The Western District of Wisconsin may be the most personal federal court in the Seventh Circuit: two district judges, one full-time magistrate judge, and a single staffed courthouse in Madison serving 44 counties. Just 117 people were sentenced here in fiscal year 2024 — but the docket punches above its weight in fraud, which ran at 13.7 percent of sentencings against an 8.6 percent national share. In a court this small, every filing is read closely and every reputation is earned case by case; the lawyer you bring matters accordingly.
What follows is a working profile of this court: who sits on its two-judge bench, where it actually holds court, who runs the U.S. Attorney’s Office and on what authority, what the sentencing numbers reveal, and how appeals and post-conviction motions flow out of Madison. Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. brings nationwide federal defense practice to the Western District of Wisconsin through pro hac vice admission. Its principal attorney, Elizabeth Franklin-Best, has litigated over 330 federal proceedings — more than 100 of them appeals — and is admitted in all twelve federal circuits and the U.S. Supreme Court; she was honored in the 2026 edition of Best Lawyers in America for Appellate Practice and ranked by Chambers USA 2026 for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations. Find every court we cover in the federal courts directory.
A target letter from Madison, an indictment out of the western counties, a sentence worth challenging — whichever brings you here, the right first move is the same: a paid, one-hour initial consultation that turns uncertainty into a plan.
Table of Contents
Quick Answer: Western District of Wisconsin
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What does the Western District of Wisconsin cover? | The 44 western and northern Wisconsin counties listed in 28 U.S.C. § 130(b), from the Illinois line to Lake Superior, including Madison, La Crosse, Eau Claire, and Superior. |
| Where is the courthouse? | The only staffed clerk’s office is in Madison (120 N. Henry Street). Jurors are also summoned for proceedings in Eau Claire, and the statute names five places of holding court. |
| How big is the bench? | Two district judges — Chief Judge James D. Peterson and Judge William M. Conley — plus full-time Magistrate Judge Anita M. Boor and a part-time magistrate judge (as of mid-2026). |
| Who prosecutes federal cases? | The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Madison under Chadwick M. Elgersma, who became Acting U.S. Attorney in June 2025 and was later appointed by the district’s judges to continue serving; he is not Senate-confirmed as of mid-2026. |
| How big is the criminal docket? | 117 people were sentenced in FY2024 — one of the smaller dockets in the country — led by drug trafficking (34.2 percent) and an above-average fraud share (13.7 percent). |
| Which circuit hears appeals? | The Seventh Circuit in Chicago, which also reviews the Eastern District of Wisconsin and the Illinois and Indiana federal courts. |
| Where do post-conviction motions go? | A § 2255 motion challenging a Western District of Wisconsin judgment is filed in this district, in front of the same small bench that imposed the sentence. |
| Can we appear in this court? | Yes — pro hac vice admission is routine here, and the engagement begins with a paid, one-hour initial consultation that gives you an honest read before anything is filed. |
Key Takeaways
- The district spans 44 counties under 28 U.S.C. § 130(b); the statute names five places of holding court, but Madison is the only city with a staffed clerk’s office, and jurors also sit in Eau Claire.
- With two authorized judgeships — the smallest complement in the Seventh Circuit — every criminal case lands before Chief Judge James D. Peterson or Judge William M. Conley (as of mid-2026).
- Magistrate Judge Anita M. Boor handles the front end of the criminal docket; the Chief Deputy Clerk doubles as a part-time magistrate judge.
- U.S. Attorney Chadwick M. Elgersma — a former FBI agent with an accounting degree — has led the office since June 2025 under an acting and then court-ordered appointment, without Senate confirmation as of mid-2026.
- Only 117 people were sentenced in FY2024, but fraud, theft, and embezzlement claimed 13.7 percent of them — more than half again the national share.
- Drug trafficking (34.2 percent) tracks the interstate corridors connecting Chicago and the Twin Cities through the district.
- Appeals belong to the Seventh Circuit, and Rule 4(b) allows only 14 days after entry of judgment to notice a criminal appeal.
- Section 2255 motions return to Madison, the district of conviction, regardless of where the sentence is being served.
- We accept Western District of Wisconsin engagements through pro hac vice admission, from pre-charge counsel to post-conviction litigation.
The Western District of Wisconsin at a Glance
Of Wisconsin’s two federal districts, the Western is by far the larger on the map and the smaller in the courtroom. Its 44 counties under 28 U.S.C. § 130(b) sweep from Rock County on the Illinois border through Madison and La Crosse all the way to Superior on the lake — geographically most of the state, demographically the quieter half.
On paper, the statute names five places of holding court: Eau Claire, La Crosse, Madison, Superior, and Wausau. In practice, the court runs from a single staffed courthouse at 120 North Henry Street in Madison — the clerk’s office maintains no permanent staff elsewhere — though jurors from the northwestern counties are still summoned to serve in Eau Claire when proceedings are held there. For defendants and counsel, Madison is where federal court happens in this district.
Prosecutions throughout those 44 counties come from the U.S. Attorney’s Office on West Washington Avenue in Madison, and every judgment is appealable to the Seventh Circuit. The district supplements the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure with local rules and judge-specific practices — and in a two-judge court, knowing those two judges’ expectations is not a nicety but the core of competent local practice.
Two Judges, One Magistrate: The Circuit’s Smallest Bench
Section 133 of Title 28 allots this district two judgeships — the smallest authorized bench in the Seventh Circuit. As of mid-2026, the court’s own roster lists Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson and U.S. District Judge William M. Conley, supported by full-time U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita M. Boor and, in one of the federal judiciary’s more distinctive arrangements, a part-time magistrate judge, Andrew Wiseman, who also serves as the court’s Chief Deputy Clerk.
A two-judge court changes the texture of practice. There is no realistic variation in who will preside: a felony charge here will be tried, if tried, before Judge Peterson or Judge Conley, and both judges’ procedures, in-court habits, and sentencing approaches are knowable in detail. The same is true in reverse — repeat counsel are known quantities to the court, which rewards careful, credible lawyering and remembers the other kind.
Magistrate Judge Boor anchors the early criminal calendar — initial appearances, detention contests, discovery disputes — so the opening fortnight of most cases runs through her courtroom. We prepare for those early hearings as seriously as for trial, because in a bench this small, first impressions follow a case to the end. What we never do is dress preparation up as prediction; no lawyer can promise how any judge will rule.
A Court-Appointed U.S. Attorney and a Lean, Fraud-Tilted Docket
The prosecuting office’s leadership carries an asterisk worth understanding. Chadwick M. Elgersma — raised in Waupun, trained as an accountant before becoming an FBI special agent, then a career prosecutor in this office — became Acting U.S. Attorney on June 28, 2025, and in January 2026 the district’s judges appointed him under 28 U.S.C. § 546(d) to continue as U.S. Attorney. He has not been confirmed by the Senate as of mid-2026. His stated priorities run from drug interdiction and violent crime to financial fraud, and his accountant-turned-agent background suggests the office’s comfort with complex financial cases is not incidental.
The numbers bear that out. Of the 117 people sentenced in FY2024 — among the leanest dockets of any federal district — drug trafficking led at 40 cases (34.2 percent), with recent press releases showing the pattern: multi-state methamphetamine and fentanyl pipelines tying the district to Chicago and the Twin Cities. Firearms followed at 21 cases (17.9 percent). But the standout figure is fraud, theft, and embezzlement at 16 cases and 13.7 percent, well above the 8.6 percent national share — joined by money laundering at 4.3 percent. Guilty pleas resolved 97.4 percent of cases; three went to trial.
The office’s recent sentencing announcements sketch the same two-track docket: a 20-year sentence for the leader of a large armed drug-trafficking organization on one track; a bank manager’s embezzlement and a former county prosecutor’s child-exploitation conviction on the other. Small district, serious cases.
Madison: Capital City, College Town, Federal Court
The district’s center of gravity is a city of government and research. Madison holds the state capitol, the flagship state university, and the agencies and laboratories that orbit them — which means the people investigated here are often professionals: public employees, researchers, health-care providers, financial officers, and small-business owners facing program-fraud, tax, or embezzlement theories rather than street crime.
For that population, a federal investigation usually announces itself politely — an agent’s business card, a grand jury subpoena for records, a letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office — and the most valuable defense work happens in the months before anyone decides whether to charge. That is doubly true in a district where the fraud share of the docket already runs half again the national average. If the government is asking questions about your grants, your billing, your books, or your taxes, the time to involve counsel is now, while the answers can still shape the outcome.
Federal Criminal Cases in the District
A lean docket does not mean a gentle one. White-collar investigations, fraud charges, drug conspiracies, and firearms counts in this district move through the same federal machinery as anywhere else — often faster, because two judges and a compact U.S. Attorney’s office leave little room for drift.
Most cases begin with an investigation by a federal agency, sometimes signaled by a target letter or a grand jury subpoena. Formal charges follow, typically by indictment. After an initial appearance and arraignment, the case proceeds through pretrial litigation and discovery, and is then resolved either by a negotiated plea agreement or by trial. A conviction is followed by sentencing under the federal framework. The firm’s federal criminal process hub walks through each stage in detail.
We work each of those stages with the end of the case in mind: assembling the mitigation record before it is needed, preserving legal issues whether or not they will ever be appealed, and negotiating with prosecutors who know we will try the case if the offer does not respect the facts. With only three trials in the district in FY2024, a defense team genuinely prepared for the fourth carries weight.
Applied Insight: In a 117-case district, prosecutors choose their cases; nothing is filed on autopilot. That cuts both ways for the defense. A weak or borderline case is genuinely winnable at the declination stage, before charges exist — but once this office commits to an indictment, it has the time and attention to litigate it thoroughly. Engage counsel while the choosing is still happening.
Appeals and Post-Conviction Matters
Every judgment entered in Madison can be tested in the Seventh Circuit, but the window is narrow: fourteen days from entry of judgment to file the criminal notice of appeal under Rule 4(b). Because this district’s judges are experienced and its record-keeping clean, winning a Western District of Wisconsin appeal usually means out-lawyering the issue — finding the preserved error and briefing it better — rather than waiting for an obvious mistake.
Post-judgment remedies come back to this courthouse. Motions under § 2255 — explained in our post-conviction relief hub — are decided by the district of conviction, and compassionate release motions under § 3582(c)(1)(A) by the sentencing judge. Two Seventh Circuit rules shape that practice district-wide: United States v. Williams, 987 F.3d 700 (7th Cir. 2021), requires a prisoner to present the same grounds to the warden that the motion later presents to the court — an exhaustion trap that sinks otherwise solid motions — and circuit law confirmed by the Supreme Court in Rutherford (2026) keeps nonretroactive legal changes from counting as extraordinary and compelling. The grant statistics show how narrow the path is: per the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s full-year figures, the Seventh Circuit granted only 8.1 percent of compassionate-release motions in fiscal year 2025 (14 of 173), and the Western District of Wisconsin granted just 1 of the 21 it decided. We build motions for this district with both rules in view from the first draft.
How the Firm Practices in This Court
Pro hac vice admission — the standard route for outside federal counsel — is how we take cases in the Western District of Wisconsin: a motion in the case under the court’s local procedure, after which we appear with the same standing as local counsel. In a district with a small defense bar, that mechanism does important work, letting defendants reach beyond Madison for the specific experience their case demands.
Our experience is federal by design. The statutes, Guidelines, and constitutional doctrines that decide a Madison fraud case are the ones we brief every week in courts across the country — and the Seventh Circuit law that binds this courthouse binds Chicago, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee alike, where the rest of our circuit work lives. What we add for this district is the local layer this page reflects: a two-judge bench whose expectations can be learned thoroughly, and a U.S. Attorney’s office small enough that relationships and credibility register.
Elizabeth Franklin-Best’s admissions span the U.S. Supreme Court and all twelve federal circuits, and her book Reversing Your Criminal Conviction reflects the appellate and post-conviction depth the firm is built on. Wisconsin matters east of the district line belong with our Eastern District of Wisconsin guide; clients across the Mississippi can start with our District of Minnesota page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What area does the Western District of Wisconsin cover?
Forty-four western and northern Wisconsin counties under 28 U.S.C. § 130(b) — from Rock and Green Counties on the Illinois border through Madison, La Crosse, and Eau Claire to Douglas County on Lake Superior. It is geographically the larger of Wisconsin’s two federal districts.
Is there a federal courthouse outside Madison in the Western District of Wisconsin?
Madison is the district’s only staffed courthouse; the clerk’s office at 120 North Henry Street has no permanent staff elsewhere. The statute names Eau Claire, La Crosse, Superior, and Wausau as additional places of holding court, and jurors are still summoned for proceedings held in Eau Claire.
Who are the federal judges in the Western District of Wisconsin?
As of mid-2026, the entire Article III bench is two judges: Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson and U.S. District Judge William M. Conley. U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita M. Boor serves full time, and the Chief Deputy Clerk of Court, Andrew Wiseman, doubles as a part-time magistrate judge.
Who prosecutes federal crimes in the Western District of Wisconsin?
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Wisconsin, based in Madison. As of mid-2026 it is led by Chadwick M. Elgersma, a former FBI special agent who became Acting U.S. Attorney in June 2025 and was subsequently appointed by the district’s judges to continue serving; he has not been confirmed by the Senate.
What federal crimes are most common in the Western District of Wisconsin?
Of the 117 people sentenced in fiscal year 2024, drug trafficking led at 34.2 percent, firearms followed at 17.9 percent, and fraud, theft, and embezzlement claimed 13.7 percent — noticeably above the 8.6 percent national share, reflecting Madison’s government, university, and health-care economy.
Which appeals court covers the Western District of Wisconsin?
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, which also reviews decisions from the Eastern District of Wisconsin and the federal courts of Illinois and Indiana. A criminal appeal must generally be noticed within fourteen days of the entry of judgment.
How does a federal criminal case proceed in the Western District of Wisconsin?
Investigation first — subpoenas, agent contacts, sometimes a target letter — then indictment, an initial appearance and arraignment usually before Magistrate Judge Boor in Madison, pretrial litigation, and a plea or trial before Judge Peterson or Judge Conley, with Guidelines sentencing to follow. In FY2024, 97.4 percent of sentenced cases were resolved by guilty plea.
Can an out-of-state lawyer represent me in the Western District of Wisconsin?
Yes. The court admits qualified attorneys pro hac vice for individual cases under its local procedure. Federal charges, rules, and Guidelines are identical nationwide, so the real question is the lawyer’s depth in federal criminal work — especially in a district whose small bar makes experienced outside federal practitioners a common and accepted sight.
Does the firm handle federal cases in the Western District of Wisconsin?
We do — investigations and trials in Madison, Seventh Circuit appeals, and § 2255 and compassionate-release litigation arising from this district. It all begins with a paid, one-hour initial consultation: you bring the facts, we bring a candid professional assessment of where the case can go.
Talk With a Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer
In a two-judge district, cases move and decisions compound quickly — which makes early, clear-eyed advice worth more here than almost anywhere. Schedule the paid, one-hour initial consultation and leave it knowing what the government likely has, what the law actually says, and what we would do next on your behalf.