About us ...
Attorney Victoria L. Davis Dávila
Marquette University Law School, J.D., 2011
University of Wisconsin-Madison, B.A., 2007
Attorney Davis Dávila has dedicated her legal career to supporting individuals with disabilities and their families through the life span. She has a particular passion for children's legal issues, including helping children get the placement, special education services, government benefits, and other support they need to thrive. It can be a stressful, difficult, and confusing process to get a child what he or she needs. Attorney Davis Dávila works to ensure her clients understand their options and to reduce that stress as much as possible - whether it's an IEP meeting, planning for their future, or a court hearing.
She also enjoys walking families through the complicated process of transitioning a child with special needs into the adult world, including decision-making options like powers of attorney, supported decision-making agreements, or guardianship. A highlight of her practice is working with the same families throughout different areas of need, from children's issues all the way through estate planning.
Attorney Davis Dávila regularly represents the best interests of children and adults with disabilities as a guardian ad litem. She volunteers as an attorney at the Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic. She is also a member of the State Superintendent's Council on Special Education.
She is married with one child and another on the way. She is the sibling of a young adult with special needs, who inspired her career choice. She and her family live on the East Side of Milwaukee and love cooking, traveling, and enjoying their hometown's lakefront and restaurant scene.
Areas of Practice: Guardianship, supported decision-making, powers of attorney, wills, special needs trusts, probate, estate planning, special education law, minor guardianship, grandparent rights, juvenile law, family law, service acquisition, children in need of protection or services, protective placement, disability rights, civil rights.
Bar Admissions: Wisconsin, Eastern District of Wisconsin, Western District of Wisconsin, Seventh Circuit
Attorney Robert "Rock" Theine Pledl
John Marshall Law School, Chicago, J.D., 1980
UW Milwaukee, B.S. - Social Work, 1976
Attorney Rock Pledl has split his career between private practice and public interest law. He was an Assistant Public Defender assigned to the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Center. He litigated several of the first guardianship and protective placement cases to reach the Wisconsin Supreme Court. At the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee, he was on a team of lawyers that worked with Milwaukee County to downsize its long-term facilities and transition to a community-based treatment system. At the agency now known as Disability Rights Wisconsin, Rock handled multiple cases involving deaths in care facilities, and a class action that addressed substandard service in the County's para-transit system.
Rock has been on the cutting edge of numerous disability and civil right issues. In the 1980's, he represented the first wave of victims in sexual misconduct cases against mental health professionals and clergy. In the 1990's, he began to represent residents of group homes who faced discrimination from local zoning boards after leaving institutions. In the early 2000's, Rock represented group home residents who received the first ever individual damage awards under the Fair Housing Act, and brought the first supported employment lawsuit in the country based on the integration provisions in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Since then Rock has continued to litigate group home and clinic zoning denials across the State including two cases in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. He has also brought cases against the Wisconsin Family Care Program on behalf of individuals with intellectual disabilities whose services were threatened by rate cuts.
Rock has a particular interest in school law because providing appropriate special education services leads to a successful transition into the adult service system for students with significant disabilities. He has also represented students facing discrimination because of their gender expression or sexual orientation, and students in post-secondary education facing disability discrimination.
He is married with four children and lives on the East Side of Milwaukee. Rock enjoys working on a 1901 Victorian house, Milwaukee's music festivals and attempting to retain his own minimal guitar skills.
Areas of Practice: Discrimination in education, housing and public services, special education law, guardianship, supported decision-making, powers of attorney, special needs trusts, probate, juvenile law, children in need of protection or services, services for adults with disabilities.
Bar Admissions: Wisconsin, Eastern District of Wisconsin, Western District of Wisconsin, Seventh Circuit