Maria S. Lazar (née Pellegrini; born 1964) is an American lawyer and a judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, since August 2022, in Waukesha-based District II.
During the administration of Governor Scott Walker, she worked as an assistant attorney general in the Wisconsin Department of Justice and handled significant litigation, including lawsuits over redistricting and the controversial "budget repair" bill.
[4] Following the passage of Act 10, Lazar was lead trial attorney for the state government, defending the law from litigation, and ultimately won at the Wisconsin Supreme Court in June 2011.
[12] The election was contentious, with negative ads attempting to tar Kornblum by linking her to Milwaukee County district attorney John T. Chisholm.
Chisholm was taking substantial criticism at the time because the perpetrator of the Waukesha Christmas parade attack had been arrested in Milwaukee on a domestic violence charge and made bail just before the incident.
[13] Kornblum ran ads against Lazar accusing her of giving a light sentence to a police officer who had been convicted of sexual assault.