Marquette Law School – Page 185 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Lubar Fund for Public Policy Announced

Post author:Joseph D. Kearney
Post published:December 16, 2010
Post category:Legal Education Legal Scholarship Marquette Law School

The University has announced today that Sheldon B. Lubar has made a $2 million gift to the Law School. Mr. Lubar is a much-admired business and civic leader: he is the founder and chairman of Lubar & Co., has been a presidential appointee with Senate confirmation, and has engaged deeply in seeking to improve this region. The gift, one of the largest in the history of the Law School, will create the Lubar Fund for Public Policy. The Lubar Fund will support public policy research and initiatives, including conferences and symposia; faculty research; curriculum development; and programs that enhance the teaching of public policy issues at Marquette Law School. The gift represents extraordinary confidence by a renowned business and civic leader in our public policy work at the Law School. Although that work began to be distinctly recognized with the appointment of Mike Gousha several years ago, it has been my sense—more than an intuition but still evolving into a full plan—that we are only scratching the surface here. I look forward to our effort to mine this field, for the betterment of the community, and am grateful to Shel Lubar for his support and confidence.

Some Exam-Taking Advice from Professor Kircher

Post author:John J. Kircher
Post published:November 30, 2010
Post category:Legal Education Marquette Law School

[Editor’s note: In this post, Professor John J. Kircher provides the first installment in our new series, “What are your best exam-taking tips for law students?”]

To begin with, always be careful to understand the “call” of the question. That is, what is the professor asking you to do? If he or she casts you in the role of the defense counsel and asks you to evaluate that side, don’t waste your time explaining what a great case the plaintiff has under the circumstances provided!

Also, if the question is jurisdiction-specific (e.g., Wisconsin), don’t waste your time and effort explaining the law of all other jurisdictions.

Finally, if you are uncertain about the answer to a particular question, go on to the other exam questions. It is better to have one unanswered question than to spin your wheels and waste time trying to figure out its answer only to have inadequate time to properly answer the remaining questions.

Advice on Appeals from Howard Eisenberg

Post author:Mary Wagner
Post published:November 28, 2010
Post category:Legal Practice Legal Writing Marquette Law School

Just like the prospect of being hanged in the morning, there’s nothing like having fourteen people over to Thanksgiving dinner to concentrate the mind. In my case, it’s also the galvanizing principle to buckle down and clean house.

This year, the task was truly daunting — the family room had become nearly impassible, swamped by pile after pile of paper and other detritus related to serial family emergencies and funerals of the past few years. And let’s face it, if the laws of physics dictate a that an object in motion tends to remain in motion, the rules of law and gravity at my house dictate that clutter tends to remain in place, and magnetically attracts more of the same. Exponentially.

Still, the pool table and foosball tables weren’t going to excavate themselves for company, and so I parked the puppy in “doggie day-care” and rolled up my sleeves.