Former Marathon County Circuit Court judges Jill Falstad and Gregory Grau retired from the bench years ago, but they will forever be a part of Marathon County Court as their portraits now hang in the courtrooms at the courthouse on Forest Street in Wausau.
The portraits were unveiled on Friday, Feb. 13 at a special ceremony hosted by the Marathon County Bar Association at the courthouse, attended by friends, family, the local legal community as well as retired judges and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Anne Walsh Bradley.
These portraits are the latest to be hung on the walls of Marathon County Court, which features portraits of every judge that has served the court. Marathon County Bar President Micheal Hughes said the ceremony is done as a way to recognize the hard work, high pressure and important role of the county’s judges.
“There’s a lot of reverence for people that become judges and I think rightfully so,” Hughes said. “I think it’s important to recognize that they’re putting a lot on their shoulders for the benefit of the community ... They deserve some level of celebration for all that they’ve given us.”
Both judges had their spouses unveil their portraits, with Grau using the occasion to exercise his characteristic sense of humor.
“The portrait that was unveiled featured him smiling really big and holding an accordion, which you know is a prop that judicial portraits are unaccustomed to having,” Hughes said. “Everybody got a good chuckle out of that and the portrait was switched with the more formal one.”
Falstad worked as an attorney serving the public interest for 34 years including eight years as an assistant district attorney in Wood (1986-87), Portage (1987-89) and Marathon (1989-1994) counties. She was then elected Marathon County district attorney in 1994 and re-elected seven times, serving until 2009. Jill Falstad was then elected to serve as a judge in Marathon County Circuit Court Branch 1 in 2009 and re-elected in 2015. She served as a judge for 11 years until her retirement in 2020.
Falstad presided over thousands of cases including the longest civil trial in county history which led to the largest money verdict in the local court system.
Grau first worked in Wausau while pursuing his law degree; he interned in the Wausau District Attorney’s Office via the prosecutor’s program at U.W. Law School. Shortly after graduating in 1984, he returned to Wausau to work as an assistant district attorney in Marathon County. Grau began his first judicial term in 1995, ultimately serving three and a half terms before retiring in 2016. During that time, he served as chief judge of the Ninth Judicial District (2008-12).
In 2020, Grau was named recipient of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Lifetime Jurist Award.
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