Lisa A. Mazzie – Page 23 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

NAAC Team Competes in Nationals

Post author:Lisa A. Mazzie
Post published:April 11, 2016
Post category:Marquette Law School Public

The National Appellate Advocacy Competition started with 193 teams. Six regional competitions later, only 24 advanced to the national competition in Chicago April 7-9. One team from Marquette was among those 24 teams.

Cassandra Van Gompel, Daniel Murphy, and Arial Rosenberg (in the above picture from left to right), all 3Ls, won the Brooklyn regional in February to earn their place at nationals. (Murphy also won best oralist at regionals.) The team argued two rounds on Thursday, April 7. Unfortunately, they did not advance to the next round. Each round they argued was very close; in their second round, they lost by less than one point to a team that made the final round.

Congratulations to the team for their outstanding representation of Marquette Law.

NAAC Teams Rock Brooklyn Regional; One Advances to Nationals

Post author:Lisa A. Mazzie
Post published:February 21, 2016
Post category:Marquette Law School Public

Thirty-three teams from across the country arrived in Brooklyn at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on February 18, all prepared to present oral arguments in the National Appellate Advocacy Competition regional. Only four would advance to nationals. One of those four will be from Marquette Law.

Making a Murderer: Oh-So-Many Talking Points

Post author:Lisa A. Mazzie
Post published:January 5, 2016
Post category:Civil Rights Constitutional Law Criminal Law & Process Evidence Judges & Judicial Process Legal Ethics Legal Practice Legal Profession Popular Culture & Law Public Wisconsin Law & Legal System

As the winter break winds down, it’s definitely worth your time to start binge-watching Making a Murderer, a recent Netflix documentary on a real-life criminal case. A very close-to-home criminal case, at that.

The documentary, filmed over 10 years, follows Steven Avery, who was convicted in 1985 of sexual assault. He maintained his innocence and, indeed, 18 years later DNA evidence exonerated him. After he was released, he sued Manitowoc County for his wrongful conviction. It looks as though that lawsuit starts digging up some very unsavory conduct among officials in Manitowoc County.

But then—Avery is arrested for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach. Several months later, his nephew Brendan Dassey is also arrested.

I’ll stop there with plot. If you’ve been around Wisconsin, you’ve probably heard of the case. If you’ve been on the Internet in the last couple of weeks, you’ve almost surely heard of it. But you must watch it.

For law students, there’s so many teachable moments. For everyone, there’s so much to talk about.