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Milwaukee Harbor at Sunset
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LOTUS takes pride in serving our home community, and all Wisconsin counties and Native American Tribes.

SERVICE

PLATFORMS

For purposes of our services, gender-based violence refers to crimes of sexual exploitation and violence, which includes rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, and sex trafficking. LOTUS Legal Clinic serves survivors of every sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, nationality, race, ability, and socioeconomic status.
 
LEGAL SERVICES:

LOTUS Legal Clinic provides free legal counsel to survivors of gender-based violence and human trafficking regardless of income.

POLICY INITIATIVES:

The goals of our policy initiatives are to create systemic change in our laws and judicial systems to improve the lives and protect the legal interests of victims of gender-based violence and human trafficking.

EDUCATION:

We are available to provide training for community and legal system stakeholders.

SURVIVOR EMPOWERMENT:

LOTUS believes that survivor empowerment is the core of what makes LOTUS unique as a legal clinic. Programs like Untold Stories help our clients live through the challenges of their cases and come through with hope and purpose.  Using art. literature and other humanities gives power to the law and direct access to what survivors teach us and ask us to change about the status quo. LOTUS helps survivors meet their personal goals through scholarships and services to help them become change agents, nonprofit CEO’s, peer mentors, writers and public speakers.

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LOTUS

Legal

Clinic

Specializing in Legal Options for Trafficked and Underserved Survivors

 

Office location:

2515 N. 124th Street, Suite 201, Brookfield, WI 53005. 

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LOTUS Legal Clinic empowers survivors of sexual violence and trafficking. We provide direct, comprehensive legal services, advocacy and community education, and we invest in survivors as change agents.

OUR MISSION

OUR VISION

Creating a national model for restoring dignity, rights and survivors’ voices

Founder Rachel Monaco-Wilcox discusses LOTUS's Survivor Scholarship Fund.

OUR TEAM

ATTORNEYS


Erika J. Petty, JD
Executive Director/Lead Attorney
Erika@LotusLegalClinic.org

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Catherine Leonard, JD

Staff Attorney

Catherine@LotusLegalClinic.org

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Sarah Griffiths, JD

Staff Attorney

Sarah@LotusLegalClinic.org

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Abbehi Medrano

Bilingual Paralegal

Abbehi@LotusLegalClinic.org

STAFF

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Austin Mahlon Reece, M.A.

Director of Survivor Emowerment

Austin@LotusLegalClinic.org

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Lizette Olivas, B.A.

Director of Operations

Lizette@LotusLegalClinic.org

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Heather Kuhl

Communications and Development Coordinator

Heather@LotusLegalClinic.org

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FOUNDER

Rachel Monaco-Wilcox, JD

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Christa Wittenberg

President

O'Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong & Laing S.C.

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Jasmine Conway

Vice President

Survivor Advocate and Consultant

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Melissa B. Espin

Treasurer

ManpowerGroup

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Alyson Lippman

Secretary

Second Chakra Women's Health Care, LLC

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Adjunct Faculty

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Kristen D. Hardy

Briggs & Stratton,

Marquette University Law School Adjunct Professor

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Julie Glynn

WaterStone Bank 

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Paula Strelitz

Community Volunteer

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Angela Schultz

 Assistant Dean for Public Service,

Marquette University Law School

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Dawn Jones

Dawn Jones Consulting LLC

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Jennifer Williams

Deputy City Attorney

City of Racine

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PAST DIRECTORS

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Linda Krieg

LOTUS Board President

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 

Federal Bureau of Investigation (Retired)

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Barry C. Slagle 

LOTUS Board Past President

 Legal Consultant

Wisconsin Judicial Court Commissioner (Retired)

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Gregory Schrieber

LOTUS Board Treasurer

Kerkman & Dunn Attorneys at Law

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Dr. Thomas Axel Lifvendahl

LOTUS Board Secretary

Lifvendahl & Associates

Mount Mary University Adjunct Associate Professor

Cardinal Stritch University Adjunct Professor

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Dawn Helmrich, MA

LOTUS Board Past President

United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County,

Organizer of Denim Day Milwaukee

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Janine P. Geske

Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court,

Marquette University Law School (Retired)

 

Steven R. Johnson

Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility

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Michael Gonring

LOTUS Founding  Board President

Quarles & Brady LLP

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CONTACT

 

LOTUS

Legal

Clinic

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INTAKE PROCESS:

  1. To find out if we can help you with your case, we need to have a short phone interview with you. Call or text us 24 hours a day/ 7 days a week at (414) 885-1469 ; leave a message and you will be contacted within one business day.  Please be ready to spend about 10 - 30 minutes talking about your matter, and have information ready with specifics like case numbers.

  2. Once the intake interview is done, we will review and decide if we are able to take your case.  This happens once a week in our staff meetings, so we will get back to you within 5-7 business days.

  3. This means the sooner you can get in touch about any pending court matters, the better.


For general inquiries about LOTUS, guest speaker availability or interviews, contact info@lotuslegalclinic.org or call (414) 885-1469.

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To inquire about volunteering as a pro bono attorney, contact our Director of Legal Serivces, Erika Petty at Erika@LOTUSLegalclinic.org 
 
Se habla Español.

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IMPORTANT!  Getting in touch with us through this page or in the contact form is not meant to be legal advice and communicating with us here does not make us your lawyers.  

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Click Here to Find Us

To sign-up for our newsletter or for any general inquiries, please fill in the following contact form:

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