Lisa S. Neubauer is an American jurist and the current Chief Judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. Judge Neubauer has served on the Court of Appeals since 2007 and has been chief judge since 2015.
Neubauer is a recipient of the Community Service Award from the Association for Women Lawyers. She is a former board member of the Wisconsin Equal Justice Fund, Racine Area United Way, the Equal Justice Coalition, and Legal Action of Wisconsin. She has been a reading tutor in the Racine public elementary schools through the United Way Schools of Hope program, a big sister with a Big Sisters of Greater Racine, and a mentor for breast cancer survivors through "After Breast Cancer Diagnosis". Neubauer is on the Supreme Court Finance Committee and is co-chair of the Wisconsin Bar Association’s Bench and Bar Committee and Chair of the Bench/Bar Court Funding Subcommittee. She previously served on the Planning and Policy Advisory Committee, the Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court Committee on Community Outreach.
Legal career
Neubauer was employed from 1988 until 2007 at the Milwaukeelaw firmFoley and Lardner, specializing in environmental cleanup litigation and rising to the level of partner. While at the firm, she chaired the Insurance Dispute Resolution Practice Group and co-chaired the firm's national recruiting committee. In December 2007, Democratic Governor Jim Doyle appointed Neubauer to a seat on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals vacated by retired Judge Neal Nettesheim. Neubauer was the first woman to serve as a judge of the court's District II, headquartered in Waukesha. Neubauer was elected to a full term on the court in the April 2008 general election, defeating attorney William C. Gleisner III. She enjoyed bi-partisan support in her campaign for the position, including the endorsement of Michael Grebe, the former state chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. In 2009, Neubauer was appointed presiding judge of District II. On May 8, 2015, the Wisconsin Supreme Court appointed Neubauer chief judge of the Court of Appeals. Neubauer took office on August 2, replacing retiring Chief Judge Richard S. Brown. Judge Neubauer was a candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2019. Despite endorsements from 150 current and former Wisconsin judges, including 18 from the court of appeals, she was narrowly defeated by Judge Brian Hagedorn. Judge Neubauer was re-elected to another term on the Court of Appeals in 2020.
