WI Lawyer Regulation Office May Suspend Law License of Ex-Judge Dugan
A jury found Hannah Dugan guilty of impeding immigration enforcement.
Judge Hannah Dugan’s courtroom on the sixth floor of the Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo taken by Graham Kilmer.
Wisconsin’s Office of Lawyer Regulation is taking steps to pull the law license of a former judge who was found guilty of obstructing immigration enforcement.
Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered 67-year-old former Milwaukee County judge Hannah Dugan to pay a $5,000 fine. In December, a jury found Dugan guilty of obstructing a federal proceeding. That’s after she led a man through a side door of her courtroom in April 2025 after immigration agents had arrived to arrest the man for being in the country illegally.
This week, the body tasked with regulating Wisconsin lawyers released a motion requesting that Dugan’s law license be “summarily suspended.” That motion does not specify how long the suspension should be. Ultimately, it will be up to the Wisconsin Supreme Court to decide whether to grant the suspension, as well as how long the suspension should last, a state court system spokesperson said.
Dugan has 20 days to respond in writing to the motion from the Office of Lawyer Regulation.
A memo from the office points to a state Supreme Court rule, which says a lawyer’s license can be suspended upon conviction of a “serious crime.”
Under that rule, a “serious crime” is defined as a “a felony or any lesser crime which, in the opinion of the court, reflects adversely on the attorney’s fitness to be licensed to practice law,” the memo states.
Dugan was convicted of a felony. Her attorneys are appealing that conviction.
Dugan has been licensed to practice law in Wisconsin since 1987.
After she was charged by federal prosecutors, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court temporarily suspended from her duties as a judge. During that time, reserve judges handled her cases in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.
Dugan resigned from her judgeship in January, a few weeks after she was convicted.
Lawyer regulation office takes steps to pull law license from ex-Judge Dugan was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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