The Verdict? A Very Successful Civil Trial Conference

marquette1One of this Law School’s most noteworthy legacies is its production of many of the region’s most outstanding trial lawyers.  The legacy was fully evident on Friday, November 6, 2009 at the Civil Trial Evidence and Litigation Conference.  The sold-out event served as a “last call for Sensenbrenner Hall” of sorts while featuring a panel that well-represented the many fine trial lawyers who have distinguished themselves as Marquette lawyers.  It was my privilege to help organize the conference along with Pat Dunphy (L’76), who conceived of the idea and was the key to assembling the talented panel of Marquette alumni.  In light of Friday’s success, Pat and I have already begun discussing next year’s civil litigation conference, which will be held in the Law School’s new venue in Eckstein Hall. 

             The presentations spanned a broad array of issues and problems regularly confronted in civil litigation.   The strength of the presentations rested not just in their discussion of doctrine and rules, but in the panelists bringing to bear their experience and insights in preparing and trying cases.   Links to the written CLE material and the accompanying PowerPoint presentations will be posted on the Law School’s website later this week.

             Starting the day was Michael J. Cohen (L’86) of Meissner Tierney Fisher & Nichols SC, who underscored the important relationship between pretrial practice and outcomes at trial.  Drawing on his extensive experience as a commercial litigator, Mike addressed the duty to preserve evidence, especially electronic information, when a lawsuit appears on the horizon.  Mike emphasized the need to work with the client to understand what the law requires so that discoverable information is not destroyed, inadvertently or otherwise, thereby exposing the client (or counsel) to sanctions.  Pat Dunphy (L’76) of Cannon & Dunphy SC, addressed a different aspect of pretrial practice, namely, the creative use of requests to admit during discovery.  Pat described how he used requests to admit to obtain a binding judicial admission in a major product liability case that proved determinative of its outcome.

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Seventh Circuit Criminal Case of the Week: If You Own a Gun, Don’t Steal Cable

seventh circuitIn 2005, Kevin Schultz pled guilty to one count of trafficking in counterfeit telecommunications instruments.  His offense involved modifying telecommunications equipment for the purpose of stealing cable.  His sentence? Two years on probation, including a period of home detention.

Two and a half years after his first conviction, federal agents searched Schultz’s home and found a shotgun.  He was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm and sentenced this time to eighteen months in prison.

On appeal, Schultz argued that his telecoms offense, although a felony, did not expose him to liability under the felon-in-possession statute.  He relied on an exception in the law for prior convictions “pertaining to antitrust violations, unfair trade practices, restraints of trade, or similar offenses relating to the regulation of business practices.”  However, the Seventh Circuit rejected this argument and affirmed the conviction in United States v. Schultz (No. 09-1192) (Bauer, J.). 

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Obama’s Applause Lines on Education

teacherPresident Barack Obama’s 35-minute speech on education at Wright Middle School in Madison on Wednesday was interrupted by applause at many points, but most of the reaction was pretty low-key. Three lines drew what seemed to be more enthusiastic responses from the crowd of more than 500, most of them teachers, parents, and students at the 250-student school. Each of those lines says something significant about public sentiment and Obama administration priorities on education issues.

One: Obama said, “I’ve got to be honest, we’ve got to do a better job of moving bad teachers out of the classroom, once they’ve been given an opportunity to do it right.” His calls for recruiting higher-quality teachers and rewarding top teachers better didn’t get applause, but this line did. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a telephone interview after the speech that this didn’t surprise him — it happens wherever the president speaks about education, he said. Raising the quality of teachers, in large part by doing more to identify quality teachers (and those who aren’t) is one of the highest, but most difficult, priorities for Obama and Duncan. And moving out the ones who really aren’t good at it is especially difficult, particularly given the defensiveness of teachers’ unions when such issues come up.

Two: His call for overhauling the way testing is done nationwide. 

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