Jill Sopha
Jill Hamill Sopha is the owner and managing director of Sopha Mediation LLC. As a full-time employment attorney mediator, Jill combines her unique and unparalleled experience with her passion to help employers and employees find resolutions to workplace disputes and litigation through mediation.
Jill has more than 20 years of experience practicing as an employment attorney. She has crafted resolutions to hundreds of employment disputes ranging from informal complaints to administrative charges and state and federal litigation, and covering a broad array of employment and employment-related areas.
For disputes covered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) mediations, Jill is on the panel of AAA-approved employment mediators.
In addition to her mediation practice, Jill is an adjunct professor at Marquette Law School, where she teaches law students how to effectively advocate for their clients in a three-credit “Mediation Advocacy” workshop.
Jill is a frequent speaker on topics involving mediation and employment law, with a particular focus on avoiding and resolving workplace conflict and litigation.
Prior to opening Sopha Mediation LLC, Jill spent the past 15 years in progressive legal and HR leadership roles at Fortune 500 company Harley-Davidson, Inc. – most recently as chief counsel/human resources. At Harley-Davidson, Jill provided primary direction and guidance on all HR-related legal issues, developed and implemented a Global HR Compliance program, and led a team of HR professionals responsible for providing day-to-day HR support. Before her work at Harley-Davidson, Jill was an employment attorney at the law firms Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren S.C. in Madison, WI, and Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP and Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP in Chicago, IL.
Jill is also a member of several professional organizations. In addition to being secretary/treasurer for the Labor and Employment section and a board member for Dispute Resolution of the Wisconsin Bar Association, Jill is co-chair of the Labor and Employment section of the Milwaukee Bar Association. Jill is also a member of:
• American Arbitration Association (AAA) Mediation Panel
• American Bar Association (Labor and Employment Law Section, Dispute Resolution Section)
• Eastern District of Wisconsin Bar Association (EDWBA)
• Association for Women Lawyers (AWL)
• Wisconsin Association of Mediators (WAM)
• Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA)
• Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM)
In the past two years, Jill has completed over 150 hours of mediation training, including 40-hour programs at the nationally renowned Strauss Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine’s University School of Law and at Chicago’s Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR).
In addition to her employment mediation work, in 2017, Jill applied for and was selected to be a mediator for Wisconsin’s Special Education Mediation System (WSEMS), where she helps parents and schools work together to resolve disputes about special education. As part of that application and selection process, Jill participated in an additional 40-hour mediation training program.
Jill has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with distinction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Business School (1993) and obtained her Juris Doctorate degree cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School (1996).
