Concrete Answers to Common Trust Account Questions 2023

Aviva Meridian Kaiser is Ethics Counsel at the State Bar of Wisconsin. Prior to joining the State Bar in 2013, she taught at the University of Wisconsin Law School for 25 years. She taught Professional Responsibilities, Ethical and Professional Considerations in Writing, Problem Solving, and Risk Management. From 1992 to 2002, she was the Director of the Legal Research and Writing Program. Aviva received her B.A. in Chinese from the University of Pittsburgh and her J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School. She clerked for the Honorable Louis B. Garippo in People v. John Wayne Gacy and clerked for the Honorable Maurice Perlin in the Illinois Appellate Court. She practiced law in Chicago before beginning her full-time teaching career at IIT Chicago/Kent College of Law. Aviva is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin, a Wisconsin Law Fellow, an American Bar Foundation Fellow, and a frequent speaker on matters of professional ethics.

Timothy J. Pierce has been Ethics Counsel for the State Bar of Wisconsin since 2004. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his law degree, cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin Law School. Mr. Pierce was previously a Deputy Director at the Office of Lawyer Regulation in Milwaukee and Madison. He has also been employed as the Ethics Administrator for Milbank, Hadley, Tweed & McCloy, in New York, and as an Assistant State Public Defender in Racine. He is a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin. He is a frequent speaker on matters of professional ethics and has given hundreds of CLE presentations to a wide variety of groups on professional responsibility law. He serves as reporter for the State Bar’s Committee on Professional Ethics and writes the monthly “Ethical Dilemmas” column for the State Bar of Wisconsin. He has also taught Professional Responsibilities at the University of Wisconsin Law School since 2011 and currently serves as a Volunteer Subject Matter Expert for the MPRE.

Christopher C. Shattuck has been the Law Practice Assistance Manager for the State Bar of Wisconsin since 2017. Mr. Shattuck previously managed a department and litigated cases at a creditors’ rights firm in Milwaukee. In addition to providing confidential law practice consultations, he frequently writes and speaks on law practice management topics. He received his undergraduate and master of business administration degrees from the University of Wisconsin — Oshkosh and his law degree from the University of La Verne College of Law in southern California.

Travis J. Stieren is the Program Administrator for the Office of Lawyer Regulation’s Trust Account Program, taking over that position in January 2018. Prior to managing OLR’s Overdraft Notification Program, Travis was an investigator with OLR for 14 years, during which time he conducted formal grievances as well as hundreds of trust account overdraft investigations. He has helped present numerous seminars on trust account management for OLR. Travis has a B.S. in Economics from the University of Illinois and he received his law degree from the University of Notre Dame Law School. Before coming to OLR, Travis spent several years in private practice in small law firms in both Wisconsin and Massachusetts, and served as a Senior Law Clerk to the Massachusetts Superior Court.