Joseph D. Kearney – Page 25 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Law School Announces Milwaukee Foreclosure Mediation Program

Post author:Joseph D. Kearney
Post published:May 27, 2009
Post category:Marquette Law School Milwaukee

At a press conference today in Eisenberg Hall, featuring Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the Law School announced today the creation of a program that will provide mediation between lenders and residential borrowers facing foreclosure. This program responds to the final report and recommendations of the Milwaukee Foreclosure Partnership Initiative issued in February 2009. It is underwritten by $100,000 in grant funding allocated by the City of Milwaukee and $310,000 in grant funding from the Attorney General made possible by the recent settlement of the state’s lawsuit against Countrywide Financial Corporation. The mediation program is described in this press release and represents an instance of the Law School’s seeking to use its particular expertise (in this case, with respect to dispute resolution) to address a pressing problem facing this region. Particular kudos to Dan Idzikowski, Assistant Dean for Public Service, for his work in leading the Law School to this moment.

O’Hear, Twerski, and the Work of the Professoriate

Post author:Joseph D. Kearney
Post published:May 25, 2009
Post category:Legal Scholarship Tort Law

Aaron Twerski Professor Jessica E. Slavin recently posted concerning Professor Michael M. O’Hear’s well-deserved receipt of the Eastern District of Wisconsin Bar Association’s Judge Robert W. Warren Public Service Award. Through the resources available to me as dean, I have been able to secure a copy of Michael’s brief and well-stated acceptance remarks. Professor O’Hear describes his basic belief that law schools can act as “bridge builders” — first, “between, on the one hand, the world of legal practice, judging, and lawmaking, and, on the other hand, the world of rich and diverse learning contained in the modern university” and, second, between “the local and the national” (the latter being, Professor O’Hear notes, “a two-way street”).

These remarks bring to mind — but are not identical to — somewhat more pointed comments delivered by a renowned Marquette lawyer, Aaron D. Twerski (pictured above), who is the Irwin and Jill Cohen Professor at Brooklyn Law School (and former dean at Hofstra). Twerski is an extremely well-regarded law professor (as is O’Hear, although they are at different points in their careers) and received the prestigious Robert C. McKay Law Professor Award from the Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association. Professor Twerski used the occasion of his award to lament the seeming lack of interest of many law professors in saying things of interest to judges and practicing lawyers.

Among his milder comments:

“Happy Anniversary! On to the dedication”

Post author:Joseph D. Kearney
Post published:May 22, 2009
Post category:Legal Education Marquette Law School

So read the sign this morning on my front lawn, surrounded by some 14 shovels. The reference, of course, is to Ray and Kay Eckstein Hall, the $85 million new law facility on which Marquette University broke ground a year ago today and which is scheduled to open in summer 2010. The groundbreaking was a memorable event, with more than 800 individuals attending and each being given a shovel to help dig. We intended by this democratic gesture—not just the president, dean, and major donors, but everyone wielding a shovel—to signify that Eckstein Hall will be a resource for the entire community. The speeches by Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson, Seventh Circuit Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook, and Trustee Natalie A. Black, along with Father Wild as president, added to the occasion, not least because of their crispness. While the groundbreaking event is preserved in a sense in the pages of the Marquette Law Review, the focus over the past year has been on the construction and the coming building. Professor Michael McChrystal’s interview in Marquette Lawyer and April blog post concerning the building should give some sense as to why we expect that this will be the best law school building in the country. The Law School’s webpage devoted to the building project contains further information, including a time-lapse video that shows the progress over the past 365 days. All is well, except for the fact that I do not know who put those things on my front lawn this morning.