Justinians Honor Professor Blinka

rsz_danblinkaLast weekend, together with a number of colleagues (including Professor Emeritus James D. Ghiardi and Professors Irene Calboli and Thomas J. Hammer), I attended the Justinian Society’s annual Columbus Day dinner. The society consists primarily of Italian-American lawyers and their families and meets at the Third Ward’s Italian Community Center (which, former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Chief Judge Patrick T. Sheedy, L’48, once remarked, might well have been the “Irish Community Center,” if it had not been for the Lady Elgin disaster in 1860). The evening included the Justinian Society’s honoring our colleague, Professor Daniel D. Blinka, with its annual “Jurist of the Year Award.” The award was presented by Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge John J. DiMotto, with citations also presented by Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson and current Milwaukee County Circuit Court Chief Judge Jeffrey A. Kremers. One who does not know Prof. Blinka can get a sense, from this outline of Judge DiMotto’s remarks, of the remarkable way that Prof. Blinka devotes himself to teaching, scholarship, and service (see also this article from a previous alumni magazine). It was a privilege to be at the event, as well as to be Prof. Blinka’s colleague.

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Legacies of Lincoln

legacies-of-lincolnThe Legacies of Lincoln Conference, a joint undertaking of the Law School and the Department of History, was an impressive event last week. It began on Thursday evening, with Allen Guelzo, Gettysburg College’s renowned Lincoln historian, delivering the History Department’s annual Klement Lecture. There then followed on Friday three panels, variously addressing “Lincoln and Politics,” “Lincoln and the Constitution,” and “Lincoln as Lawyer,” and respectively led by Heather Cox Richardson of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Michael Les Benedict of The Ohio State University, and Mark E. Steiner of the South Texas College of Law. The other panelists were James Marten and Alison Clark Efford of Marquette’s History Department (politics panel), Stephen Kantrowitz of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Kate Masur of Northwestern University (Constitution panel), and two of our part-time faculty (for the Lincoln-as-lawyer panel): Joseph S. Ranney, III, of Dewitt Ross & Stevens and Thomas L. Shriner, Jr., or Foley & Lardner. Audio of the three panels is available on the Law School’s webcast page.  A number of the participants will permit the Law School to publish papers reflecting their remarks, and I expect that, as the different papers are ready over the course of the time to come, Dan Blinka or I will use this blog to share them with interested readers. A special thanks to Jim Marten and to Dan Blinka for their roles in putting this conference together.

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Term Begins, Spector Appointed

Michael J. SpectorThe Law School began its fall semester today, having welcomed through orientation the past two days both full-time (185) and part-time (34) students embarking upon their legal education. We welcomed—and welcome—as well a handful of transfer students. My beginning-of-semester letter to the community, with some information, I believe, of general interest about the Law School, is available here. Of course, in addition to our central function of helping students form themselves into Marquette lawyers, the Law School does a number of other things, in terms of both faculty scholarship and public service. In that latter regard, we have announced the appointment of Michael J. Spector as Boden Visiting Professor of Law for the next year or so, with a particular portfolio to lead the Law School in seeking to advance public-policy discussion concerning the future of the Milwaukee Public Schools (their governance, educational practices, and other matters). We have already done some related work over the past year, through the work of Mike Gousha, Distinguished Fellow in Law and Public Policy: for example, the televised discussion last spring concerning the governance of MPS, the debate between candidates for the superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction, and a discussion with Howard Fuller about the future of voucher schools. But I believe that there are ways in which the Law School can—consistently with our status as an educational institution that does not itself take positions on these sorts of issues—make a further meaningful contribution to advancing public-policy discussions concerning MPS. Mike Spector is unusually well-situated to lead this effort, with Mr. Gousha, other interested members of the Law School community, and the broader public. A noted education-law attorney and adjunct law professor, retired managing partner of Quarles & Brady LLP, and vice-president of the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, Mr. Spector has begun to map out how the Law School can advance the public’s understanding of and participation in the many issues facing MPS. More information can be found in this press release. I am very grateful to Mike Spector for his commitment to the future of this region and to Marquette University Law School’s important role in helping to secure and shape that future.

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