Max Raskin, Milwaukee district attorney and circuit court judge, was born in Latvia, Russia, on November 8, 1902. His family emigrated to the United States in 1912 and eventually moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1919. There he attended Marquette University Law School and received his degree in 1926.
His first bid for public office was as an unsuccessful candidate for district attorney of Milwaukee County on the 1930 Socialist ticket. Two years later he was elected city attorney of Milwaukee and he served in that position for four years. From 1936 to 1963 he maintained a private practice and among his major clients were labor unions, including the Councils of the Wisconsin CIO and the Milwaukee CIO. Raskin also wrote a column, “Legally Speaking,” that appeared in several Wisconsin labor newspapers from 1948 to 1963.
In 1949, 1956, and 1962 he ran unsuccessfully for the Milwaukee County Circuit Court. In 1963 Governor Reynolds appointed Raskin to fill an unexpired term on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court bench; he was elected in his own right in 1964 and again in 1970. On the bench he worked to establish volunteer probation counseling programs. Raskin retired from regular service in 1973 but has continued to serve as a reserve judge receiving temporary assignments.
