Appellate Advocacy at the Law School

Congratulations to the students in Appellate Writing and Advocacy, who are turning in their final briefs today.  This moment is a good one to reprint an article that Emily Lonergan, the Chief Justice of the Moot Court Board, wrote for the most recent De Novo newsletter.  De Novo is the publication of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Appellate Practice Section.  The Appellate Practice Section is active, and De Novo is a good source for news, information, and tips about appellate practice.  This article is reprinted with permission.

Marquette Helps Students Master the Art of Legal Writing, by Emily Lonergan, 3L

Marquette University Law School presents students with the opportunity to master the art of appellate advocacy in both the classroom and the courtroom.

The typical law student hoping to participate in Moot Court starts with an Appellate Writing and Advocacy course, offered to second- and third-year students during the fall semester. While the course is open to everyone, regardless of their interest in the Moot Court program, it is a prerequisite for anyone who hopes to compete in a national competition. The goal of the course is first and foremost to teach appellate advocacy. It teaches students in a traditional lecture format everything from preserving the record to when to file notice of appeal.

But the course also has a hands-on approach as well.

Continue ReadingAppellate Advocacy at the Law School

Best of the Blogs Part II: Drugs, Immigration, and the Hotel “Death Ray”

If that title doesn’t increase readership of my posts, I don’t know what will.

My contribution this week to our “best of the blogs” feature (which I have taken license to interpret as “best of the blogs and other news read online…”) is even more random than usual.

First, the drug-related story that caught my eye in the relatively recent past.  The Daily Beast Cheat Sheet reported on September 27th about a Cato Institute study showing that since Portugal decriminalized drug possession in 2001, drug use among adolescents has fallen, HIV infection rates fell, and addicts have increasingly sought help to overcome their addictions.  The full story was in Time, here. An excerpt:

Continue ReadingBest of the Blogs Part II: Drugs, Immigration, and the Hotel “Death Ray”

Writing Is The Right Way To Go

Professor Fallone left a thoughtful comment on my last post, pointing out that Marquette goes farther in emphasizing practical lawyering skills than many of its peer institutions. I agree with him, and from my experience, one of the most important practical “lawyering skills” that is emphasized here at Marquette is legal writing and research. I consider myself fortunate to have been assigned to Professor Julien’s section of LAWR I my 1L year. Even though I still have nightmares about losing that Writing Bee shirt in the final round (thanks to the space I should have put between So. and 2d), in the end, I gained much more from her class than I lost.

We learned the basics — pronoun-antecedent agreement (her pet peeve), citation, punctuation, and CREAC. But we were taught something more that I will never be able to put a value on. Professor Julien helped us to become passionate about writing.  

Continue ReadingWriting Is The Right Way To Go