Marquette Graduates Account for Just Under One Quarter of All Practicing Lawyers in Wisconsin

Based on information provided by the State Bar of Wisconsin, there were 23,761 active members of the Wisconsin bar at the beginning of June 2010. Of these, 5,818 (24.5 percent) are graduates of the Marquette Law School. The remaining 17,943 were almost evenly divided between graduates of the University of Wisconsin Law School (8,982) and graduates of out-of-state law schools (8,961).

Presumably, this means that 62.3 percent of Wisconsin lawyers were admitted pursuant to the diploma privilege, compared to 37.7 percent who either passed the bar examination or were admitted based on practice elsewhere.

Unfortunately, detailed information on the alma maters of those who attended law school out of state is not currently available. However, it appears that the schools with the largest number of alumni practicing in Wisconsin are located in states bordering Wisconsin.

Special thanks to James Behan, Database Support Analyst, State Bar of Wisconsin and to Marquette law student Colin Forester-Hoare for their assistance with the compilation of this data.

Continue ReadingMarquette Graduates Account for Just Under One Quarter of All Practicing Lawyers in Wisconsin

Best of the Blogs

The first item that caught my eye this week was a little blog our student Priya Barnes is writing as she visits Germany, attending the Summer Session in Giessen, Germany, that Professor Fallone blogged about on Monday.  So far, she’s only offered one entry, about her travels, but I intend to watch for more….

Mark Tushnet (who gave a terrific presentation at Marquette last week, co-sponsored by the student American Constitution Society organization and the local lawyer’s chapter of ACS) raises some interesting questions about Republican-sponsored legislation that would require congressional review of proposed “major regulations.” The idea is that agency rules would be transformed into agency proposals, to be okayed by Congress.  For “non-major” proposals, Congressional silence would equal assent, while majority votes of both chambers would be required for adoption of new “major regulations.”  

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Teaching International Criminal Law in Germany

Today marks the start of the second week of the Summer Session in International and Comparative Law in Giessen Germany.  Pictured at the top of this post is the “castle,” the building where my class in International Criminal Law meets.  Inside this charming old exterior are some of the modern and fully equipped classrooms of Justus Liebig University, although the Justus Liebig Law School itself is physically located elsewhere.

My International Criminal Law class has 34 students.  There are 15 students from Marquette University Law School, 4 students from the University of Wisconsin Law School, and 4 students from other U.S. law schools.  The remaining 11 students come from law schools around the world, including Germany, Ethiopia, Turkey, Luxembourg, South Africa, Norway, Greece and Brazil.

Giessen is a college town.  It is dominated by University buildings spread throughout the town, much like Madison, Wisconsin.  There are numerous outdoor beer gardens and cafes, and the local population seems to spend much of their time sitting outside and drinking either coffee or beer.  It seems appropriate that the word “Giessen” translates into english as “pouring.”

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