DeWitt’s Wisconsin Super Lawyers & Rising Stars Announced

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 17, 2020

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Michelle M. Friedman
mmf@dewittllp.com / 262-754-2877

DEWITT’S WISCONSIN SUPER LAWYERS & RISING STARS ANNOUNCED

MADISON | MILWAUKEE | MINNEAPOLIS – DeWitt LLP announced today 11 of its attorneys were named by Wisconsin Super Lawyers® as top attorneys in Wisconsin for 2020. Additionally, 5 attorneys were recognized as Rising Stars®.

Attorneys selected for inclusion in 2020 Wisconsin Super Lawyers and Rising Stars are:

Super Lawyers:

• Shannon A. Allen – Business Litigation
• Jon P. Axelrod – Business Litigation
• Stephen A. DiTullio – Employment & Labor
• Eric A. Farnsworth – PI Plaintiff
• Douglas H. Frazer – Tax
• David J. Hase – Business Litigation
• Paul R. Hoefle – Business Litigation
• Jeffery J. Liotta – Business Litigation
• Joseph A. Ranney, III – Business Litigation
• Theresa L. Roetter – Family Law
• Brian R. Smigelski – Business Litigation

Rising Stars:

• Matthew J. Hills – Business/Corporate
• Michael R. Kruse – Civil Litigation – Plaintiff
• Deborah H. Meiners – Business Litigation
• Scott M. Paler – Employment & Labor
• Barret V. Van Sicklen – Employment & Labor

The selections for Super Lawyers are made by the research team at Super Lawyers, which is a service of the Thomson Reuters legal division based in Eagan, Minnesota. Each year the team conducts a thorough selection process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, independent evaluation of candidates by the attorney-led research staff, a peer review of candidates by practice area and a good-standing and disciplinary check.

The final list of Wisconsin Super Lawyers features the top five percent of attorneys in more than 60 practice areas. Lawyers featured on the Rising Stars list are selected based upon similar criteria as Super Lawyers; however, a candidate must either be under 40 years of age or in practice for 10 years or less, and a peer evaluation is not conducted.

About DeWitt

DeWitt LLP is one of the ten largest law firms based in Wisconsin, with an additional presence in Minnesota.  It has nearly 140 attorneys practicing in Madison and Metropolitan Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, in a variety of legal areas and has the experience to service clients of all scopes and sizes.  The firm is known for its work in several areas, including intellectual property, patents, trademarks and copyright law, construction litigation, corporate law, employment, environmental, employee benefits, estate planning, family law, government relations, health care, litigation, real estate, and tax law.  More information is available at dewittllp.com.

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Daniel Holdridge Joins Savant Wealth Management

Savant Wealth Management (formerly Savant Capital Management) has welcomed Daniel Holdridge as a financial advisor in the firm’s Madison office. Holdridge joined Savant on Oct. 5.

As a financial advisor, Holdridge is a member of the firm’s Advisory Team and is responsible for managing all aspects of the financial planning and investment process for Savant’s clients. He is a subject matter expert on health insurance planning for early, pre-Medicare retirees. In his new role, Holdridge will regularly meet with clients, advisors, portfolio managers, accountants, attorneys, and financial planners to formulate and coordinate effective planning, investment, and tax strategies.

Holdridge has been involved in the financial services industry since 2016, primarily focusing on providing personal financial planning and fiduciary investment advice to high net worth families and retirees, business owners, and medical professionals. Prior to joining Savant, he worked as a financial advisor for the wealth management affiliate of a top 25 public accounting firm in Green Bay, where he was the primary relationship manager for about 60 individuals, families and retirement plans. Holdridge earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional.

About Savant Wealth Management

Savant Wealth Management, formerly known as Savant Capital Management, is a leading independent, fee-only firm serving clients for 30 years with more than $8.3 billion in assets under management. Savant Wealth Management offers investment management, financial planning, retirement plan, and family office services to financially established individuals and institutions. Savant also offers corporate accounting, tax preparation, payroll and consulting through its affiliate, Savant Tax & Consulting.

Savant is headquartered in Rockford, IL, with locations in Bloomington, Chicago, Downers Grove, Freeport, Hoffman Estates, Lincolnshire, Naperville, Peoria, St. Charles, Sterling, and Wilmette, IL; Phoenix, AZ; Santa Fe, NM; Madison and Park Falls, WI; and McLean, VA. Please see Important Disclosures at savantwealth.com.

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. (CFP Board) owns the certification marks CFP® and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ in the U.S., which it authorizes use of by individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements.

Capitol Bank Celebrates 25th Anniversary by Donating $25,000

Capitol Bank celebrated 25 years in business on October 9, 2020. With an in-person event not possible, they came up with a unique and impactful way to celebrate the milestone instead. The 25 longest-tenured employees of Capitol Bank each selected a non-profit to receive a $1,000 donation. This “$25,000 for 25 Years” campaign was promoted virtually by the Bank and its employees through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

“All that has happened in 2020 really put this milestone in perspective for us. Giving $25,000 was our way of recognizing our employees, customers and community, and it’s been a rewarding experience all around,” said Ken Thompson, President and CEO of Capitol Bank.

While all the donations were special and rewarding in their own way, of notable significance was the $1,000 Thompson chose to have donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society – Wisconsin Chapter. Capitol Bank’s former founder and president, Jim Dolister, passed away in 2017 from leukemia. Jim’s wife, Sandy, was in attendance when the donation was presented to LLS in his honor.

In addition to the donations, Capitol Bank asked a few customers, employees and community members to participate in a video to commemorate the month-long celebration.

For a list of the 25 organizations that received the $1,000 donations, and to view the 25^th anniversary videos, click here: https://www.capitolbank.com/25years/

About Capitol Bank: Capitol Bank, locally owned and operated since 1995, is committed to serving the communities in which we live, work and do business. We are proud of the partnerships we have established with organizations, businesses and individuals in the Dane County area. Our philosophy of community support is demonstrated at the corporate level, as well as in the time and energy our employees devote to our community each year. Capitol Bank is Member FDIC.

Contact: Natalie Gregerson
Director of Marketing/Officer
Capitol Bank
710 N. High Point Road
Madison, WI 53717
608.836.1616

MSCR Announces Friends of MSCR Auction

November 10, 2020

For Immediate Release

Contact: Nicole Graper at ngraper@madison.k12.wi.us

MSCR Announces Friends of MSCR Auction
Proceeds support MSCR Programs

Since 2013, the Friends of MSCR has gifted $430,000 to MSCR. These funds support new program initiatives and much needed equipment including outdoor and environmental education, adapted recreation and inclusion services, Latino community outreach, afterschool clubs and neighborhood center programming, to better serve the Madison community.

Please join MSCR and bid on fabulous items in the 2020 Online Auction! Items include pet care, gift baskets, entertainment, spa services, sports memorabilia and much more.

“We are grateful to the Friends of MSCR for their support of recreation programming in the Madison community. Thank you to the generous donors and bidders who make this online auction possible. Every bid and donation help ensure access to high quality affordable recreation and enrichment for our community members,” described Janet Dyer, MSCR Executive Director.

This year’s Online Auction is supported by the following generous sponsors:
Community Believers – $1,000+

• Oak Park Place
• Park Bank
• Anne & Phillip Duffy, in memory of Robert Parenteau

Recreation Enthusiasts – $500

• Slow Roll Cycles

Afterschool Advocate – $300

• Greenleaf Media
• QTI Group
• Stroud, Willink, & Howard LLC

Check out 32auctions.com/mscr2020 to view all of the items. The auction takes place through November 20.

MSCR offers many recreation programs for all ages that are accessible and affordable.  Fee assistance is available. Please call 608-204-3000 or visit mscr.org for more information.  MSCR is Madison’s public recreation department serving the community since 1926.

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LÜM: The Music Modernization Act is Stifling Innovation in the Music Industry

By Max Fergus, LÜM CEO

We were told when we started our company that the institutions within the music industry were always going to be against us. In fact, many people told us these institutions would do everything in their power to curb innovation to make sure the money stayed where it always has – in the pockets of the major labels and the major music streaming services.

Finally, after 10 years of archaic practices in the music streaming industry, which widened the financial gap between the one percent of the music industry stakeholders and the rest of the starving artists, the Music Modernization Act (“MMA”) was created. At its most basic level, the goal was to take the onus off of major streaming platforms to track and remit royalties generated from these major platforms into the pockets of the right artists/labels in a more timely fashion through a new government-subsidized organization known as the Mechanical Licensing Collective (“MLC”).

Sounds great, right? Wrong. This will set back the music industry for years to come.

Imagine starting a process to MODERNIZE MUSIC and how music is monetized for all artists, yet the only stakeholders the MLC brought in to discuss how the MMA and the MLC would operate are the major streaming platforms and major labels themselves.So, what did they do? They structured the MLC in a way that will save these major corporations millions of dollars while completely neglecting the reason why the law was written in the first place – to oversee the music streaming platforms that have consistently, purposefully and negligently not paid the creators – whose content drives their service – their fair share in a transparent and efficient way.

The MMA was designed to regulate and modernize the practices of “royalty-bearing” music streaming services like Spotify, YouTube, and Apple. Next year, the MLC will open its doors and, as part of its first year of operations, it requires the companies included within the MLC to help pay for “start-up fees.” Companies outside of the largest music streaming companies, such as smaller DSPs and smaller royalty-bearing music streaming platforms, must also share unproportionally in these expenses. Essentially, the MLC and the largest streaming platforms want smaller services to pay more than their fair share for the MLC to oversee and audit the largest players in the music streaming industry…even those services who operate to fix the same problems as the new entity itself.

It gets worse.

Is the MLC Putting Smaller Streaming Platforms Out of Business?

LÜM was created to serve a similar foundational mission to these entities – to help guide an industry that needs to better support its creators through innovation. Because of that, we made a choice to not be a part of the traditional recorded music industry. We pay NO royalties and instead have proven that there is a better future. Instead of royalties, LÜM created the first virtual gifting system in a music discovery platform that allows fans to help directly support their favorite independent artists. The result?

Artists on LÜM earn an average of ~6x more per stream than every single other music streaming platform in the U.S.

Just like so many other companies that are trying to advance the music industry, LÜM is now facing an uphill battle against an organization (MLC) that was developed in conjunction with the same stakeholders who put the music industry in this position in the first place. The fees LÜM and other innovative companies are facing, to help fund the MLC, are substantial. Every new innovative company will face them and will provide a financial hurdle that will leave the majority of current and future innovative music startups dead in the water. No new entrants and no new competition mean the industry will stay exactly where it has for the last 15 years – putting money in the pockets of the rich and neglecting those that are trying to change the industry for the better.

We cannot let this happen. Innovation must continue or we face a scary reality for the music industry and the majority of artists and innovators that have been neglected by it.