“Bittersweet.” That was the word Judge Diane Sykes used to describe her final days as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, including the court’s day of hearings and other events at Marquette Law School on September 25, 2025 (aspects of which were described here, here, and here).

“Sweet” was the only aspect of the word on which the 200 or so people at a reception in Eckstein Hall’s Zilber Forum at the end of the day focused. Perhaps there would have been a concluding reception in any event, but Sykes, L’84, is one of the most distinguished graduates of the Law School. She served as a circuit court judge in Milwaukee County, a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and, for 21 years (and counting), a judge of the Seventh Circuit. So the conclusion of her chief judgeship, just a few days later, merited marking, even celebration.

Sykes has kept the Law School close to her heart, taking part in programs and helping students for many years, as recently as August 22, 2025, when she administered the future attorney’s pledge to new first-year students—the Class of 2028. In every role she has had, Sykes has carried herself with intelligence, professionalism, grace, and warmth, which was why the reception honoring her was filled with good feeling.

Introducing a program during the reception, Dean Joseph D. Kearney spoke briefly of his connection with Sykes, going back to his arrival to Milwaukee to join the Marquette law faculty in 1997 and their introduction to one another by the late Dean Howard B. Eisenberg. After noting her career path and accomplishments and praising her work on behalf of the Law School, Kearney introduced Judge Frank H. Easterbrook, one of Sykes’s colleagues on the Seventh Circuit court and one of the nation’s most distinguished judges.

Easterbrook briefly praised Sykes’s judicial philosophy (“she is a textualist, which makes her my kind of judge”), but said he wanted to emphasize Sykes’ attributes as a judge—and a person. “Appellate judges work collectively, and every member of a panel is equally responsible for the decision,” he said. “It takes a smart, hard-working, well-read, and collegial person to be a good appellate judge. Diane has proved to be all of that.”

He added, “On a multimember court, what’s needed is not simply the ability to disagree without being disagreeable, but also the willingness to listen and be persuaded, as well as the skill to persuade others in return. Diane has amply demonstrated those skills. . . . A glance at the relation between our Seventh Circuit and the Supreme Court shows that our superiors in the judicial hierarchy find her work convincing.”

Easterbrook noted Sykes’s having handled well the duties of the chief judgeship of the circuit, which encompasses Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. “The public has paid exactly the right amount of attention to her service as chief: none. When this job is done well, it is done invisibly. Diane has done it well.” Easterbrook is himself a former chief judge of the court.

Yet, poking fun at the realities of federal appellate work, Easterbrook pointed to two of Sykes’s “failings”: “The Seventh Circuit still does not have its own helicopter or an official residence for the chief.” While expressing the wry hope that “Diane’s successor as chief judge can attend to these matters,” Easterbrook suggested, “In the meantime, let us give her a round of applause.” The audience, of course, did just that.

Kearney then introduced Anne-Louise Mittal, L’15, a lawyer in Milwaukee, who started her legal career as a clerk for Sykes. Mittal said that two things stood out to her and have stayed with her.

The first is Sykes’s ability “to cut through even the most complicated case to identify the governing legal principle or principles at the heart of the case. . . . That focus on first principles is something that I go back to constantly in my own practice,” Mittal said. She now practices at Foley & Lardner in Milwaukee, focusing on complex commercial litigation.

The second is how Sykes treats people. “Chief Judge Sykes was also unfailingly patient with, and gracious to, her clerks as we found our way.” The same was true more broadly: “I saw the same thing in how Chief Judge Sykes treated the attorneys who appeared before her at oral arguments—always fairly and always with respect.” Mittal said she learned “that difficult and important work can and should be done with caring and consideration for those whom you work and interact with.”

“Chief Judge Sykes sets the standard for what it means to be a Marquette lawyer,” Mittal said.

Then it was Sykes’s turn to speak—briefly. She said that this was a special—as well as bittersweet—time for her. She is reducing her workload as she moves to senior status as a judge and to be near her family.

“I’ll always be a Milwaukeean, a Wisconsinite, and a Marquette lawyer,” she said. “I’m incredibly proud to be associated with this law school and to be a graduate.” She said that she felt herself to have “been incredibly enriched” by her association with Marquette Law School.

The Law School has been enriched and enhanced by the special connection with Judge Sykes.