Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Our Dullened Rhetorical Swords

By: Joseph RiepenhoffNovember 8, 2019Alumni Contributor, Political Processes & Rhetoric, PublicLeave a comment»

Okay, class, we will now turn to sentence diagramming. Let’s take the example on page 15, begin reading:

Look, having nuclear—my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John [T] at MIT; good genes, very good genes, okay, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart—you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, okay, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world—it’s true!—but when you’re a conservative Republican they try—oh, do they do a number—that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune—you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged—but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me—it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are (nuclear is powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right—who would have thought?), but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners—now it used to be three, now it’s four—but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years—but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us.

What is the subject of this sentence? Who can identify the predicate? Continue reading “Our Dullened Rhetorical Swords”

Conference Gives Milwaukee a Good — But Not Great — Progress Report as a Water Hub

By: Alan J. BorsukNovember 7, 2019Milwaukee, Public, Speakers at Marquette, Water LawLeave a comment»

Ten years ago, Marquette Law School sponsored a conference, “Milwaukee 2015: Water, Jobs, and the Way Forward.” Speakers at the conference, including Wisconsin’s then-Gov. Jim Doyle and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, put forward a vision of Milwaukee becoming a world leader in water expertise with a Milwaukee area economy boosted by an influx of water-based jobs and companies.

On Nov. 5, 2019, a decade later almost to the day, the Law School convened a follow up conference (titled “Milwaukee 2025: Water, Jobs, and the Way Forward”) with some of the same speakers, as well as others, to ask how things have been going and what lies ahead.

How would you rate Milwaukee’s record on becoming a water hub? Mayor Barrett responded that the area has moved in the right direction. “I won’t give us an A plus, I’ll give us a solid B for moving in that direction,” he said. “We have changed the perception of Milwaukee in a significant way in the last 10 years.”

Marquette University President Michael R. Lovell, a major proponent of the emphasis on water, said the goal in 2009 was to make Milwaukee a global center of excellence for all things related to water, “something like the CDC for water,” a reference to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lovell said, “We have not gotten there yet; we are still striving to do so.” Milwaukee should be proud of what has been done, including the creation of The Water Council, the Global Water Center, and the School of Freshwater Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Lovell said. Continue reading “Conference Gives Milwaukee a Good — But Not Great — Progress Report as a Water Hub”

Welcome to Our November Alumni Blogger

By: Bruce E. BoydenNovember 4, 2019Alumni Contributor, PublicLeave a comment»

Our alumni guest blogger for the month of November is Joe Riepenhoff, L’14, who is appearing for a return engagement, having been a student guest blogger back in October 2012. While at Marquette, Joe was a student advisory board member for the Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic, an intern for the Waukesha County Circuit Court criminal division judges, and research assistant for Prof. Daniel Blinka. Since graduating he has worked as a staff attorney for the Wisconsin State Public Defender Office, a conflicts analysts at Foley and Lardner, and is now a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee.

Welcome back to the Faculty Blog, Joe!

Tommy Thompson Told His Daughter to Try Being a Public Defender –and It Launched Her Career

By: Alan J. BorsukOctober 29, 2019October 30, 2019Criminal Law & Process, Public, Speakers at Marquette, Wisconsin Criminal Law & ProcessLeave a comment»

Kelli Thompson admits she wasn’t entirely eager to become a lawyer, particularly the kind involved in courtroom work. As a student at Marquette Law School, “I probably did a very, very good job of staying far, far away from any kind of trial advocacy or litigation type of class. I think my thought was I would get the J.D. behind my name and just do something else. The something else, I have no idea what that was going to be.”

But, she said during an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” program at Eckstein Hall on October 15, 2019, “In my third year of law school, I think it was killing my father that I was not even considering going into a courtroom.”

Her father, by the way, is Tommy G. Thompson, who, at that time in the mid-1990s, was governor of Wisconsin.

Kelli Thompson recalled, “At that point in time, he certainly wasn’t pushy, but he said, ‘Before you decide you hate it (courtroom work), you at least have to try it.’ . . . He said Marquette has wonderful clinical programs.” He told his daughter to pick one. “I said, ‘OK, you pick for me because I don’t know what I want to do’ . . . He said, ‘There’s no doubt, public defender, you should go there.’

So she did. “I can say quite honestly, after my first couple of days, I was hooked,” Kelli Thompson said. Continue reading “Tommy Thompson Told His Daughter to Try Being a Public Defender –and It Launched Her Career”

Pro Bono Week: Student and Alumni Features, Part II

By: Sarah DiStefanoOctober 23, 2019Marquette Law School, Pro Bono, PublicLeave a comment»

For the remaining Pro Bono Week features, not only do we have some individual students and alumni, but we also feature a student organization as well. Please follow us on Twitter and Instagram to see more photos throughout the week.

Our next student to be featured is Kelsey Brown. Kelsey is a 3L and will be graduating this December. She has been involved since October of her first year of law school and has participated with the House of Peace, UCC, Milwaukee Justice Center, and the Veteran’s Service Office throughout her law school tenure.

Her reasons for participating in pro bono opportunities: “I decided to do pro bono because I wanted to better educate people on the law. I felt that if people were better educated on the law, then they are in a better position to recognize and fight against unfair and unnecessary treatment against them. I also wanted to be a role model for individuals who come to the clinics. I wanted to show them that lawyers come in all shapes, sizes, and shades—just like them. And hopefully by seeing an African American female such as myself working at the clinic, they will see the legitimacy of the Wisconsin court system. My favorite thing about volunteering at is that everyone feels good—the client feels good because he or she received legal advice; and the volunteer law student/volunteer lawyer feel good because they helped a client understand the Wisconsin legal system.”

Salonee Patel is a 3L who has been working with the pro bono programs for about two and half years. She’s volunteered with the Milwaukee Justice Center in the past but you can primarily find her at the United Community Center this year. She is one of our Student Advisory Board members and says her favorite part is “working alongside attorneys and students to help our clients out with their legal issues.”

Salonee has many reasons for doing pro bono work. “It is important to volunteer and help out especially when you have the time and resources to do so,” she says, and “as a law student, not only do you start learning certain legal skills, but you also get to know your community better.”

Not only do individual students, participate in pro bono work, our student organizations do too. Continue reading “Pro Bono Week: Student and Alumni Features, Part II”

Wisconsin voters give Trump different ratings on the economy and foreign policy, but it doesn’t affect his overall job approval among partisans

By: John JohnsonOctober 23, 2019October 23, 2019Marquette Law School Poll, PublicLeave a comment»

Democrats, Republicans, and Independents all give Trump higher ratings on the economy than on foreign policy, but this doesn’t affect their overall approval of Trump among members of either party.

Republicans only give Trump a net +58% approval rating on foreign policy, but his overall net job approval matches that of his economic job approval (+83% and +84%, respectively).

Inversely, Democrats give Trump a net -78% rating on the economy, but their overall job approval is identical to their foreign policy approval at -94%.

Independents are more mixed. They give Trump a +8% net rating on the economy and a -31% rating on foreign policy. His overall approval lies in the middle at -10%.

Pro Bono Week: Student and Alumni Features, Part I

By: Sarah DiStefanoOctober 21, 2019Marquette Law School, Pro Bono, PublicLeave a comment»

We want to highlight just a few of the many students and alumni that participate in pro bono opportunities with our Office of Public Service. We will be featuring some photos of them on our Twitter and Instagram pages and will have another post later this week to highlight more!

First up is 2L Richard Esparza. Richard began volunteering with our pro bono programs during the first week he was allowed to during his 1L year, “I actually was scheduled for my first shift on the same day we received training!” He has participated at all of the MVLCs but he frequents the United Community Center (UCC) more often since he is a native Spanish speaker and there is a large Spanish-speaking population that attends the clinic.

We asked our students why they decided to do pro bono work and what their favorite thing about volunteering was. Richard said, “I decided to do pro bono because I am a native of Milwaukee and feel a strong connection to my community. My favorite thing about volunteering with the pro bono clinics is being able to use my Spanish to help clients.”

Next is Al Sterling. Al is a 3L and has been volunteering with the pro bono programs since his first semester of law school. Continue reading “Pro Bono Week: Student and Alumni Features, Part I”

Bradley Foundation Chief Describes Its Conservative Philosophy and Grant Making

By: Alan J. BorsukOctober 18, 2019October 22, 2019Milwaukee, Political Processes & Rhetoric, Public, Speakers at MarquetteLeave a comment»

As Rick Graber sees it, the Bradley Foundation operates “in a world of ideas, and we fund people who are in the world of ideas.”

That’s one way to describe the work of the Milwaukee-based foundation. But it is important to add a few things to that description: The Bradley Foundation is huge – it has an endowment of about $900 million and it makes grants of $40 to $50 million a year. It is influential – it has provided funding sparking big changes in American policy since it was launched in the mid-1980s. And it is conservative – its leaders have never hesitated in using that label to describe its support of limited government, free markets, traditional values, and other conservative causes. One of its signature issues is support of programs allowing parents to send their children to private and religious schools using public money.

Graber, president and CEO of Bradley since 2016, told an audience at an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” program at Marquette Law School on Thursday, October 17, that the foundation tries to do what two brothers, Harry and Lynda Bradley, would want them to do. The two were founders of the Allen-Bradley Co., and they were supporters of conservative causes. Both died more than a half century ago and the foundation is funded out of some of the proceeds of the sale of Allen-Bradley in the 1980s. Continue reading “Bradley Foundation Chief Describes Its Conservative Philosophy and Grant Making”

National Pro Bono Week: October 20-26

By: Sarah DiStefanoOctober 16, 2019Marquette Law School, Pro Bono, PublicLeave a comment»

October 20-26, 2019 is recognized as National Pro Bono Week. For the last ten years, a week in October has been chosen as a way to spotlight the pro bono work done by law students, lawyers, and paralegals across the country.

How did it get started? Back in 2009, the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service decided to create a coordinated event to highlight the “increasing need for pro bono services during harsh economic times and the unprecedented response of attorneys to meet this demand.” Ever since, it has promoted pro bono activities during October to help increase access to justice and community involvement.

So what is Marquette Law School doing for Pro Bono Week? Well, I first want to mention that the Law School has been committed to public service for a long time. The Office of Public Service is continuing to organize pro bono opportunities, trainings, CLEs, and really just business as usual because serving our communities is engrained in our mission. Almost 70% of our current students have participated in pro bono opportunities and we’ve served thousands of clients over the year.

So if you haven’t yet volunteered at one of the many Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinics (MVLCs), traveled on the Mobile Legal Clinic bus, or participated with the Milwaukee Justice Center (which will be celebrating its 10^th Anniversary this month), I would encourage our students, faculty, and alumni to sign up for a shift during the week.

But we are also going to use the week to recognize just a few of our volunteers, both current students and alumni. They have put in a lot of time and effort to connect with the Milwaukee community and help increase access to justice. Hear about some of their experiences and find out what motivates them to give their time to this cause. Hopefully it will help inspire you to give back as well.

3L Moot Court Team Sweeps Preliminaries at Elon University Competition

By: Lisa A. MazzieOctober 13, 2019October 13, 2019Appellate Advocacy, Legal Education, Legal Writing, Marquette Law School, Moot Court, Public1 Comment

Moot Court students in front of Elon Law sign — From left to right: Luis Gutierrez, Terreea Shropshire, and Nicholas Wanic

In Marquette Law’s first appearance at the Billings, Exum & Frye National Moot Court Competition at Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, North Carolina, three Marquette Law students showed that Team Marquette is a force to be reckoned with.

Luis Gutierrez, Terreea Shropshire, and Nicholas Wanic were one of 40 teams at the competition. Though their brief was not one of the top two in the competition (the only ones awarded honors), they earned a high score that was nearly ten points above the median. Further, they won each of their three preliminaries rounds and advanced to the octofinals.

This competition had a tight turn-around time between problem release, brief deadline, and competition. All three team members stepped up and showed how hard work pays off. Professor Rebecca Blemberg served as the team’s faculty advisor and coach. Other coaches were Attorney Courtney Roelandts (L’18), who also accompanied the team to the competition, and Attorneys Jessica Delgado (L’19) and Sarita (Sadie) Olson (L’19), with Professor Lisa A. Mazzie assisting. Thank you, too, to Attorney Greg Helding (L’14), who served as guest judge.

Congratulations, team, on your accomplishments!

An Anti-Labor Secretary of Labor

By: David R. PapkeOctober 2, 2019Labor & Employment Law, Public1 Comment

Given the never-ending political tumult within the Washington, D.C., Beltway, it was easy to overlook the Senate confirmation on September 26, 2019, of Eugene Scalia as Secretary of Labor. The party-line confirmation vote irritated workers and their representatives, who pointed out that Scalia’s claims to be a neutral advocate of his clients’ interests helped obscure his long-standing anti-labor politics.

The Department of Labor was established as a Cabinet-level agency on March 4, 1913, the last day of the Taft presidency. The Department’s purpose was to foster the well-being of wage earners by improving their working conditions and protecting their work-related rights. Throughout the remainder of the twentieth century, nobody doubted the Department of Labor’s job was protecting working people.

Eugene Scalia’s career, by contrast, has been devoted to fighting workers and their unions on behalf of big business and the rich. The son of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Eugene Scalia was employed for twenty years in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He represented, among others, Boeing, Chevron, SeaWorld, UPS, and Walmart, not to mention assorted Wall Street banks. Continue reading “An Anti-Labor Secretary of Labor”

How to Succeed in Appellate Writing and Advocacy

By: Kylie OwensOctober 1, 2019Legal Education, Marquette Law School, Public, Student ContributorLeave a comment»

courtroom While Appellate Writing and Advocacy (AWA) is a challenging class, it provides law students with the fundamental skills necessary for written and oral advocacy. I spoke with 3Ls who had AWA last fall to get their suggestions for current AWA students on how to succeed in AWA, both writing the brief and doing oral argument. Current AWA students, here are some tips for you.

During the writing process, Luis Gutierrez suggests that good topic sentences are a great way to get the reader’s attention. Topic sentences help the reader follow your argument and, if written properly, will persuade the reader.

While Haley Stepanek was writing her AWA brief, she found researching the other side’s helpful case law benefitted her. Not only will this help you craft arguments in your brief, it will help you frame your oral arguments and answer any questions the judges may ask regarding the other side’s arguments. Moreover, Micaela Haggenjos advises you to research whether any recent cases have cited the main case you are relying on for their argument. This will be beneficial while writing your brief and may be helpful during oral arguments because a judge may ask whether any recent cases have cited a case you are relying on.

When the time comes to give oral arguments, Brooke Erickson urges you to treat oral arguments “like a conversation” because the more you engage with the judges, the more natural you are going sound. Brooke also says to focus more on the way you are speaking because if you are able to “defend the indefensible with grace, you can defend anything!”

Adam Vanderheyden suggests that you “breathe and slow down,” while also encouraging you to study the best speakers in history to focus on how they pause. Adam also reminds you that you are the experts on the subject, so make sure to act like it when you are in front of the judges. Knowing you are the expert can help calm your nerves. Julie Leary found that even if you are terrified of public speaking, “being the most well-versed person in the room . . . will make you feel more secure and more confident.”

And, remember, different techniques work for different people. Haley found that signing up for all of the opportunities to give oral argument, including scrimmaging with other teams most helpful, but Julie found that practicing with her partner, her coach, and to her cats, worked best for her. Being cognizant of what works best for you and your partner is key to your success.

Finally, Luis recommends treating the whole experience like you are actually representing a client in the U.S. Court of Appeals. While that may seem intimidating, this will be the best way to get the most out of the course. “Most importantly,” Luis said, just “have fun.”