Oct

20

The Face in the Window

Posted by: | October 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment

John Luther Bryant was a happy guy as he drove down the dusty roads of rural Pickens County, Alabama.  Life was good on the family farm where he and his spinster sister, Miss Grace Bryant, worked to scratch out a living and raise enough food and chickens to support themselves while enjoying the peace and [...]

Oct

20

Ombuds Perspective on Whistleblowing Laws

Posted by: | October 20, 2011 | 2 Comments

Last week, we had wonderful talk entitled Blowing the Whistle on Whistleblowing Laws.  Attorney Charles L. (Chuck) Howard is one of the few attorneys in the U.S. with extensive expertise in the legal issues of ombudsmen. Howard has a national practice in representing organizational ombudsmen at universities, multinational corporations, and research institutions.  His new book, entitled The Organizational Ombudsman: Origins, Roles [...]

Oct

19

Budget Cuts Haven’t Meant Prosecution Cuts Here, Santelle Says

Posted by: | October 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment

In case any criminals reading this are hoping to avoid prosecution because budget cuts are reducing the reach of federal prosecutors, their hopes are ill-founded – at least for now, according to James Santelle, the U.S. Attorney for the eastern district of Wisconsin.   But down the road and even now in places other than eastern [...]

Oct

17

Marquette Law School’s Enduring Connection to the Sports Law Industry

Posted by: | October 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment

As noted in an earlier post, the current issue of Marquette Lawyer magazine contains a profile of the current Marquette Sports Law program and the National Sports Law Institute. What the article fails to note, however, it that the law school’s involvement with the sports industry long pre-dates the founding of the National Sports Law [...]

Oct

16

Increasing Your Brain Power

Posted by: | October 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Students in the first-year legal writing courses are right now handing in their first full length memos. Learning this new memo writing skill is usually a moment of some anxiety for students, as the analysis, form, and structure of a legal memo is quite different from other types of writing. The most important word in [...]

Oct

15

A Non-terminal Man

Posted by: | October 15, 2011 | 1 Comment

I was asked to talk about the law’s view of the case of Dan Crews, age 27, who wants to die as soon as possible. You may have read about him last fall in the Journal-Sentinel, and in spring in the Chicago Tribune as the story unfolded. You might hear about him on the WISN [...]

Oct

14

On Dazzling Topic Sentences

Posted by: | October 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment

[Editor's Note:  This month faculty members share their favorite brief writing or oral argument tip.  This is the second entry in the series.]  In the theme of the Faculty Blog’s topic of the month, the best brief-writing tip I have received is to spend a lot of time crafting excellent topic sentences. We all know that [...]

Oct

13

New Issue of Marquette Lawyer Focuses on Sports Law Program and Milwaukee Getting “Smart on Crime”

Posted by: | October 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment

The Fall 2011 issue of the Marquette Lawyer arrived this week.  The articles can be downloaded here.  Highlights include articles on: Marquette’s sports law program; Milwaukee County’s Community Justice Council; The Restorative Justice Initiative’s conference on the clergy sex-abuse scandal; Punishment for murder; Patent office reform; Ailing chief justices; and The investiture of new Fourth [...]

Oct

11

Abby Ramirez: Believing in What’s Possible for Milwaukee Schools

Posted by: | October 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Abby Ramirez wants other people to come to – and act on — the same beliefs she has: That a large majority of low-income children can become high-performing students and that the number of schools where such success is widespread can be increased sharply in Milwaukee. In an “On the Issues” session with Mike Gousha [...]

Oct

11

Severability and the Erie Doctrine

Posted by: | October 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment

“Severability” doctrine holds that where a statute is partially unconstitutional, a reviewing court can excise the unconstitutional part rather than declare the entire statute invalid, if consistent with legislative intent. The doctrine figures centrally in a broad array of constitutional litigation, including ongoing litigation over the “individual mandate” provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable [...]

Oct

11

Remembering Year 2 in Sensenbrenner Hall

Posted by: | October 11, 2011 | 1 Comment

As we settle into the second year of Eckstein Hall, it is interesting to look back and try to imagine what it would have been like to have been a student in Sensenbrenner Hall in its second year, 1925-1926. First of all, the Sensenbrenner Hall of 1925 was quite different from the building that the [...]

Oct

10

Falling Leaves and Rising Stress Levels?

Posted by: | October 10, 2011 | 2 Comments

The leaves are changing, the nights are cool, and there’s a nip in the air in the early mornings.  That means it’s October, which means for most law students that school has been in session for nearly two months (for most students).  It’s around this time that the 1Ls perhaps notice an increase in workload.  [...]

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