Reflection on Connie Johnson

Sometimes we don’t always see the beauty of an individual rose, but I would like to take a moment to focus a little bit about a very beautiful rose, Connie Johnson, who graced the Marquette University Law School for over 33 years.  Connie passed away on Friday, October 12 at the age of 82 years.

Connie was a loose-leaf filer for all the time that I worked with her.  Not only did she keep the loose-leaf materials in good order, but she did so in the best possible way she could.  Additionally, she developed a means for filing recently released Wisconsin Senate and Assembly materials that the library received, and she developed the process for maintaining the replaced pages for the Wisconsin Administrative Code.

She worked with many students and staff, explaining the intricacies of loose-leaf filing and advocating for the disabled in the law library.  Among her accomplishments, she authored the book, Filer’s Guide for Loose-Leaf Services in a Law Library (Z 675 .L2 J65 1979).

While some may have viewed Connie as having a gruff exterior, much of that was due to her disabilities, which she neither hid nor flaunted.  She was outspoken when it came to care for people who had disabilities, and was quick to explain the practical nature of helping people.

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Presidential, Senate Races in Wisconsin Are Tied, New Poll Results Show

Changing opinions, particularly among voters who label themselves independents, and the impact of campaign events – especially the first presidential debate – have brought both the presidential and US Senate races in Wisconsin to dead ties, according to results of a new round of the Marquette Law School Poll released Wednesday.

Both races are now pure toss-ups, said Professor Charles Franklin, director of the poll and visiting professor of law and public policy at the Law School.

In poll results four weeks ago, Democratic President Barack Obama led by 14 points over Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Two weeks ago, Obama was up by 11 points. But in polling done Oct. 11 to 14 – just ahead of the second presidential debate – Obama was favored by 49% and Romney by 48%, effectively a tie.

Franklin pointed to the impact of the presidential debate in Denver as a central factor. Obama’s performance in that debate was widely panned. “Rarely has a debate produced such a large movement in the polls,” Franklin said.

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An Interview with Professor Jack Kircher

[Editor’s Note: This blog is the third in a series of interviews with faculty and staff at the Law School.]

A member of the Law School faculty since 1970, Professor Kircher teaches torts, insurance, products liability, and seminars in advanced issues on torts. He received the Marquette University Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence in 1986 and the Marquette Law Review Editors’ Award in 1988. In 1993 he received the American Bar Association Tort and Insurance Practice Section’s Robert B. McKay Award for distinction in the teaching of torts and insurance law. Before coming to the Law School, he practiced law and subsequently was Research Director of the Defense Research Institute. He has chaired the Wisconsin Judicial Council and the Wisconsin Supreme Court Board of Bar Examiners. He is coauthor of Punitive Damages: Law and Practice. Professor Kircher is a member of the Editorial Board of the Defense Law Journal, and was Editor of the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel Quarterly.

Question:  How did you first become interested in insurance and tort law, and what do you find most intriguing about those areas of law?

My interest in the two subjects started in law school, most probably because they were taught by my favorite professor, Jim Ghiardi. It developed in my first three years after law school due to my work in a defense firm that handled cases in those two areas. It developed further and faster thereafter when Jim asked me to join him as his second-in-command at a legal think tank, the Defense Research Institute, that concentrated its work in those two areas. Also the two subjects are interesting to me because the law constantly changes. In fact, by the time I left the Law School the Wisconsin Supreme Court had changed about 25 percent of what I learned in first-year Torts. I would expect that most of the law I learned in my other courses has remained nearly the same.

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