State and Federal Prosecutor, 1975-1982
Making a Difference for Battered Women
In 1975, long before the justice system was paying attention to the needs of battered women, Schudson, as a Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney, led the effort to create the nation’s first battered women’s program in a prosecutor’s office. The U.S. Justice Department named it one of the nation’s two best victim-support programs and chose Schudson to train prosecutors throughout America to develop similar resources for battered women.
“‘You are a very special person,’ the woman said to Charles Schudson … turning to her fellow [Battered Women’s] Task Force members, the woman added, ‘He listens. We’ll tell all the battered women to ask for him.’”
The Milwaukee Journal
In 1976, Schudson wrote, The Criminal Justice System as Family: Trying the Impossible for Battered Women,and presented the paper to the United States Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C. In 1978, as a guest on the MacNeil/Lehrer Report, he declared:
“There has to be an absolute legal and moral standard that says, whatever the pressures in the family, you must not be violent … by putting the leverage of the criminal justice system officially against violence within the home, we can make a difference for battered women.”
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Making a Difference for Victims of White Collar Crime
From 1976 to 1982, Assistant District Attorney Schudson prosecuted almost every kind of crime — from consumer fraud to drunk driving, from shoplifting to homicide. At the same time, teaching Criminal Law and Criminal Process to undergraduates at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he began what was to become an equally illustrious academic career.
During these same years, serving as a Special Assistant United States Attorney and a Special Assistant Wisconsin Attorney General, Schudson coordinated Wisconsin’s Medicaid fraud prosecutions. Winning precedent-setting cases in both the federal and state courts, his efforts were so successful that the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare selected Schudson to teach prosecutors nationwide how to prepare such cases, and the U.S. Department of Justice selected him for its Award for Superior Performance.
“I want to congratulate you for the excellent work you did in these precedent setting prosecutions. Your erstwhile commitment to digging up the truth served the public immensely.”
E. Michael McCann
District Attorney, Milwaukee County
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On a frigid February night in 1976, a developmentally disabled seventy-eight year-old man wandered out of a Milwaukee nursing home and froze to death. After directing a two-year investigation, Schudson charged the nursing home owners and administrators with reckless homicide and the abuse of fifty-eight other patients.
For the next four years, including a five-week jury trial, Schudson prosecuted the cases leading to the nation's first convictions of nursing home operators for plundering their patients for profit. His work again gained national attention, including Newsweek coverage, and again sent him on the national circuit helping prosecutors pursue similar cases. He then co-authored Nailing an Omelet to the Wall: Prosecuting Nursing Home Homicide (Corporations as Criminals, Sage Publications, 1984).
“You have most successfully plowed virgin territory with this prosecution. Frankly, I marveled at your ingenuity and admired the painstaking patience with which you sedulously investigated this matter and crafted a very fine case. Salutations are in order!”
E. Michael McCann
District Attorney, Milwaukee County
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Trial Judge, 1982-1992
In 1982, Judge Schudson became Wisconsin's youngest circuit court judge. For ten years, he served in the juvenile and criminal courts of Milwaukee County, presiding over thousands of cases and almost three hundred jury trials.
“I know of no greater honor any group of human beings can give to another than to say simply, ‘We accept you to judge us.’ … Would I stand before this person to be judged and know that I would be dealt with in terms of fairness and equity and the law?’ And that was the final question I asked about Judge Schudson. And the answer was a resounding ‘Yes!’”
Lee Sherman Dreyfus
Governor, State of WisconsinAnd Judge Schudson, the teacher, brought his efforts beyond the courtroom.
- Traveling regularly to reform schools and treatment centers to visit the very children he sentenced
- Creating “Lunch in Philadelphia” — a program hosting more than 1000 grade school students for mornings in court followed by lunch-hour seminars on the Constitution
- Presenting a paper, “The Impact of Unemployment on Children and Families,” and testifying before the U. S. House Subcommittee on Labor Standards
- Proposing legislation to reform juvenile law, create victim/witness services, and require “truth in sentencing”
- Teaching Criminal Law and Criminal Process at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
- Keynoting professional conferences throughout America
- Presenting "Making Courts Safe for Children" to judicial conferences in forty states and abroad
- Writing On Trial: America's Courts and Their Treatment of Sexually Abused Children (Beacon Press, 1989; 2d ed., 1991)
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Appellate Judge, 1992-2004
In 1992, Judge Schudson became Wisconsin's youngest appellate judge. For twelve years, he decided thousands of appeals and authored hundredsof published decisions governing countless areas of law, civil and criminal.
At the same time, he expanded his teaching, joining the Wisconsin Law School faculty and traveling the world to help judges better understand the child sexual abuse cases coming to their courts in ever increasing numbers.
“Judge Schudson’s commitment to teaching excellence, together with his strong, personal commitment to improving the response of the justice system to women and child victims has caused him to receive many, many accolades from those he has addressed. Clearly, speaking invitations at the rate of two to three a week would not continue to be received by this organization, were Judge Schudson not a stirring advocate, educator and speaker.”
Jeffrey A. Kuhn, Child Sexual Abuse Project Director
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court JudgesIn 1998, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Judge Schudson was honored for his work on behalf of vulnerable victims -- nursing home residents, battered women, and sexually abused children. He received the National Human Rights Leadership Award.
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In Atlanta in 2000, the Foundation for Improvement of Justice presented its highest national award to Charlie, proclaiming:
"No person has been more influential in enhancing the justice system’s sensitivity to children than Judge Charles Schudson. [He] has been bold — innovating, writing, and teaching to make America’s courts safe and fair for children."
“Judge Schudson …thank you for all your hard work, your professionalism, your thoroughness, and your pride in what you are doing. You are the personification of excellence in public service.”
William A. Bablitch
Justice, Wisconsin Supreme CourtNational and International Teacher
Judge Schudson has traveled throughout the United States and to Canada, Chile, Iceland, Israel, Russia and Spain teaching police officers, social workers, doctors, law students, lawyers, judges and other professionals.
Since 1983, Judge Schudson has served on the faculties of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and the National Judicial College, teaching numerous courses including Criminal Court Sentencing, the Fourth Amendment, and Child Sexual Abuse.
From 1976 to 1984, Judge Schudson served on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, teaching Criminal Law and Criminal Process.
Since 1999, Judge Schudson has served on the adjunct faculty of the University of Wisconsin Law School, teaching Trial Advocacy.
Since 2004, Judge Schudson has presented one-week law and literature programs for Lawrence University's Bjorklunden Seminars.
And since 1975, Judge Schudson has presented guest-lectures at many colleges and universities including:
Alverno College
Auburn University
Cornell University School of Medicine
Dartmouth College
Delta State University
Emory University School of Medicine
Harvard Law School
John Marshall Law School
Marquette Law School
McGill University (Montreal, Canada)
Universidad Diego Portales Facultad de Derecho (Santiago, Chile)
University of California - San Diego
University of Colorado School of Medicine
University of Georgia School of Law
University of Miami
University of South Carolina Law School
University of Texas Law SchoolHe has keynoted countless judicial and professional conferences and addressed national associations and organizations including:
The American Medical Association
The American Academy of Pediatrics
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
The National Association of Social Workers
The National Conference of Mayors
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
The Sierra Club
The United States Navy
United States Congress - House Subcommittee on Select Education
United States Congress - House Subcommittee on Labor Standards
United States Congress - Senate Judiciary Committee
Law and Literature Teacher
In 2004, building on his undergraduate concentration in American literature and his twenty years of study in the Brandeis-model / Wisconsin Judicial Education Law and Humanities programs, Judge Schudson created "Just Desserts -- Behind the Scenes of America’s Legal System (from the kitchen to the consumer)" -- a one week adult education course for Lawrence University's Bjorklunden Seminars.
Returning to Bjorklunden in 2005, he introduced "Law and Literature: Never the Twain Shall Meet?" And in 2007, he will present a third Bjorklunden Seminar: "Loves Me, Love Me Knot: the History, Law and Literature of Marriage."
To respond to the increasing interest in his law and literature seminars, and to preserve small group discussions even at large conferences, Judge Schudson has joined with several carefully selected co-facilitators including Judge Timothy Baland, founder of Literature for Lifelong Learning.
Scholar / Author
Judge Schudson graduated from Dartmouth College, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. Awarded a Dartmouth Senior Fellowship for independent study, he attended New York University where he studied American linguistics with Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man, and wrote his fellowship thesis, "The Philosophic Perspective: Literature and Crime in America."
Judge Schudson graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School where he was a member of Law Review. He taught in the law school’s graduate program for Latin American lawyers and was selected for a Fulbright Fellowship to study legal services in Peru’s labor unions. Thirty years later, he became the Wisconsin Law School Global Legal Studies Scholar in Residence at Universidad Diego Portales Law School in Santiago, Chile.
In addition to hundreds of published appellate decisions, Judge Schudson has authored dozens of published articles and chapters.
(Link to Selected Published Works by Judge Charles B. Schudson)
He co-authored On Trial: America’s Courts and Their Treatment of Sexually Abused Children (Beacon Press, 1989; 2d edition, 1991).
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“Thank you so much for arranging with your publisher to have copies of On Trial sent for our educational efforts in the Eastern Caribbean. We have received many favorable and grateful comments. Your work is reaching people all over the world!”
Robin S. Hassler, Executive Director
Florida Task Force on Domestic Violence
“Judge Schudson … Thank you for On Trial, the book we needed.”
Oprah Winfrey
Awards
Judge Schudson has been recognized for his efforts on behalf of battered women, nursing home patients, and abused children. His awards include:
1980: United States Justice Department “Award for Superior Performance”
1984: Wisconsin Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse “Certificate of Special Achievement”
1995: Career Youth Development “Wisconsin Judge of the Year”
1995: Believe the Children: “Child Advocacy Award”
1998: Freedom Magazine “National Human Rights Leadership Award”
2000: Foundation for Improvement of Justice “National Improvement of Justice Award”
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2004 National Exchange Club "Book of Golden Deeds Award"
