Career History:
Appellate Judge, Court of Appeals – District II (elected 2022)
Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge (elected 2015 and 2021)
Assistant Attorney General, Wisconsin (2010-2015)
Attorney, Private Practice (civil) (1989-2010)
To read the full official biography, click here. Source: wicourts.gov
Maria S. Lazar is a judge on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals — District II, where she has served since 2022. District II covers Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha, and the southeastern counties of Wisconsin.
Before joining the Court of Appeals, Lazar served as a Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge, elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2021. Earlier in her career, she served as an Assistant Attorney General with the Wisconsin Department of Justice from 2010 to 2015, defending state laws in court. She also practiced civil law in private practice for more than two decades before joining the bench.
Lazar was elected to the Court of Appeals in 2022.
Authored the majorities. Companion separation-of-powers cases on whether the legislature's budget committee can override Department of Justice settlement decisions. Lazar held the legislature retained meaningful control. The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed her unanimously—7-0—on the § 165.08 opinion in 2025 WI 23. The cross-ideological unanimity, including Justices Ziegler and Grassl Bradley, signals a methodological problem rather than political disagreement.
When the state attorney general settles a big lawsuit, who has the final word—the AG or the legislature's budget committee? Lazar wrote that the committee has wide power to block settlements. The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed her 7-0. Every justice—conservative and liberal—agreed she had read the law to give the committee more power than the law actually gives it. A 7-0 reversal is rare. On this one, she got out ahead of the words.
Authored the majority. A dispute over how high-school athletic association rules should be interpreted. The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed 5-2, with the reversal tracking Judge Neubauer's Court of Appeals dissent. The case sits inside District II's broader pattern of Supreme Court reversals during the term.
The case asked whether courts can review punishments handed down by Wisconsin's high-school athletic association. Lazar wrote that they can. The Wisconsin Supreme Court reversed 5-2. The court agreed with the position Judge Neubauer had taken in her dissent. On this case, the dissent on the appeals court turned out to be the closer read of the law.