Professor Thomas Hammer retires from the full-time faculty.
Professor Thomas Hammer has been associated with the Marquette Law School for nearly half a century: first as a student himself and then as a law professor.
During Professor Hammer’s time as a law student, he said he wanted to become a prosecutor. One of his professors, Lee Wells, facilitated an internship for Professor Hammer in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office, which led to his appointment as a prosecutor in that office when he graduated.
While Professor Hammer was working at the District Attorney’s Office, the Law School was looking for someone to teach the classroom component of its Prosecutors’ Clinic. Professor Hammer applied and was hired to teach it as a member of the adjunct faculty. During Professor Hammer’s adjunct faculty year, the Law School was recruiting a full-time professor to teach its Trial Advocacy course. Professor Hammer applied for that position and was appointed as a visiting professor. Professor Hammer was then invited to become a part of the regular faculty during the 1981 school year. He has been with Marquette Law School ever since.
Professor Hammer said that although he loved the work he did at the District Attorney’s Office, he came to enjoy the work of teaching even more. “I am lucky. I have only had two jobs as a lawyer, and I loved both.”
The internship that he participated in as a law student carried over and influenced his time as a Marquette professor. For the past 22 years, Professor Hammer has been the Law School’s Director of Clinical Education. In that capacity, he spearheaded the development of a clinical program that today offers students opportunities for experiential learning in scores of internships in the courts, governmental agencies, and non-profit organizations that primarily serve those unable to afford legal services. Each of those experiences is supervised by a lawyer, who helps the law student discover the unique work setting while performing assigned tasks.
The internship program is extremely popular among Marquette’s law students. Seventy-five percent of recent graduates participated in one of these internships, with some students participating in two or three; and every now and then, some students do even more than that. Professor Hammer explains that the program has been designed to offer practical lawyering experience in every area of law while simultaneously advancing the mission of the Law School to serve those in need who would not otherwise have access to legal representation.
Professor Hammer says the internship program is his proudest teaching accomplishment. “I am grateful the program has been so successful. This piece of legal education can really facilitate a successful transition into the legal profession when our students graduate.”
Professor Hammer will retire from the full-time faculty at the conclusion of the 2023 spring semester. He will then become a member of the emeritus faculty. Describing this transition, he says: “Marquette has been a part of my professional life for a long time. Although I will no longer be teaching or directing our internship program, I look forward to remaining involved in the life of the Law School as an emeritus professor. After all these years, I am not ready to completely shut the door and walk away.”