Jeff Mandell (he/him) has nearly twenty years of experience in complex litigation and appellate advocacy. He is widely recognized as one of Wisconsin’s leading experts in election-law and constitutional litigation. In 2020, as special counsel to Governor Tony Evers, Jeff played a lead role in repelling the bevy of attacks against Wisconsin’s election results. Earlier in 2020, before he was on the Law Forward staff, Jeff was the lead lawyer who kept Kanye West and Howie Hawkins off of the Wisconsin ballot because they had not followed the rules to obtain ballot access. Jeff has handled a variety of high-profile cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court, including on absentee-ballot drop boxes, indefinitely confined voters, attempted purges of the voter rolls, separation of powers, and other issues. 

As one of Law Forward’s co-founders, Jeff sought to build legal infrastructure that would help ensure that democracy in Wisconsin works for everyone. After graduating from the University of Chicago Law School with high honors, Jeff served as a law clerk to the Honorable A. Raymond Randolph at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Jeff has worked in private practice at leading law firms in Chicago, Washington, and Madison, racking up successful outcome and accolades throughout his career. Jeff is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of both the American Bar Foundation and the Wisconsin Bar Foundation. 

Before becoming a lawyer, Jeff worked at various times as a policy advocate, a magazine writer, a test-prep instructor, an American poetry scholar, a telemarketer, a waiter, and a water-park lifeguard. He earned a master’s degree in American Civilization from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. degree from Trinity University. He and his family have happily been Wisconsinites since 2015.