Office of the City Attorney History
The Office of the City Attorney has served Milwaukee since the city's founding, providing nearly 180 years of public legal service across every chapter of Milwaukee's civic life.
OVERVIEW
A continuous institution since Milwaukee's founding
The Office of the City Attorney was created when Milwaukee received its city charter in 1846 and formally came into existence. It is one of only a handful of City institutions that has operated continuously since that founding moment, predating the fire department, the parks system, and most of the agencies the office now serves.
Over nearly 180 years, the office has grown from a single attorney managing the affairs of a frontier city of 9,000 people into a full-service municipal law firm of more than 38 attorneys handling thousands of active legal matters. Through every era of Milwaukee's history and civic life the City Attorney's Office has been the legal foundation of city government.
FOUNDING ERA • 1846-1899
A law office at the edge of the frontier
Milwaukee in 1846 was a young, fast-growing city at the edge of American settlement. As a harbor town of immigrants, speculators, and tradespeople organized around Lake Michigan commerce, the legal needs of early city government were modest but consequential: property disputes, contract enforcement, and the basic infrastructure of a chartered municipality.
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Office of the City Attorney Established |
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The Milwaukee City Charter creates the position of City Attorney. The office is charged with providing legal counsel to City govenrment and representing the City in legal proceedings. |
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Ashael Finch Jr. serves as City Attorney |
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Finch is among the first to hold the position. He later co-founds what becomes Foley & Lardner, today one of the largest law firms in the United States establishing a connection between the City Attorney's Office and Milwaukee's broader legal history that continues to this day. |
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Rapid growth and expanding legal complexity |
| The legal needs of city government multiply as Milwaukee grows into a major industrial city with meatpacking, brewing, and manufacturing industries driving a population surge. The office takes on an expanding portfolio of infrastructure, labor, and public health matters. |
PROGRESSIVE ERA • 1900-1940s
Reform, public ownership, and a future mayor
Milwaukee in 1846 was a young, fast-growing city at the edge of American settlement. As a harbor town of immigrants, speculators, and tradespeople organized around Lake Michigan commerce, the legal needs of early city government were modest but consequential: property disputes, contract enforcement, and the basic infrastructure of a chartered municipality.
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Daniel Webster Hoan serves as City Attorney |
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Hoan was elected as City Attorney in 1910 and served in the role until being elected Mayor of Milwaukee in 1916. His time as City Attorney shaped his approach to progressive municipal governance. The office during this period is deeply involved in public utility regulation, municipal ownership debates, and social reform litigation. |
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Milwaukee's "sewer socialism" and the expanding City legal role |
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As the City expands public ownership of utilities, transit, and housing infrastructure, the legal complexity of City government grows substantially. The City Attorney's Office plays a key advisory and litigation role in structuring and defending these public enterprises. |
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Postwar transition |
| Milwaukee emerges from World War II as a major industrial city. The office navigates rapid postwar growth, annexation disputes, and the legal implications of Milwaukee's transformation into a major metropolitan center. |
MODERN OFFICE • 1950s-2020s
Evolution to world class law office
The postwar decades saw the City Attorney's Office grow into a modern municipal law firm and world-class law office that was larger, more specialized, and engaged across an increasingly complex landscape of federal law, civil rights, and intergovernmental relations.
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Growth and specialization |
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The office expands its practice into civil rights, labor law, and federal litigation as the legal landscape of city government grows more complex. The division structure of practice sections that defines the modern office begins to take shape. |
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Grant F. Langley elected City Attorney |
| Grant Langley begins what becomes a 36-year tenure as City Attorney, the longest in the history of the office. Elected nine times, he oversees the office's growth into a full-service municipal law firm and argues two cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. | |
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Evan Goyke elected City Attorney |
| Goyke's election in April 2024 opens a new chapter for the office focused on rebuilding professional excellence, restoring public trust, and deploying the office's legal authority in service of Milwaukee's neighborhoods and residents. |
NOTABLE CITY ATTORNEYS
Leaders who shaped the office
Over nearly 180 years, the City Attorney's Office has been led by attorneys whose legal careers shaped not only the office but Miwlaukee's broader civic and professional life.
Ashael Finch Jr.
c. 1849
Served as City Attorney before before co-founding what becomes Foley & Lardner, one of the largest law firms in the United States today.
Daniel Webster Hoan
c. 1910
Served as City Attorney before a 24-year tenure as Mayor of Milwaukee, one of the longest mayoral tenures in U.S. history.
Grant F. Langley
c. 1984
Longest-serving City Attorney in Milwaukee history. Elected nine terms. Argued two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Evan Goyke
c. 2024
Former six-term State Assembly member and public defender. Elected with a mandate to restore professional excellence.