Rachel Monaco-Wilcox – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Finding the Spirit of God, and the Law, in All Things

Post author:Rachel Monaco-Wilcox
Post published:July 1, 2009
Post category:Uncategorized

In my final post I simply want to express gratitude for the opportunity to learn about myself as a Marquette lawyer, and my passions in the law, by making the choices of what to say in posting over the course of this past month.

As I see it, the Law School’s Blog is a collective forum for sharing diverse opinions, the dynamic evolution of legal concepts, and freedom of expression, and for honoring the unique attributes of each writer. Each individual contributor chooses to contribute to the discourse on justice, the law, and the interrelationship of those concepts in our world, which far too easily becomes compartmentalized into unrealistic and unhelpful hierarchies like legal and non-legal, students and faculty, lawyers and non-lawyers. That this forum exists, and exists at Marquette University Law School, is a gift, as it reminds us that we have a completely free choice, always, of how to exist in a world that needs lawyers with compassion, integrity, and purpose so badly. That choice is determinative and illustrative, for each person, of an inner fire that is the only source for renewal of a continued, sustainable commitment to being Marquette lawyers, who are, first and foremost, men and women for others.

Duality or Trinity, Scales or Circles: What Approach for Justice in a New Generation?

Post author:Rachel Monaco-Wilcox
Post published:June 26, 2009
Post category:Legal Education

This week, I want to try to tie together some aspects of three experiences I recently had, and tell why I believe they reflect something about the evolving nature of justice at this point in human history.

A. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. and Jr.: A first generation poet; a second generation jurist. I was rooting around in the attic, sorting out books for donation to a local charity, and came across my husband’s grandmother’s 1952 edition of The Family Book of Best Loved Poems, which randomly flipped open to “The Last Leaf” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. I read it and was reflective about the beautiful minds that manifested over the course of two lifetimes, father and son, one as a physician and poet and one as a jurist, each achieving excellence in their unique ways.

Legal Owls, Legal Eagles, and Howard Eisenberg: Art History Mystery, Part 3?

Post author:Rachel Monaco-Wilcox
Post published:June 13, 2009
Post category:Marquette Law School

owl This week, I wanted to respond to Jane Casper’s comment on Peter Heyne’s post Art History Mystery, Part 2. Jane asks, “As long as you are looking into Law School art mysteries, perhaps someone can find out why the owl and bat figures are carved into the front of the arch over the Wisconsin Avenue entrance to Sensenbrenner Hall.” While I don’t know the exact reason for the bat and owl (leaving that to the true art historians!), her comment and the Dean’s recent post on the anniversary of Dean Eisenberg’s death, which was June 4, led me to the following reflective musings.

Howard Eisenberg was a legal “eagle” surely. I believe he was so because he perhaps was also a legal owl. All Harry Potter jokes aside, I find that owls and careful attorneys have a lot in common, not the least of which is that a plural grouping of owls is referred to as a “parliament.”