Dutcher ’87 named chair of Wisconsin Chief Judges Committee

Guy Dutcher ’87, chief judge of the fourth judicial administrative district, was recently selected to serve as chair of the Wisconsin Committee of Chief Judges by his fellow chief judges.

“I’m serving the judiciary, and I adamantly, firmly believe in the necessity of an independent, neutral third branch of government, which is the judiciary,” Dutcher said. “It is something that I steadfastly believe in, and in this capacity, am able to serve that cause.”

Dutcher has been a circuit court judge in Waushara County since 2005. In 2022, he was elected chief judge of the fourth district by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where he oversees 26 courts in eight counties. In his new statewide leadership position as chair, he regularly addresses legislative bodies to inform them of the problems they face, among other responsibilities.

“I testify on a fairly regular basis, in support of either legislation or of administrative action being taken by governing bodies that are being asked to take steps that would remediate, or to a certain extent, mitigate the problems that we as a judiciary and as a justice system confront,” Dutcher said.

At the beginning of his career, Dutcher concentrated on product liability and civil litigation before being elected as the district attorney for Waushara County in 1993. He served in that position for 12 years before joining the bench.

“I was pushed hard by a lot of people in the community where I grew up to return and be the district attorney,” Dutcher said. “I realized that I was a country boy with a law degree, and I had an opportunity at the age of 27 to return home and to be a part of the community as a professional. I had never envisioned that taking place, but it did, and it was just a series of events that led to me being a part of this community where I still live and practice.”

He graduated from Ripon College in 1987 with a degree in English and participated in football.

“Ripon was a conflation of an outstanding undergraduate institution that also provided me the opportunity to be a college athlete,” Dutcher said. “I ended up majoring in English because I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in law, and English provided the foundation from both a skill standpoint as well as from just an analytical and conceptual standpoint, that gave me the reasoning skills, the writing skills and the communication skills that were essential to being successful in law.”

In 1990, he received his law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

“The foundation that I had received, from an academic perspective, was first rate, and I was able to be a very solid law student, in large part because of the preparation that I had received as an undergraduate at Ripon across all of the disciplines, not just my chosen major,” Dutcher said.

He said many faculty and staff members at Ripon left a big impact on his time at Ripon College, being a “guiding light” to him.

“I use my education from the University of Wisconsin Law School every day, but my education from Ripon College every hour,” Dutcher said. “And that’s absolutely the truth. There’s so much that I do that requires me to interact with and understand people, and you don’t really appreciate what’s happening to you at Ripon until you see the world in a broader way.”

Dutcher has visited the Ripon campus numerous times for football games, the annual golf outing and even mentored a pre-law student at Ripon who graduated in May 2025.

He has been a faculty member of the Wisconsin Judicial College since 2007 and held the position of associate dean from 2017 to 2023. Currently, he serves as co-dean alongside Judge Wendy Klicko. In addition, he is a frequent instructor at various judicial seminars, covering a range of topics including criminal procedure, evidence, sentencing and constitutional law.