Meet Our Team

Michael J. Dwyer

Michael Dwyer served as a Circuit Court Judge in Milwaukee County from 1997 until 2019. He retired from the bench but continues to focus on helping families in transition by serving as a mediator. Judge Dwyer will share his expertise and provide high quality mediation services in family law cases. 

During his tenure on the bench, Judge Dwyer worked to improve legal processes to make courts more efficient and achieve better outcomes for families. Judge Dwyer also helped change statewide policy to expand use of limited-scope representation, and, most recently, chaired a Supreme Court Committee that resulted in approval of a nationally trend-setting rule permitting lawyer-mediators in family law cases to draft and file all legal documents as a neutral on behalf of both parties.  

Judge Dwyer became a lawyer and judge to help people and preferred being in the Family Court, which gave him the opportunity to work directly with the people to address the issues about which they cared most deeply: their children and their finances. His goal has always been to tailor the process of family restructuring to meet the needs of each family and help the parties resolve their issues efficiently and with minimum damage to the relationship, especially when there are children involved.  

Judge Dwyer is a frequent lecturer to judges, lawyers and family law practitioners. In 2019, Judge Dwyer was named Jurist of the Year by the Wisconsin State Bar, granted a distinguished service award by the Milwaukee Bar Association and designated a Leader in the Law by the Wisconsin Law Journal.