Tamara B. Packard is a Partner in the firm. Ms. Packard has been practicing law since 1994, primarily in the areas of litigation and appeals, emphasizing employment, labor and administrative law. She was named a Wisconsin “Rising Star” in Employment and Labor Law for 2006 and 2007, as announced in Milwaukee Magazine.
Professional Activities and Experience
Ms. Packard frequently represents people with gender, disability and
sexual orientation discrimination claims, as well as claims under the
wage and hours laws, the State and Federal Family Medical Leave Acts,
and in other employment disputes. Her litigation and appeals practice
also encompasses commercial disputes and challenges to government exercise
of power.
Ms. Packard is an active member of the James E. Doyle Chapter of the American Inns of Court, as well as the Legal Association for Women, the National Employment Lawyers Association and the Wisconsin Employment Lawyers Association.
She is admitted in Wisconsin and Michigan, the Federal District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin, the Eastern District of Michigan and before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ms. Packard is the immediate past-President of the Board of Directors of Fair Wisconsin Education Fund, the 501(c)(3) arm of Fair Wisconsin, the state-wide civil rights organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. She continues to serve on the Boards of both Fair Wisconsin and the Fair Wisconsin Education Fund. She has provided pro bono legal representation to Fair Wisconsin, as well as to clients through the ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation, AIDS Network, and Legal Action of Wisconsin.
By the appointment of the Honorable Shelley J. Gaylord, Dane County Judge, Ms. Packard is a Dane County Supplemental Court Commissioner. This appointment allows Ms. Packard to officiate at marriage ceremonies throughout Wisconsin.
Publications and Achievements
In 2007, Ms. Packard and partner Lester Pines defended, in an
Original Action before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the Wisconsin Ethics
Board’s right to discipline Judge Annette Ziegler for her violations
of the State Ethics Code. Read their brief
in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court declined Judge Ziegler’s
request to take her case, and soon after Judge Ziegler admitted to the
violations, agreed to pay a $5,000 forfeiture, and also paid the Board’s
attorney fees.
In 2003, Ms. Packard won
her first case in the Wisconsin Supreme Court when the Supreme Court
found that her client was wrongfully denied the privilege of practicing
law in Wisconsin.
In 2001, on behalf of Madison
Teachers, Inc., Ms. Packard and colleague Lester
Pines protected the teachers' union's ability
to negotiate domestic partner health insurance for school district
employees. This victory was achieved in cooperation with attorneys for
the Madison Metropolitan School District.
While in law school, Ms. Packard was a Co-Editor-in Chief of the Wisconsin
Women’s Law Journal, and co-authored two law review articles:
one on alternative dispute resolution published in the Ohio
State Journal on Dispute Resolution, and one on censorship
published in the UCLA Women's Law Journal.
