This past fall, I posted a series of blog entries seeking to capture important aspects of the work of our Office of Public Service—or, especially, the pro bono initiatives and efforts of our students. The entries on seven consecutive Mondays scarcely endeavored to capture everything important, but they remain available as a window for anyone seeking a glimpse into the Law School and the communities of which we are part—from Marquette University to the legal community in this region to Milwaukee and Wisconsin more generally. Here is a list of the posts:

1. AALS Pro Bono Honor Roll for Marquette University Law School (Sept. 19, 2022)
2. Participation in Pro Bono Work and Law Student Well-Being—Any Correlation? (Sept. 26, 2022)
3. Law Student and PILS Fellow Morgan Kaplan Describes the “Steps” Required of a Pro Se “Movant” in Family Court in Milwaukee County (Oct. 3, 2022)
4. The Mobile Legal Clinic Speeds Forward (Oct. 10, 2022)
5. The Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic(s)—A True Legal Community Effort (Oct. 17, 2022)
6. Reaching Rural Areas with Our Pro Bono Efforts (Oct. 24, 2022)
7. Of Bankruptcy, Legal Action, and Marquette Law School’s Many Partners in Pro Bono Work (Oct. 31, 2022)

Our end-of-academic-year ceremony, the Posner Pro Bono Exchange and Pro Bono Society Induction Ceremony, is among the many things not touched upon in the foregoing fall series. Usually held in the Lubar Center the day after classes end in April, the event’s primary purpose is to celebrate the work of our students who have completed 50 or more hours of pro bono work, as we rigorously define it, and in some cases more than 120 hours. Along with the induction ceremony, the occasion also includes—this is the Posner Pro Bono Exchange portion—a conversation with an inspiring figure in public service law.

Past participants in the Posner Exchange have included a Marquette lawyer leading a nonprofit in Chicago (Laurene Heybach, L’78), an especially prominent justice of the California Supreme Court (Hon. Goodwin H. Liu), a Jesuit (Rev. Fred Kammer, S.J.), directors of important nonprofit or legal services organizations in Washington, D.C. (Maria Foscarinis, David Stern, Martha Bergmark, James J. Sandman, Eve Runyon), a federal government official (Hon. Ramona E. Romero), an academic (Rebecca Sandefur), and lawyers in private practice and other leaders (Jeff Colman, Chantá Parker, and Mike Gonring, L’82). All past Posner Exchanges can be found here.

This year, on Friday, April 28, at 4 p.m., it will be a great privilege for us to welcome, for the Posner Exchange, Maha Jweied, who is co-CEO of the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice, an international nonprofit organization working with companies to champion fairness, equality, and effectiveness across systems of punishment and incarceration. Previously, Ms. Jweied led the United States Department of Justice’s Office for Access to Justice, the primary position in the Executive Branch focused on supporting indigent defense and civil legal aid for low-income and vulnerable communities, including indigenous peoples.

We will issue a general invitation to this year’s Posner Pro Bono Exchange and Pro Bono Society Induction Ceremony later this month, but anyone interested can plan now to be with us in the Lubar Center.