MONROE — Jane Bucher’s journey into law didn’t start in a courtroom or even a classroom. Instead, the origin of her interest in law can be traced back to a mud hut in West Africa.
She’d initially traveled to Senegal as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching health education, but she soon came to realize that the needs of the community could not only be solved through education.
“My job was to teach health education, but the main objective of the members of my village was to try to bring running water to their village,” Bucher said. “As we explored that problem, we came to realize that it really wasn’t a health education problem, it was a legal problem; it required a legal solution. That was when I decided that the law was for me.”
Bucher then studied for the Law School Admission Test by flashlight in her mud hut using prep materials that her parents had mailed her. She took the LSAT in Ghana and began studying at the University of Wisconsin Law School immediately after returning from her Peace Corps service.
She graduated law school in 2010 and was admitted to the bar in 2011. Since that August, she has been working as an Assistant State Public Defender in Green County. During law school, she interned with the Restorative Justice/Family Law Project in Madison, in the Oneida County District Attorney’s Office, and with the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Spring Election 2021
In the weeks leading up to the February primaries for April’s Green County Circuit Judge election, the Monroe Times will be profiling various candidates. Contact srabotski@themonroetimes.com to be featured.
“I want to put my courtroom experience to work on behalf of all of the people of Green County,” she said.
Bucher has represented clients in more than 2,300 cases in the circuit court. She represents children and adults who otherwise could not afford attorneys.
She has been involved in many aspects of the community, from working with Big Brothers Big Sisters to helping organize and found the Green County Multicultural Outreach Program. She was also a part of the two-year, bipartisan effort to start the Green County Drug Court.
“I have seen the justice system from different perspectives and I’m ready to make tough decisions to make communities safer and to build on what’s working in our Green County Courts to make them stronger, more fair and more efficient,” she said.
Though her endeavors have at times taken her far from her southern Wisconsin roots, it is no accident that Bucher has settled down just hours from her hometown of Burlington.
Her husband, Ruedi, is a cheesemaker from Switzerland, making it no surprise that the family has found home in Green County. He has spent many years working in the Monroe cheese industry at Emmi Roth and Sulbana.
“We love living here because it keeps us close to the Swiss traditions and it gives us a chance to expose our children to their Swiss heritage,” she said.
