Institute for Women’s Leadership Releases Report on Law Firm Equity Initiative

As part of Women’s History Month, the Marquette University Institute for Women’s Leadership released its first white paper, entitled Law Firm Equity Initiative, examining the status of women in the Milwaukee legal market.  (This survey went out to all firms with over 10 attorneys in the metro area—more on methodology in the report itself.)  I am honored to be the author of this report knowing that transparency is step one in bringing about any change.

My motivation for doing this study came from watching the remarkable progress that companies in Wisconsin have made in the last few years in terms of placing women on their boards. Inspired by what transparency and peer pressure has accomplished in the corporate world, I hope that we can hold a mirror to our legal community and also ask what we can do better.

When I graduated law school (don’t ask—it was a long time ago) and did not see women in leadership roles, I was told it was a pipeline issue—just give it time and women would ascend to the heights of leadership once there were equal number of women graduating.  So, has that story played out?  Not so much.

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Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competitors Advance to Quarterfinals

Congratulations to the students in the Jenkins Honors Moot Court Competition who have moved on to the quarterfinal round of the competition. The students will be competing on Saturday, March 27 to determine which teams will be advancing to the semifinal round on Sunday, March 28 at noon.

The following teams will be competing in the quarterfinals:

Zak Wroblewski & Alexandra (Sasha) Chepov
Morgan Minter & Taylor Van Zeeland
Ashleigh Dickey & Matt Rademacher
Charlie Hoffmann & Kevin Landgraf
Thomas Sucevic & Christopher Vandeventer
Ben Edelstein & Kyle Frank
Lauren Brasington & Carsyn Bushman
Alex Lux & Natalie Mulvey

Congratulations to all the participants in the competition. We also very much appreciate the alumni and other attorneys who volunteer to grade briefs and serve as judges in the preliminary rounds. We appreciate their time and assistance every year.

This year, an extra special thanks to Erik Atwell and the law school tech department for their assistance with managing three simultaneous virtual courtrooms with up to 24 people at eight different times over the weekend.

The final round of the Jenkins competition will take place on Tuesday, April 6 at 3:30 PM.

We’re honored to welcome the following distinguished jurists who will judge the final round:

Hon. Cynthia M. Davis (L’06), Milwaukee County Circuit Court
Hon. Michael Y. Scudder, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Hon. Paul Thissen, Minnesota Supreme Court

The final competition will be virtually on Zoom but will be livestreamed to the public.

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Honoring RBG & Women Judges With 9K

three women in running clothes sitting on or standing by a picnic table
(left to right) Annie Grove, Greta Hilgendorf, and Colleen Mandell rest after finishing 4k.

Instead of its usual spring gathering—Women Judges’ Night—the Milwaukee Association for Women Lawyers (AWL) sponsored the When There Are 9K Run/Walk. Marquette Law School was one of its sponsors.

According to AWL, “The title and length of this event are a tribute to the incredible and irreplaceable Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” Justice Ginsburg was once asked when there would be enough women on the Supreme Court of the United States. Her response: “When there are nine.”

group of women in running clothes standing outside in the cold
(left to right) Annalisa Pusick, Colleen Mandell, Director Erin Binns, Professor Lisa Mazzie, Dean Angela Schultz, Greta Hilgendorf, and Annie Grove prepare to run. Not pictured: Madeline Lewis and Aimee Trevino. Photo credit: Lily Binns

The virtual run/walk began officially today—March 15—on what would have been Justice Ginsburg’s 88th birthday. Our challenge: to walk or run a total of 9K during this week. Some of us already met up to knock out 4K.

close up of two women with masks
Pusick and Director Binns finish 4K.

Money raised by the run/walk benefits the AWL Foundation’s scholarship program for female law students at Wisconsin law schools. Each year, two Marquette students receive those scholarships. Last year’s recipients were 2L Liz Simonis and 3L Kelly Ryan.

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