Melissa Love Koenig – Page 67 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Congratulations to the Marquette National Appellate Advocacy Competition Team

Post author:Melissa Love Koenig
Post published:March 2, 2009
Post category:Marquette Law School

Congratulations to the Marquette National Appellate Advocacy Competition (NAAC) team! On Saturday, our students distinguished themselves at the Boston regional NAAC competition. Stephen Boyett, Carrie Devitt, and Jessie Franklin won each of their five rounds of competition, and they will be advancing to the National Finals in April. Elizabeth Champeau and Thomas Worsfold advanced to the semifinal round. The students also distinguished themselves in obtaining high scores on their briefs.

Approximately 190 teams entered the competition and are participating in six regional competitions. Only the top four teams from each regional round advance to the National Finals in Chicago.

Both teams have worked hard to prepare for competition. The students put many hours into preparing their briefs and oral arguments. We appreciate the assistance that many local practitioners and law faculty gave us in preparing for the oral arguments. We are especially grateful to Attorney Michael Cerjak, a 2008 law alum and former NAAC competitor, who organized and attended numerous practice rounds. Michael surprised the team by flying out for the final rounds on Saturday.

Congratulations, Team! I’m proud of you!!

Outliers and the Health and Wellness Fair at MULS

Post author:Melissa Love Koenig
Post published:January 27, 2009
Post category:Marquette Law School

I appreciated Professor Dan Blinka’s thoughtful post on the book Outliers. The book begins with a quote from the book of Matthew in the New Testament: “For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” Matthew 25:29. Malcolm Gladwell refers to this quote in the title of the first chapter as the “Matthew Effect.”

This passage from Matthew always makes me squirm, because it doesn’t seem to square with another famous passage from the Bible that “the meek shall inherit the earth.” Gladwell’s first chapter similarly made me slightly uncomfortable, because it suggests boldly that such undeniably unfair factors as the month into which a person is born may determine whether they end up as a professional hockey player. Gladwell may well be right, and his insight is in its own way stunning, but it still makes someone who likes to be in control of his or her own destiny feel suddenly out of control.

Appreciating Our Professors: Dean Howard Eisenberg

Post author:Melissa Love Koenig
Post published:December 1, 2008
Post category:Legal Education Marquette Law School

Francis de Sales, the bishop of Geneva in the early 1600’s, said “the measure of love is to love without measure.” The late Dean Howard Eisenberg embodied this message. Dean Eisenberg gave his love without measure to the Law School, the legal community, and the pro bono clients he served.

I met Dean Eisenberg shortly after I graduated from college. At the time, I was teaching high school English. Dean Eisenberg talked to me about the legal profession as a helping profession — that lawyers are uniquely situated to protect and aid the individuals and entities they serve. Dean Eisenberg’s comments so inspired me that I decided to apply to law school. Dean Eisenberg’s presence at the Law School also convinced me that it was the right place to go to school. Any place, I thought, that had the good sense to have him at the helm was a place where I wanted to be.

In my second year of law school, Dean Eisenberg again influenced my life when I took his appellate advocacy course. That class turned me onto advocacy. I remember the thrill when I found the key case for my side in the Wisconsin reporter stacks. As I drafted the brief, I felt the joy of crafting language that would persuade a court. In that class, we also had to make an oral argument. I enjoyed turning my brief into an oral argument and observing how my use of language changed from its presentation in written form to oral form. I was hooked on advocacy, and I decided to go into litigation.

The last memory I have of Dean Eisenberg came two weeks before his untimely death.