Nov

6

The Real Value in Appellate Oral Argument

Posted by: David Strifling | November 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Does appellate oral argument still matter?  In some courts with exceptionally heavy caseloads, such as the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, oral argument is vanishingly rare.  But even in courts that regularly hold oral argument, some observers claim that it has devolved into a dog-and-pony show unlikely to move judges who have already reached unspoken decisions [...]

Oct

3

Questions of Professionalism

Posted by: Rebecca K. Blemberg | October 3, 2009 | 2 Comments

I’ve been thinking about professionalism lately.  Two discussions in the past week or so have stuck with me.
The first discussion appeared in the Law Librarian Blog (thank you, Professor O’Brien, for forwarding it.)  In Florida, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Presnell issued an order denying a plaintiff’s motion for voluntary dismissal for
Failing to comply with [...]

Sep

13

Lawyers & Social Networking

Posted by: Lisa Mazzie | September 13, 2009 | 5 Comments

An article in today’s New York Times talks about what can happen when lawyers open up online.  The article begins with the story of Sean Conway.  Attorney Conway took to his blog to state exactly how angry he was with a Fort Lauderdale judge.  He said she was an “Evil, Unfair Witch.”  But because Conway is [...]

Sep

13

On What Lawyers Really Do

Posted by: Tim Casey | September 13, 2009 | 1 Comment

Client service is not a class taught in law schools, but don’t forget that client service is at the heart of what we do as lawyers. Our mandate as attorneys is to zealously (and ethically, of course) represent our clients. So whatever area of the law you are in or going into, don’t forget that [...]

Sep

10

You’re a What?

Posted by: Theresa Fallon | September 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Did you say you’re an American Bar Association (ABA) Law Student Division (LSD) Liaison?  What exactly is that?  First of all, I have to admit that as of February 1 of this year I had only the vaguest idea what the ABA even was.  I had no idea the ABA had a Law Student [...]

Sep

4

Rumors of the Death of the Billable Hour Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Posted by: Tim Casey | September 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Or so it seems to me.  Lately, there has been a variety of articles proclaiming the death, or impending death, of the billable hour.  So goes the argument: Billable hours misalign incentives between lawyers and their clients; law firms and lawyers have faced increasing pressure over recent years to redefine their business model and move [...]

Sep

4

Thinking Like a Lawyer

Posted by: Lisa Mazzie | September 4, 2009 | 3 Comments

At the start of each academic year, I cannot help but to think of Professor Kingsfield, the notorious contracts professor in The Paper Chase. The various classroom scenes where Professor Kingsfield grills student after student on classic contracts cases like Hawkins v. McGee have for years served as a sort of example of the “typical” [...]

Aug

15

Stephen Jay Gould on Jim Bowie, Bill Buckner, and Storytelling

Posted by: Melissa L. Greipp | August 15, 2009 | 1 Comment

Stephen Jay Gould, the eminent scientist and Harvard professor, was interested in human pattern recognition in stories.  He referred to the patterns that human minds want to create as “canonical stories.” His essay entitled “Jim Bowie’s Letter and Bill Buckner’s Legs”, which appears in I Have Landed:  The End of a Beginning in Natural History, [...]

Aug

1

What’s Your Archetype?

Posted by: Melissa L. Greipp | August 1, 2009 | 1 Comment

This past year I came across a terrific article by Professor Ruth Anne Robbins on using archetypes to develop a client’s story.  (Harry Potter, Ruby Slippers and Merlin: Telling the Client’s Story Using the Characters and Paradigm of the Archetypal Hero’s Journey, 29 Seattle U. L. Rev. 767 (2006)).  An archetype is an innate prototype, or [...]

Jul

24

How Do You Avoid Malpractice When Representing Clients in Foreign and International Matters?

Posted by: Michael P. Waxman | July 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Many attorneys representing domestic clients extend their legal advice to foreign and international matters.  Unfortunately, some of these attorneys are ill-prepared to provide this advice. Not only are they not familiar with the basic operation of other legal systems, such as those derived from the Civil Law tradition, they are unfamiliar even with the Common Law [...]

Jul

22

Marquette Law Student Theresa Fallon Serving as ABA Law Student Division Liaison for the Dispute Resolution Section

Posted by: Jessica E. Slavin | July 22, 2009 | 1 Comment

I recently learned that Theresa Fallon, a 2L, was appointed by the ABA to serve as Liaison to the Section on Dispute Resolution for 2009-2010.  You can see a list naming Theresa and the other liaison appointees here.  Student liaisons to ABA entities such as the Dispute Resolution Section work to “serve as a line [...]

Jul

14

Judge Cannon and the Continuity of the Profession

Posted by: Joseph D. Kearney | July 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Each May the Milwaukee Bar Association holds an annual Memorial Service to remember lawyers in this region who have passed away within the previous year. It occurs in the Ceremonial Courtroom of the Milwaukee County Courthouse and is attended by a variety of judges, lawyers, family of deceased lawyers, and others. When I was appointed [...]

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