Judge Scott Needham held a longtime desire for the bench

By Jon Echternacht

The Honorable Scott R. Needham may be the youngest member currently sitting on the bench in St. Croix County Circuit Court, but it is a place he aspired to ever since his law school days.

"Very early, I knew I wanted to be a judge," he said during a recent interview in his chambers at the county government center. "I felt my personality and skills were best suited to be a decision maker, to listen to both sides and make a decision."

The road to the bench started on a 160-acre dairy farm in Clark County and led to Loyal High School, Carthage College in Kenosha and the University of Wisconsin at Madison where he attended law school.

It also included some 15 years as a lawyer in private practice for a New Richmond firm before he felt ready to run for election in 1994. It just happened that seven other candidates aspired to the bench at the same time, but Needham emerged victorious.

He likes the job so well that he has officially announced his intent to run for a second term.

"There isn't a day I don't get up and look forward to coming to work. This is where I want to be," he said.

Truly, his career goal has been aimed directly at his present position. "I knew when I got out of law school, I didn't want to practice corporate law, I didn't want to work in a big firm and, after I gained enough experience, I wanted top be a judge," he said.

Upon graduation from law school in 1978, Needham received offers from the only two law firms in New Richmond at the time. "I enjoyed private practice. I wanted to be in a smaller community like New Richmond and be a general practitioner," he said.

The judge said that his time in private practice covered the legal waterfront including criminal, contracts, real estate, adoption and family law.

Needham continues to live in the New Richmond area. His wife, Jean, is a professional in her own right who serves as the administrator for Holy Family Hospital.

Two parents, each with full-time professional jobs, calls for a combination of roles. "It is truly a partnership. We share everything that goes on. Growing up with two brothers, I learned to cook and do the laundry. My wife was raised in a family of all girls, so we were suited for each other," he said. The Needhams have a daughter and two sons.

If the judge wins the election in April for a six-year term, he will preside into the next century. When asked what he sees for the future from the bench, Needham said that the truth in sentencing law, which takes effect Dec. 31, will create a change in the court system.

"The truth in sentencing law means that if a person is sentenced to five years in prison, he will serve five years in prison," he said noting that currently some individuals serve less time than the sentence that is handed down.

Needham said that a judge would also determine the length of supervision the person will receive after his prison sentence is completed.

"Truth in sentencing is going to have an impact on our prison population," he said.

The judge said that the most difficult decision making is connected with family law, particularly child issues. "You are dealing with the future of children and very strong emotions. People don't realize that the law has to be unemotional.

"I try to get the parents to agree on issues for the kids," he said.

Needham also noted that criminal sentencing is a challenge. "You are deciding another person's fate," he said.

The judge grew up in a typical Wisconsin setting. He was raised on a farm with an extended family. "My grandparents lived 20 yards away from us in their own house. I don't ever remember having a babysitter," he said.

Needham's father became a police officer when he was in his early 30s and moved the family to Loyal, but the judge continued to work on the farm every summer.

He said that laboring on the farm gave him a work ethic and sense of responsibility. "It gave me a good foundation. I would have preferred to raise my own kids on a farm," the judge said.

He graduated from Loyal High School in 1971, college in 1975 with a degree in political science and history, and earned his JD degree from UW-Madison in 1978.

"I graduated from law school on May 28, got married on June 10 and started practice in New Richmond that same month," he said noting that the honeymoon was spent moving to their new city.