Melissa Love Koenig – Page 2 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Interview with Marquette PILS Auction Volunteers Charles Bowen and Alexander Sterling

By: Melissa Love KoenigFebruary 15, 2019February 15, 2019Legal Practice, Legal Profession, Marquette Law School, PublicLeave a comment»

This year’s 26th Annual Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders Auction to benefit Marquette’s Public Interest Law Society (PILS) will take place on February 15, 2019 at Marquette Law School. Here is a link to details about the event. Attendees may purchase tickets online and check out items that will be auctioned. The theme this year is Game On! The proceeds from the auction go to support scholarships for Marquette law students to engage in public interest work during the summer. This is an interview with 2Ls Charles Bowen and Alexander Sterling, who are Co-Vice Presidents of Solicitation for the Auction this year. Charles had a PILS Fellowship last summer with the ACLU of Wisconsin.

What is the Do-Gooders Auction?

It is the main fundraiser of the PILS Program, raising money to fund PILS Fellowships for law students interested in summer internships at nonprofit or government agencies that cannot afford to pay their interns. You can earn up to $5,000 for the summer.

How does the Auction support these Fellowships?

Every single dollar earned from the event goes toward the fellowships. We have a silent auction where you can bid on items, and games you can play to win great prizes. This year there’s even a roulette table. So the money people spend playing games and having fun actually goes towards helping students. It’s a two for one.

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Interview with Marquette PILS Fellow Kelsey McCarthy

By: Melissa Love KoenigFebruary 12, 2019February 15, 2019Legal Practice, Legal Profession, Marquette Law School, PublicLeave a comment»

This year’s 26th Annual Howard B. Eisenberg Do Gooders Auction to support the Public Interest Law Society (PILS) will take place on February 15, 2019 at Marquette Law School. Here is a link to details about the event. Attendees may purchase tickets online and check out items that will be auctioned. The theme this year is Game On! The proceeds from the auction go to support scholarships for Marquette law students to engage in public interest work during the summer. This is an interview with 2L Kelsey McCarthy, who had a PILS Fellowship last summer.

Where did you work as a PILS Fellow?

I worked at End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin.

Continue reading “Interview with Marquette PILS Fellow Kelsey McCarthy”

Congratulations to Marquette’s National Criminal Procedure Tournament Team

By: Melissa Love KoenigNovember 27, 2018November 27, 2018Legal Practice, Legal Writing, Marquette Law School, PublicLeave a comment»

Congratulations to 3Ls Olivia Garman and Samuel Simpson for placing in the Octofinals in the National Criminal Procedure Tournament in San Diego. The team’s advisors are Professors Susan Bay and Thomas Hammer, and the team coaches are Attorneys Brittany Kachingwe, Sarah McNutt, and Mary Youssi. All three coaches are former Marquette moot court competitors.

Congratulations to Marquette’s National Moot Court Competitors

By: Melissa Love KoenigNovember 19, 2018November 20, 2018Legal Practice, Legal Writing, Marquette Law School, Public1 Comment

Marquette hosted the Region VIII round of the NMCC on November 17-18, 2018.

Please congratulate team members Jessica Delgado, Emily Gaertner, and Sarita Olson, who received the highest brief score in the competition and award for best Petitioner’s brief. The team advanced to the quarterfinals. Professor Rebecca Blemberg advised the team, and attorneys Bryn Baker, Veronica Corcoran, and Chal Little coached the team.

Please congratulate Claudia Ayala Tabares, Katie Bakunowicz, and Kelsey Stefka for placing in the semifinal round. I had the privilege of working with this team, and the team was coached by Attorneys Jason Luczak, Brianna Meyer, and Max Stephenson.

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Congratulations to the 2018 Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition Finalists

By: Melissa Love KoenigApril 20, 2018April 23, 2018Legal Education, Legal Practice, Marquette Law School, Public1 Comment

Congratulations to the winners of the 2018 Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition, Olivia Garman and Sarita Olson. Congratulations also go to finalists Killian Commers and William Ruffing. Killian Commers and William Ruffing additionally won the Franz C. Eschweiler Prize for Best Brief. Olivia Garman won the Ramon A. Klitzke Prize for Best Oralist.

The competitors argued before a large audience in the Lubar Center. Presiding over the final round were Hon. Goodwin Liu, Hon. Stephen Murphy, and Hon. Lisa Neubauer.

Many thanks to the judges and competitors for their hard work, enthusiasm, and sportsmanship in all the rounds of competition, as well as to the moot court executive board and Law School administration and staff for their work in putting on the event. Special thanks to Dean Kearney for his support of the competition. Thank you as well to the Moot Court Association for its work in putting this event together, and especially 3L executive board members Tsz King Tse, who organized the competition, and Chief Justice Nathan Oesch.

Students are selected to participate in the competition based on their success in the fall Appellate Writing and Advocacy class at the Law School.

Here is a link to the video of the final round.

2018 Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competitors Advance to Finals

By: Melissa Love KoenigApril 16, 2018Legal Education, Legal Profession, Legal Writing, Marquette Law School, PublicLeave a comment»

Congratulations to the 2018 Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition finalists. The teams advancing to the final rounds on April 19 are as follows:

Killian Commers and William Ruffing v. Olivia Garman and Sarita Olson

We appreciate the judging assistance in the semifinal round of the Hon. Michael Aprahamian, Hon. William Duffin, Hon. Beth Hanan, Hon. Michael Halfenger, Hon. Nancy Joseph, and Atty. Brent Nistler.

Congratulations to the 2018 Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition Semifinalists

By: Melissa Love KoenigApril 15, 2018Legal Education, Legal Practice, Legal Writing, Marquette Law School, PublicLeave a comment»

Congratulations to the students in the 2018 Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition who advanced from the quarterfinal round to the semifinal round. These students will be competing at 1 p.m. today:

William Ruffing & Killian Commers v. Alexander Hensley & Claudia Ayala
Jehona Osmani & Emily Gaertner v. Sarita Olson & Olivia Garman

Congratulations to all the teams who competed in the quarterfinals. We appreciated the judges coming out to hear the oralists. Among the judges were a number of Jenkins and moot court alumni, including Natalie Schiferl, who came all the way from Minnesota to judge with her Jenkins partner, Mary Youssi.

Best of luck to the semifinalists!

Jenkins Competitors Move to the Quarterfinals

By: Melissa Love KoenigMarch 27, 2018March 27, 2018Legal Practice, Legal Writing, Marquette Law School, Public1 Comment

Congratulations to the students in the Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition who have moved on to the inaugural quarterfinal round of the competition. The students will be competing on Saturday, April 14 at 1 p.m. to determine who will be advancing to the semifinal round on April 15 at 1:00 p.m.

The teams will be paired as follows:

Emily Gaertner and Jehona Osmani v. Simone Haugen and Anne O’Meara

Olivia Garman and Sarita Olson v. Katie Bakunowicz and Kelsey Stefka

Claudia Ayala Tabares and Alexander Hensley v. Elizabeth Grabow and Zeinat Hindi

Killian Commers and William Ruffing v. Be’Jan Edmonds and Ian Pomplin

Congratulations to all the participants in the competition. We also very much appreciate the judges who grade briefs and participate in the preliminary rounds. This year we had two Jenkins alums, Attorneys Lindsey Anderson and Averi Niemuth, judging together in the preliminary rounds. One of the great things about moot court is how active our alums and volunteers are, and we appreciate their time and assistance every year.

Congratulations to Marquette’s Evans Moot Court Competition Team

By: Melissa Love KoenigMarch 6, 2018March 6, 2018Legal Education, Legal Writing, Marquette Law School, PublicLeave a comment»

This weekend 3ls Isabelle Faust and Jessica Lothman competed in the Evans Moot Court Competition at the University of Wisconsin Law School. The team advanced to the quarterfinals (final eight), and they were seeded first in that round as well as in the final sixteen. Isabelle was designated the third best oralist in the competition out of 52 individual competitors. Isabelle and Jessica were coached by Attorneys Nick Chmurski, Erin Karshen, Matt Torbenson, Prashant Dayal, and Patrick Ruelle and faculty advisors Scott Idleman and Jacob Carpenter. Their time and assistance is much appreciated. Congratulations team!

Congratulations to Marquette’s Spong Tournament Team

By: Melissa Love KoenigFebruary 19, 2018February 19, 2018Legal Education, Legal Writing, Marquette Law School, PublicLeave a comment»

This weekend 3ls Meredith Donaldson and Ben Lucareli competed in the 47th William B. Spong, Jr. Invitational Moot Court Tournament at William and Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia. The team advanced to the quarterfinals amidst stiff competition. Meredith and Ben were coached by three moot court alumni: Attorneys Nicholas Chmurski, Stephen Cox, and Matthew Martz. Their time and assistance is much appreciated. Congratulations team!

25th Annual Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ Auction: Interview with Andrew Lawton

By: Melissa Love KoenigFebruary 16, 2018Legal Education, Legal Profession, Marquette Law School, PublicLeave a comment»

The 25th Annual Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ Auction on behalf of the Law School’s Public Interest Law Society (PILS) will be held on February 16 at the Law School. Proceeds from the event go to support PILS Fellowships to enable Marquette law students to do public interest work in the summer. Andrew Lawton, a current law student, shares his experience here as a PILS Fellow.

Where did you work as a PILS Fellow?

The United States Attorney’s Office-Eastern District of Wisconsin.

What kind of work did you do there?

The United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) prosecutes a wide variety of federal crimes. The case load within the office is diverse, depending on enforcement priorities and actual apprehension of suspected criminals. My work was primarily to draft research memorandum summing up the case law in a specific area of interest to any of the attorneys, which included a wide range of topics from asbestos to armed robbery to human trafficking. But I also drafted court documentation such as motions when needed, and I observed court appearances where I took notes for the attorneys, including in prolonged jury trials.

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25th Annual Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ Auction: Interview with Jacob Haller

By: Melissa Love KoenigFebruary 15, 2018Legal Profession, Marquette Law School, Pro Bono, PublicLeave a comment»

The 25th Annual Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ Auction on behalf of the Law School’s Public Interest Law Society (PILS) will be held on February 16 at the Law School. Proceeds from the event go to support PILS Fellowships to enable Marquette law students to do public interest work in the summer. Jacob Haller, a current law student, and the Public Interest Student of the Year, shares his experience here as a PILS Fellow.

Where did you work as a PILS Fellow?

The Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office—Milwaukee County Drug Treatment Court.

What kind of work did you do there?

The Milwaukee County Drug Treatment Court is a pioneering specialty court aimed at addressing addiction as a root of criminality. The MCDTC works with non-violent offenders who are facing nine months or more of incarceration. The defendants are given the option to participate in a 12-18 month intensive rehab program supervised by the court. I worked with defendants and their families to ensure that goals set by the court were being met. This meant working with a defendant directly, as well as service providers, district attorneys, and employers to enure the best possible outcome for the defendant and the broader community.

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