cases across multiple areas such as antitrust, class actions, commercial disputes, constitutional law, corporate governance, environmental law, labor and employment, privacy, and regulation. Cases of particular note include a voting-rights case in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, a multimillion-dollar shareholder-dispute trial in Wisconsin circuit court, and a class action contract dispute in California superior court. She recently prevailed on a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction in the Western District of Washington. Sopen’s appellate experience enables her to anticipate possible outcomes in the early stages of a case.
Before joining the firm, Sopen argued Wisconsin’s high-profile criminal and civil appeals as a state deputy solicitor general. After graduating from Yale Law School, Sopen clerked for the Honorable Debra Ann Livingston, now-chief judge of the Second Circuit, and the Honorable Amul R. Thapar, then of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Before law school, Sopen was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company and a financial analyst at Bloomberg.
Judicial Engagement Fellow, Institute for Justice
President, Center for American Rights
Daniel Suhr serves as president of the Center for American Rights, where he spends every day on the front lines of the fight to preserve our rights and liberties. The Center's mission is to advance free speech, free enterprise, and parental freedom in education through strategic, precedent-setting litigation.
Daniel formerly worked as policy director for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, as chief of staff for Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, and as a law clerk for Judge Diane Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He holds a B.A. and J.D. from Marquette University, and master’s degrees from Georgetown and the University of Missouri.
Panel 1: How Broad is a Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge’s Authority to Issue Statewide Injunctions?
2024 Wisconsin Conference
Brookfield, WIState Court Docket Watch: State of Wisconsin v. Roundtree
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