Legal Profession – Page 20 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

23rd Annual Howard Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ Auction–An Interview with PILS Fellow Angela Shin

Post author:Melissa Love Koenig
Post published:February 18, 2016
Post category:Legal Profession Marquette Law School Pro Bono Public

The 23rd Annual Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ Auction on behalf of the Law School’s Public Interest Law Society (PILS) will be held in the evening on Friday, February 19, 2016 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. Angela Shin, a current law student, shares her experience here as a PILS Fellow. Besides her work as a PILS Fellow, Angela is helping to organize this year’s Auction.

You may attend the Auction by purchasing tickets in advance or at the door. This link also provides you with an option to donate to the Auction.

Where did you work as a PILS Fellow?

I worked for the Milwaukee Justice Center in Milwaukee County Courthouse.

What kind of work did you do there?

At the Milwaukee Justice Center (MJC), I worked with a team of incredibly friendly and supportive staff that offers free daily sessions where volunteers provide procedural information and assistance with forms to pro se litigants. The forms are geared towards family law matters. Volunteers work one-on-one with members of the community with completing legal forms and explaining courthouse rules and procedures. The MJC tries their best to accommodate and educate clients, without giving any sort of legal advice, so that they have a better understanding of what they need to do next. In addition to helping pro se litigants, I worked at the front desk to direct clients to other parts of the courthouse or sign them in for MJC’s services. Occasionally, the other fellows and I had partnered up with attorneys at the Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic to provide free walk-in brief legal advice. Lastly, I worked on a project to make it easier for pro se clients to e-file their divorce.

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.

Professor Phoebe Williams Receives MBA Lifetime Achievement Award

Post author:Lisa A. Mazzie
Post published:November 10, 2015
Post category:Legal Profession Marquette Law School Milwaukee Public

This past summer, Professor Phoebe Williams received the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Milwaukee Bar Association (MBA). Professor Williams was honored at the MBA’s annual luncheon in June.

Professor Williams was born and raised in the segregated South, in Memphis. She has said that she remembers when she was eight years old, her father came home from his job as a schoolteacher and told her about the United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. That decision, of course, struck down segregation in public schools. A young Professor Williams expected to see change immediately; she thought she would be able to go to the schools, libraries, museums, and parks that had been reserved “for whites only.” That did not happen. And it took a number of years and the hard work of many lawyers and activists before such change finally occurred.

But a young Professor Williams watched and learned. She credits her parents—both educators—with instilling in her the value of education and of service, and the value of pursuing goals with perseverance and hope. These values she carries with her to this day.