Interview with Marquette PILS Auction Volunteers Charles Bowen and Alexander Sterling

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.

Continue ReadingInterview with Marquette PILS Auction Volunteers Charles Bowen and Alexander Sterling

Interview with Marquette PILS Fellow Kelsey McCarthy

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 ReadingInterview with Marquette PILS Fellow Kelsey McCarthy

Compliance: The Emerging Career Path for Lawyers

Political cartoon from Puck Magazine in 1908 showing Moses holding the Ten Commandments and various business and Wall Street figures reacting with alarm.
From Puck Magazine, 1908. Various Wall Street figures react to Moses and the Ten Commandments.

When entering law school, and sometimes even before law school, students are put in front of this metaphorical “fork-in-the-road.”

Transactional or litigation?

In most law schools today, those are the two apparent options. However, this is just not the case anymore. There is at least one more, and emerging, option: the compliance route. It’s not completely transactional nor is it at all litigation. In some cases it takes ideas from both, and involves a bit of work in areas that would not necessarily be considered “practicing law.”

Oh, I’m sure I just hit a nerve for many of you. “Why would you go to law school and get into mountains of debt, and then get a job where you’re not completely practicing law?”

Bear with me and let me explain.

o In June 2016, a car manufacturer was forced to spend $14.7 billion to settle allegations of cheating emissions tests and deceiving customers on its diesel vehicles.

o In September 2016, a banking giant was hit with $185 million in fines by governmental authorities after thousands of its employees illegally opened unauthorized bank accounts. Earlier this year, new regulatory restrictions were imposed against the bank essentially halting the growth of the business until there has been sufficient improvement in its business practices.

Continue ReadingCompliance: The Emerging Career Path for Lawyers