The voters in Milwaukee County are fortunate to have two very good judicial candidates for Circuit Court Branch 47 to choose from on Tuesday, April 4: in alphabetical order, Scott Wales and Kashoua “Kristy” Yang. Unfortunately, at the same time, there are two Scott Walker-appointees running for other branches, while branch 47 has these two fine candidates opposing each other. We wish that were not the case. Actually one of these Walker appointees lost her election when she had to run to retain her position. This year she saw an opening and is now running again, this time, unopposed.
We believe that both Wales and Yang have good life stories where they had to overcome some obstacles to get where they are at in life, and we believe that those life experiences would give them a little more compassion toward some of the defendants they would see in their courtroom.
Scott Wales was born with a rare condition, Moebius Syndrome, which paralyzed his tongue and affected his hearing and sight. Since he was different, he was bullied by his peers. By learning the techniques of ventriloquism, he overcame his physical challenges, which spurred him to succeed at UW-Madison and at law school.
Kristy Yang came to the U.S. from Southeast Asia at age 6. She is Hmong and her father assisted the U.S. military in the Indochina wars. After the fall of Laos to the communists, her family was in a refugee camp in Thailand and eventually re-relocated to the U.S. She was raised with 10 brothers and sisters. Once in the U.S., her family had to move a couple of times and eventually they were re-located to Sheboygan. She grew up poor in a new land where initially she did not speak English. She experienced discrimination.
The candidates bring different life experiences to the election.
Scott Wales has been an attorney, primarily criminal defense, for the past 29 years since graduating from the University of Miami School of Law. He has extensive trial experience. A Milwaukee native, he runs his own private practice Downtown without a secretary or paralegal. He extends his office hours to evenings and weekends to be more accessible to his clients. His clients are predominately poor and people of color. He also serves as Fox Point Municipal Court judge since 2009. Wales has also worked on more than 400 cases free of charge. To learn more about Scott Wales, go to walesforjudge.com.
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Kashoua “Kristy” Yang is a private practice attorney specializing in family law, workers’ compensation and Social Security disability. Yang, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, has been practicing law for eight years; prior to that, she worked at Kohler Co., where she traveled internationally solving manufacturing issues. Yang volunteered for the Marquette Law School Legal Clinic and Voces de la Frontera and is a board member of and volunteers for Legal Options for Trafficked and Underserved Survivors (LOTUS). To learn more about Kristy Yang, go to yangforjudge.org.
Either candidate would make a fine judge. They have different life experiences and different legal experience. You decide, either way, you can’t go wrong.
