42nd Annual Criminal Law Conference: Faculty

DANIEL D. BLINKA is a Professor of Law at the Marquette University Law School.  He has been a member of the faculty since 1985 and before that was an Assistant District Attorney for Milwaukee County.  At Marquette he teaches courses in Evidence, Trial Advocacy, and Criminal Law and Procedure.  Among his many publications is the highly regarded Wisconsin Evidence, which is regularly cited as authority by the Wisconsin appellate courts.  He is a frequent speaker at continuing legal education programs for judges and lawyers on the subject of evidence law.  Professor Blinka holds both a Juris Doctor degree and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin. 

CRAIG JOHNSON is in private practice with Sweet and Associates in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Prior to entering private he spent 13 years as a trial attorney with the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office.  For his accomplishments in indigent criminal defense he has received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the State Public Defender Board of Directors.  Mr. Johnson is a 1993 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School where he served as an Associate Editor of the Wisconsin Law Review.

CRAIG MASTANTUONO is a private practitioner at Mastantuono and Coffee, S.C., specializing in the defense of criminal cases in the state and federal courts in Southeastern Wisconsin. He began his career in the Trial Division of the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office, where he specialized in defending drug cases.  Mr. Mastantuono also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Marquette University Law School where he teaches a course in Criminal Litigation. He holds a law degree from DePaul University (1992).

DENNIS MELOWSKI leads the law firm of Melowski and Singh in Sheboygan Wisconsin.  His practice is limited exclusively to drunk driving defense and he has been recognized multiple times as a Wisconsin Super Lawyer in the field of drunk driving defense.  He is a frequent speaker on this topic in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the country.  He is also a co-author of Traffic Law and Practice in Wisconsin (published by the State Bar of Wisconsin).  Mr. Melowski is a 1993 graduate of the Marquette University Law School.

TIMOTHY 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 from the University of Wisconsin Law School.  Mr. Pierce was previously a Deputy Director at the Office of Lawyer Regulation.  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 frequent speaker on matters of professional ethics and teaches Professional Responsibility at the University of Wisconsin Law School.  

SARAH SCHMEISER, Stroud Willink & Howard LLC, concentrates on two areas of practice: criminal and traffic defense and immigration law. In the area of criminal and traffic defense, Sarah has defended clients at all levels – from local municipal courts through the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Sarah handles many circuit court trials every year, successfully protecting client interests. Sarah handles all levels of appeal in criminal and traffic cases and has argued several cases in front of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.