I was writing a different blog post this morning, one I will get back to, when I received an email from my son’s high school principal.  One of his classmates, a senior and a boy my son knew, had committed suicide.

Since receiving that email, I have been out of sorts.  There’s the obvious tragedy of a young man taking his own life, of his family and friends left behind.  But it also triggered in me deeper emotions, for he died today, Valentine’s Day, a day marketed to be about love not death.  Today is also the day, twenty years ago, that my father died from lung cancer.  I am definitely out of sorts.

The 19th Annual Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ Auction on behalf of the Law School’s Public Interest Law Society (PILS) will be held on February 10 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. Meghan Refinski, a current law student, shares her experience here as a PILS Fellow.

Where did you work as a PILS Fellow?

This past summer I served as a law clerk at the Cook County Office of the Public Guardian.

What kind of work did you do there? 

In my role there, I advocated for children who had been abused or neglected by their parents. This included client interviews (both in the community and in the office), drafting pre-trial motions, researching case law in preparation for an appeal, and standing up in court for permanency hearings.

The 19th Annual Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ Auction on behalf of the Law School’s Public Interest Law Society (PILS) will be held on February 10 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. Garrett Soberalski, a current law student, shares his experience here as a PILS Fellow.

Where did you work as a PILS Fellow?

This past summer I worked for the Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Milwaukee Field Office (HUD).

What kind of work did you do there?

The bulk of my time was spent assisting various Equal Opportunity Specialists in the office investigate fair housing complaints and prepare determinations regarding fair housing complaints. I also performed research for two larger matters that may still be under investigation, so I will not discuss those activities further. Overall, it was a lot of research and writing, with some field investigations from time to time.