Background
Sykes graduated from Brown Deer High School in 1976 and then earned a B.S. degree in journalism at Northwestern University in 1980, and a J.D. at Marquette University Law School in 1984.
After law school, Sykes clerked for Judge Terence T. Evans at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. She was in private practice from 1985 to 1992 in Milwaukee, working as a corporate lawyer for Whyte & Hirschboeck, a medium-sized law firm. Sykes won election to a newly-created trial judge seat on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in 1992, serving in the misdemeanor, felony, and civil divisions. She left the trial court in 1999 for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where she served until her appointment to the Seventh Circuit in 2004. After being appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, she was elected to the court, defeating Louis B. Butler, Jr., who was later appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by Governor Jim Doyle in 2004.
Read more about this topic: Diane S. Sykes
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