Laurie Mlatawou is an Associate in the firm. Her practice areas include civil litigation and civil rights, criminal defense, labor and employment, family law, and bilingual (Spanish) general practice.

Professional Activities and Experience

Prior to joining Cullen Weston Pines & Bach, Ms. Mlatawou served as the judicial law clerk to the Honorable Margaret Vergeront of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District IV. In that capacity, she wrote initial draft opinions under the guidance of Judge Vergeront, gaining broad experience with many different areas of law and with the civil and criminal litigation processes.

Due to the largely unmet need for bilingual legal services in southern Wisconsin, Ms. Mlatawou is now developing a bilingual general practice at Cullen Weston Pines & Bach to provide a wide variety of legal services to the Spanish-speaking community.

During law school, Ms. Mlatawou was highly involved with the law school community and served on the Executive Board of the Latino/a Law Students Association. She successfully advocated for the Law School to open its first-ever Immigration Law clinical program, organized law students to perform community service in the Latino community, and partnered with the National Immigrant Justice Center to bring groups of law students to a nearby immigration detention facility to interview detainees and inform them of their rights.

Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk appointed Ms. Mlatawou as Co-chair of the Dane County Task Force on Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System in 2008, where she coordinated efforts to understand why Dane County has among the highest Black/White arrest and incarceration disparities in the nation, and collaborated with criminal justice partners to make over 80 recommendations to county policymakers to significantly reduce those disparities. Ms. Mlatawou has now been appointed to serve on the Dane County Racial Disparities Implementation Team, which is working to implement the Task Force's recommendations throughout the many stages of Dane County's criminal justice system.

Ms. Mlatawou was also appointed by Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson of the Wisconsin Supreme Court to serve as Reporter on the Chief Justice's 2010 Criminal Justice Mental Health Leadership Initiative.

Ms. Mlatawou also worked for two years as the law clerk to the Civil Rights Team of Disability Rights Wisconsin, a non-profit agency with a federal mandate to protect and advocate for the rights of people with disabilities throughout Wisconsin. Ms. Mlatawou assisted clients with employment and housing discrimination claims, and participated in all aspects of the litigation process in the state Equal Rights Division and the federal court system. She also participated in state and federal lobbying efforts to move legislation, such as the Americans With Disabilities Amendments Act of 2008, through Congress.

Abogada Bilingüe con Experiencia Sirviendo la Comunidad Latina en Dane County

Laurie Mlatawou es una Abogada Asociada en la empresa Cullen Weston Pines & Bach LLP en Madison, Wisconsin. Ella está desarollando una práctica general enfocado en servir las necesidades legales de la comunidad Latina aquí en la parte sur de Wisconsin.

La Señora Mlatawou tiene mas que diez años trabajando con la comunidad Latina en Madison, incluso trabajando directamente con familias y jovenes Latinas como Trabajadora Social Bilingüe por la agencia Community Partnerships, y seis años trabajando como Especialista Bilingüe por el Distrito Escolar de Madison en las escuelas Falk, Hamilton, Van Hise y LaFollette.

También la Señora Mlatawou ha trabajado como Abogada Estudiantil en el Neighborhood Law Project, un proyecto de la Universidad de Wisconsin Escuela de Derechos que tiene una oficina en el lado sur de Madison. Ahí la Señora Mlatawou sirvió a sus clientes Latinos con casos del arrenador/inquilino, pago por empleo, y otros asuntos que se afectan a la calidad de la vida por la comunidad Latina en Madison.