By Grace Taylor, PBI Intern
Wisconsin is the latest state to consider authorizing Community Justice Workers (CJWs), called “legal advocates” under a proposed rule before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In September 2026, the Wisconsin Access to Justice Commission and Quarles & Brady*† filed Rule Petition 26-04, which would create a pathway for trained, nonlawyer professionals to provide limited civil legal services under attorney supervision. The proposal seeks to address persistent gaps in access to civil legal assistance, particularly for low-income and rural Wisconsin residents.
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What are Community Justice Workers? CJWs are nonlegal professionals who attend training to develop the skills and knowledge to provide select legal services to other community members. As members of the community, CJWs bring valuable lived experiences and a deep understanding of their clients’ circumstances, equipping them to serve and support them as they navigate the legal process and access resources. |
The Wisconsin Access to Justice Landscape
Wisconsin’s access to justice gap stems from underfunded legal aid organizations and attorney shortages, especially in rural areas. Unlike neighboring Midwestern states, Wisconsin does not allocate any general purpose revenue (GPR) funding for civil legal aid programs, which rely on federal funding and private donations. Unfortunately, this level of support is unable to meet the needs of low-income households across the state, forcing Legal Action of Wisconsin and Judicare Legal Aid to turn away 75% and 64%, respectively, of eligible applicants. Although this issue affects high-volume courts in Wisconsin’s urban areas, the shortage of attorneys creates an even greater barrier for low-income rural households, who must struggle to both find and then to afford such services. Many refer to these areas with less than one attorney per 1000 residents as “legal deserts.”
“Wisconsin is a fitting place to have a conversation about rural access to justice,” says Justice Rebecca Frank Dallet of the Wisconsin Supreme Court in an article posted by Ascendium, a nonprofit organization working with the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) and Quarles & Brady on the Rural Justice Task Force. “Across our state and across our nation, we’re seeing a widening gap between where lawyers live and where legal help is needed.”
According to Ascendium, “three out of four attorneys live in just three of the most populated counties — Dane, Milwaukee, and Waukesha,” leaving much of the state with insufficient legal support. Furthermore, a demographic study conducted by the ABA in 2024 showed that there are only 2.57 lawyers for every 1,000 Wisconsin residents, compared to the national average of 3.81 lawyers per 1,000 residents. Considering that not all lawyers work as public attorneys or are frequently engaged in pro bono work, these figures become more startling.
The shortage of attorneys in Wisconsin has only continued to grow over time, with rural communities unsurprisingly facing the steepest declines in access to legal representation. Between 2020 and 2025, Judicial District 7, which includes rural areas in southwestern Wisconsin, experienced an 11.61% decrease in active attorneys, while Judicial District 10, which includes rural communities in northwestern Wisconsin, saw a 9.32% decline. For low-income residents in these communities where legal aid resources are limited, the decreasing number of attorneys can make obtaining civil legal assistance for issues involving housing, family matters, debt, or other necessities even more difficult.
Advocacy for Legal Advocates within Wisconsin
The immediate legal need in Wisconsin has been answered by a movement to authorize “non-lawyer legal advocates” to provide limited legal services, a strategy recommended in the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s November 2025 Attorney Recruitment and Retention Committee Report and Recommendations. To support this recommendation, the Committee tasked the Wisconsin Access to Justice Commission with coordinating alongside the state bar to “[s]tudy the feasibility of establishing a limited license practitioner (LLP) program to provide legal services in specific, non-criminal practice areas.”
On September 8, 2026, the Wisconsin Access to Justice Commission filed Rule Petition 26-04 to propose a new chapter of the Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules: SCR Chapter 51, Authorized Practice by Legal Advocates. The proposed rule would permit legal professionals who are not lawyers to provide legal services in certain civil matters after receiving training by a certifying entity and under supervision of a licensed attorney. The new category of legal professional created under the rule petition will be called “legal advocates.”
How would Wisconsin’s Legal Advocates Program Operate?
Certifying entities may include firms or law firms within the meaning of SCR 20:1.0(d), including private law firms, legal services organizations, corporate legal department, or government entities. These entities assume professional responsibility for the legal services provided by the legal advocate; manage the sole responsibility of the clients’ funds; ensure legal advocates receive substantive legal and ethical training; and maintain professional liability insurance. The supervising attorney for a legal advocate must be an active member and in good standing with the State Bar of Wisconsin, who regularly practices law physically in the state and is an employee of or owns an interest in the certifying entity. The supervising attorney’s role is to instruct and supervise the legal advocate to ensure competent legal services and representation for clients.
The proposed rule will also establish a Standing Committee on the Legal Advocate Program appointed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in collaboration with the state’s Access to Justice Commission. The Standing Committee will be responsible for creating the application form for certifying legal advocates, reviewing applications, certifying applicants, maintaining a public roster of certified legal advocates, considering whether to require fees for certification, and conducting program oversight.
To become a legal advocate, an individual must meet certain eligibility requirements. Legal advocates must have an associate’s or a higher degree or hold a high school diploma with at least five years of relevant experience; demonstrate good moral character as determined by the certifying entity; participate in training regarding the ethical rules of the legal profession; and pass a background check. If eligible, the individual may complete an application, including a form prescribed by the Standing Committee to the certifying entity and other documentation establishing eligibility and experience. The certifying entity will review these materials and send them to the Standing Committee to process and issue a certificate of authorization to the legal advocate.
Once trained, legal advocates may take on representation of clients in specific, discrete civil legal issues in the form of supervised legal advice, negotiating on behalf of clients, appearing before court and public agencies, and preparing certain legal documents. However, they would be unable to represent clients in criminal trials, civil matters exceeding the small-claims limits (except for evictions), certain family law and juvenile matters, and other forms of high-stakes litigation. Read more about the exact provisions of the SCR Chapter 51 rule here.
Comparing the Wisconsin Model with Other CJW Programs
How does Wisconsin’s proposal compare to several CJW models recently covered by The PBEye blog? Alaska operates a statewide CJW program through the Alaska Legal Services Corporation, while Delaware’s Qualified Tenant Advocate program is limited to landlord-tenant matters. Wisconsin would take a broader approach, allowing legal advocates to provide services across several civil legal areas under attorney supervision and multiple certifying entities, including law firms. Of the models discussed by The PBEye, Wisconsin’s proposal resembles California’s statewide approach, under which legal services organizations would oversee CJW training, competency, and supervision while an authorizing body provides broader program oversight. This framework is similar to Wisconsin’s model of certifying entities and the Standing Committee to manage legal advocates. D.C.’s model places emphasis on individual nonprofit legal services organizations developing court-approved CJW programs, rather than individual certification like in California and Wisconsin.
Law Firm Support for the Proposed Legal Advocate Program
Petitioners from Quarles & Brady joined this proposal initiative with the Wisconsin Access to Justice Commission following a call to action for Big Law firms to address the civil legal needs in rural areas. Senior Pro Bono Counsel from Quarles, Dawn Caldart, was quoted in a recent article by Law360 about her work leading the task force for the petition.
When asked about the need for CJWs in this article, Caldart responded, “I think that we have to really look at innovation and new ways of delivery, like the healthcare field has done. You can enter the healthcare system [through] a nurse practitioner, a nurse, a physician’s assistant, a doctor, a specialist, depending on what your needs are, and your resources are.” Caldart continued, “But in law, we just have a lawyer, and now we’re bottlenecked.” Authorization of trained legal advocates to assist in civil legal matters may be the solution to alleviating this “bottleneck” and closing the access to justice gap.
Quarles & Brady’s direct involvement in drafting the proposal illustrates an important role law firms can play in developing new approaches to expanding access to civil legal services, which PBI is excited to promote.
The Path Forward
The proposal now moves into a period of review and public comment. The State Bar of Wisconsin Board of Governors held an initial discussion of the proposal on September 18, 2026, during which governors raised questions over the scope of legal advocates’ practice and their training requirements. According to an October 15, 2026, letter from a Commissioner of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the Court has held a “preliminary discussion of this matter at a closed administrative conference and voted to obtain written comments and schedule a public hearing.” The Wisconsin Supreme Court will accept public comments on Petition 26-04 until December 31, 2026, and the petitioners may file a response by January 14, 2027.
Comments should be submitted in writing (including one original and nine copies) and mailed to the Clerk of the Supreme Court, P.O. Box 1688, Madison, WI 53701. Electronic copies of the comment should also be emailed in MS Word format to the Office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court at clerk@wicourts.gov. For additional instructions on submitting comments, visit the Wisconsin Court System website.
| Read more about Community Justice Workers on The PBEye blog.
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* denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Challenge® signatory
** denotes a Corporate Pro Bono Challenge® signatory
† denotes a Law Firm Pro Bono Project® member