Legal professional William Sulton advocates for Milwaukee’s most weak

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Milwaukee legal professional William Sulton’s mission is to characterize these thought-about to be the least, the final or the left behind. 

Though he has been within the information for his work with the troubled Social Improvement Fee and as one of many attorneys representing the household of D’Vontaye Mitchell, who died after a confrontation on the downtown Hyatt Regency, Sulton serves in numerous authorized and board management roles in Milwaukee. 

“I simply attempt to do what I can do this’s the correct factor and use the authorized instruments that I’ve obtainable to me,” he mentioned. “However they’re usually tough issues.”

Sulton estimates that he spends a 3rd of his time working his regulation apply, The Sulton Legislation Agency, 2745 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, which focuses on civil rights and public curiosity circumstances.  

He devotes one other third of his time to volunteering, which incorporates serving because the board president of the ACLU of Wisconsin. He’s the authorized redress chair of the NAACP Milwaukee Department and director of the Honorable Lloyd A. Barbee Basis, which is known as for the late activist lawyer and state legislator who fought for college desegregation.

Sulton can be on the board of Convergence Useful resource Middle, 2323 N. Mayfair Street, an anti-human trafficking nonprofit in Milwaukee.

How it began

Throughout his childhood, Sulton lived in Maryland, Wisconsin, Colorado and New Jersey.

His mom is from Racine and labored as a civil rights lawyer, which Sulton mentioned had a big impact on him and his siblings.  

“All three of us (siblings) had a extremely robust sense of social justice and wanting to assist folks, notably racial justice points,” mentioned Sulton’s sister Patrice Sulton, who is also an legal professional. 

She now runs DC Justice Lab, a company centered on legal justice reform coverage. 

Sulton remembers one case through which his mother was defending Gil Webb, a Black teenager who was charged within the demise of a police officer after a automotive crash in Denver in 1997. Individuals referred to as their residence and left racist and threatening messages on the answering machine. 

“I keep in mind being slightly child and driving my bike residence so I might erase these messages as a result of I didn’t need my mother to listen to them,” he mentioned.

Sulton studied political science as an undergraduate scholar at Michigan State College, the place he began representing college students in plagiarism circumstances. 

Whereas attending the College of Wisconsin-Madison Legislation Faculty, Sulton met his spouse, Stephanie, and later moved to her hometown of Milwaukee. 

Public curiosity regulation

After ending regulation faculty, Sulton seen that many individuals within the courtroom had been unrepresented as a result of they believed attorneys had been past their attain. 

Wisconsin ranks low in attorneys per capita and has an excellent smaller variety of civil rights attorneys, Sulton mentioned. 

Public curiosity attorneys normally characterize poor, marginalized or underrepresented people or organizations not served by personal sector regulation corporations, together with civil rights and social justice circumstances. 

“These circumstances are essential,” he mentioned. “They imply one thing. It’s not nearly how a lot cash are you able to make on a case, proper? It’s about, can you actually change authorities coverage? Can you actually make issues higher, proper?” 

Sulton has gained a status for taking circumstances he says that few attorneys will take and demonstrating that they are often worthwhile. 

“If I had a magic wand and I might do one factor, I might shift the best way that we speak about public curiosity work,” Sulton mentioned. “I feel the primary purpose that individuals don’t do public curiosity work is that they don’t assume that it’s worthwhile.” 

Sulton additionally makes time to talk to regulation college students at UW-Madison. 

One regulation scholar requested him in regards to the traumatic weight of his circumstances and if it impacts him, which Sulton mentioned he had not considered earlier than. 

“I feel I’m simply callous as a result of it doesn’t,” Sulton mentioned. 

The final word volunteer

By way of his volunteer work with the NAACP, Sulton has taken on equal employment alternative circumstances and helps shoppers perceive authorized issues if they’re contemplating submitting complaints, mentioned Clarence Nicholas, president of the NAACP Milwaukee Department.

“He has a pleasant character and he’s personable,” Nicholas mentioned. 

Sulton began representing the Social Improvement Fee, often known as the SDC, in late 2022 on a volunteer foundation when longtime legal professional James Corridor Jr. was on the brink of retire and introduced him on. Corridor died in early 2024.

SDC suspended operations in April, halting a wide range of packages and shedding staff. Sulton is working with the SDC board to seek out paths ahead for the company.

“I don’t know anyone else that will do what he has accomplished, the quantity of labor that we’ve placed on him, particularly within the final 4 months,” mentioned Barbara Toles, chair of the SDC Board of Commissioners. 

Patrice Sulton mentioned she doesn’t know anybody else within the authorized discipline or elsewhere who holds as many time-consuming positions on the identical time.

“I feel it’s in all probability an excessive amount of to juggle, however I additionally see how these issues work collectively,” she mentioned. 

Considered one of Milwaukee’s unsung heroes

Sulton mentioned he tries to work early within the morning or late at night time to spend the ultimate third of his time together with his spouse and 4 youngsters, ages 13, 10, 8 and 5. 

He mentioned he likes the life he has constructed, and his predominant aim is to attempt to assist folks.

Debbie Lassiter, government director of Convergence Useful resource Middle, thinks Sulton is certainly one of Milwaukee’s unsung heroes for his work in the neighborhood.

“He by no means makes you’re feeling like: ‘Hear, I’m too busy to speak to you,’ ” she mentioned. 

“You don’t hear quite a bit about him getting awards or folks thanking him for what he’s accomplished, however we can be endlessly grateful for what he did for us,” Lassiter added.

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