New Marquette Lawyer Spotlights People Raising Their Voices to Seek Just Outcomes

Marquette Lawyer Cover with Wylie AitkenAll his life, Wylie Aitken has loved the performing arts. He wanted to make it on the stage, in movies, or in concert halls. He also wanted to advocate for people who were not getting fair deals in some important ways. As a young man, he realized the best path for him was to focus on the latter while drawing on his talents for the former. In the 1960s, he took his dreams from Southern California to Marquette Law School, where he developed skills essential to success as a lawyer. Returning home, he then launched a long and successful career performing, as he puts it, for audiences of 12, namely, members of juries. Aitken has won cases against giants such as Disneyland and the auto industry on behalf of what he calls “the little guys.” And beyond his legal practice in Orange County, California, he and his wife, Bette, have been influential in building up the performing arts, supporting Democratic politicians, and boosting the quality and vitality of education institutions. That includes generosity they have shown for years to Marquette Law School and Marquette University.

The Summer 2024 issue of Marquette Lawyer magazine features a profile of the colorful Aitken, who credits Marquette Law School with playing an important part in his success. The article, titled “Winning Performance,” may be read by clicking here.

Beyond the specifics of Aitken’s success lies a theme of the good that can come from developing talents and abilities, working hard, and raising your voice in pursuit of making things better. Those are themes reflected in several other pieces in the new magazine.

In “Army of Survivors,” Professors Paul G. Cassell of the University of Utah and Edna Erez of the University of Illinois Chicago assess the importance of victim impact statements given by 168 women who were victimized by Larry Nassar, once the team doctor for USA Gymnastics. The women who testified at Nassar’s sentencing proceeding showed great courage in raising their voices in court (in nationally televised sessions) in pursuit of making sure that not only Nassar but many who enabled him were held accountable and that the general public had increased knowledge of the evils of sexual assault. Cassell and Erez analyze different aspects of the impact the women’s statements had and conclude that giving victims the opportunity to raise  their voices has great value. The article is based on the Barrock Lecture on Criminal Law the two professors gave at Marquette Law School. It may be read by clicking here.

Professor Margo Bagley of Emory University raises her voice on behalf of bringing more women and underrepresented minorities into the world of inventing and patenting. In “Deploying Our Secret Weapon,” Bagley spells out specifics on how few women and minorities have become involved in such work in the past. She makes the case that bringing more of them into such work not only is right but can improve economic growth and America’s global standing. The article is based on Bagley’s Nies Lecture on Intellectual Property at Marquette Law School. It can be read by clicking here.

Voices have been raised in many varied—and passionate—ways in advocating for what corporations could and should do to involve themselves in the improving their communities or the nation as a whole. Is the only real obligation of a corporation to pursue profits for owners and shareholders? Or are there broader role businesses should play? And what is the law around permitted use of corporate resources? Professor Ann M. Lipton of Tulane University analyzes the complex issues involved in such debate in “Of Chameleons and ESG,” an article based on her Boden Lecture at Marquette Law School. The article may be read by clicking here.

Veteran Milwaukee journalist Tom Kertscher was visiting his father in West Bend, Wisconsin, when a police officer arrived to give him a ticket for not making a full stop at an intersection several blocks away. A doorbell video from a resident led to the ticket—and led to Kertscher’s raising his voice about the extensive amount of surveillance of this kind. It is generally legal when done by private individuals, he found. Kertscher’s tale, interweaving his unsuccessful effort in court to be given a warning and not a ticket together with broader context about the legality of such surveillance evidence, can be read by clicking here.

The Burdens of All: A Social History of American Tort Law, a book by Joseph A. Ranney, the Adrian P. Schoone Fellow at Marquette Law School, was featured in the Summer 2022 Marquette Lawyer. The book prompted Professor Cristina Tilley of the University of Iowa to raise her voice, as part of a Marquette Law School conference, in reacting to Ranney’s perspective. She praises his research—and calls on him to continue and expand it. Her essay, “All-American Tort Law, may be read by clicking here.

In his column, titled “In Celebration of Progress and Continuity,” Dean Joseph D. Kearney reflects on nine 100-year-old tables that were moved in 2010 from Marquette Law School’s long-time home, Sensenbrenner Hall, to Eckstein Hall—and, more generally, on how the Law School benefits from both tradition and change. His column may be read by clicking here.

Finally: the Class Notes describe recent accomplishments of more than 30 Marquette lawyers and may be read by clicking here, and the back cover (here) offers a recent snapshot showing the strong record of Marquette Law School graduates moving into good legal careers.

The full magazine may be read by clicking here for the PDF or here for the “interactive” version.

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Citations for “The Rise and Impact of Corporate Landlords”

The following post contains references for the studies and articles mentioned in “The Rise and Impact of Corporate Landlords,” which appeared in the Summer 2023 issue of the Marquette Lawyer magazine.

Bibliography

Demers, Andrew and Andrea L. Eisfeldt. “Total returns to single-family rentals.” Real Estate Economics 50 (2022): 7-32. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6229.12353

Desmond, Matthew and Nathan Wilmers. “Do the Poor Pay More for Housing? Exploitation, Profit, and Risk in Rental Markets.” American Journal of Sociology 124, no. 4 (January 2019): 1090-1124. https://doi.org/10.1086/701697

D’Lima, Walter and Paul Schultz. “Buy-to-Rent Investors and the Market for Single Family Homes.” The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics 64 (2022): 116-152. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11146-020-09790-5

Dorkin, Josh and Brandon Turner. Interview with Nazz Wang. BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast no. 148. Podcast transcript. November 12, 2015. https://www.biggerpockets.com/bpp148-nazz-wang-podcast-transcript-zero-to-fifty-units-in-expensive-location

Epstein, Gerald A. “Introduction: Financialization and the World Economy.” In Financialization and the World Economy, ed. Gerald A Epstein, 3-16. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005.

Fields, Desiree. “Automated landlord: Digital technologies and post-crisis financial accumulation.” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 54, no. 1 (2022): 160-181. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X19846514

Gomory, Henry. “The Social and Institutional Contexts Underlying Landlords’ Eviction Practices.” Social Forces 100, no. 4 (June 2022): 1774-1805. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soab063

Leung, Lillian, Peter Hepburn, and Matthew Desmond. “Serial Eviction Filing: Civil Courts, Property Management, and the Threat of Displacement.” Social Forces 100, no. 1 (September 2021): 316-344. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaa089

Raymond, Elora Lee, Richard Duckworth, Benjamin Miller, Michael Lucas, and Shiraj Pokharel. “From Foreclosure to Eviction: Housing Insecurity in Corporate-Owned Single-Family Rentals.” Cityscape 20, no. 4 (2018): 159-188. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26524878

Saunders, Pete. “On NIMYs, YIMBYs and PHIMBYs.” Corner Side Yard (blog). February 10, 2023. https://cornersideyard.blogspot.com/2023/02/on-nimbys-yimbys-and-phimbys.html

Shelbourne, Talis. “Neighborhoods are being bought up by out-of-state investors with little to no interest beyond making money.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. November 10, 2022. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2022/11/10/out-of-state-investors-keep-buying-milwaukees-rental-homes-why/10461394002/

Spivak, Cary. “Out-of-state corporate landlords are gobbling up Milwaukee homes to rent out, and it’s changing the fabric of some neighborhoods.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. April 15, 2021. https://www.jsonline.com/in-depth/news/2021/04/15/milwaukee-rentals-overtaken-corporate-landlords-raking-profits/6989234002/

Vogell, Heather. “Rent Going Up? One Company’s Algorithm Could Be Why.” ProPublica. October 15, 2022. https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-realpage-rent

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A Better Internet? Lawyers’ Ethics? The Quality of Criminal Justice Today? New Marquette Lawyer Magazine Looks at Major Legal Questions

Marquette Lawyer Summer CoverNearly everybody uses the internet every day and, for many us, all day long. It is ubiquitous and, looked at from a long-term perspective, an amazing part of our lives. It is also far from perfect. Can it be made better?

A core aspect of addressing that goal is the prime focus of the Summer 2023 issue of Marquette Lawyer magazine. In the cover story, “The Past’s Lessons for Today: Can We Get to a Better Internet?,” James B. Speta, the Elizabeth Froehling Horner Professor of Law at Northwestern University, looks at whether common-carrier principles could be applied, in an artful and appropriate way, to combat domination of the internet by a small number of giant platforms. Speta’s piece is an essay version of the Robert F. Boden Lecture he delivered at Marquette Law School this past academic year.

Speta’s analysis and suggestions are accompanied by responses from eight other legal academics with a wide variety of experiences and perspectives (in order of presentation):

  • Kate Klonick, St. John’s University
  • Ashutosh Bhagwat, University of California, Davis
  • Sari Mazzurco, SMU Dedman
  • Eugene Volokh, UCLA
  • Howard Shelanski, Georgetown
  • Tejas N. Narechania, University of California, Berkeley
  • Eric Goldman, Santa Clara University
  • Bruce E. Boyden, Marquette University

The presentation is capped by thoughts from Congressman Ro Khanna of California, a leading figure in policy discussions about improving the internet. Khanna offers his ideas in an interview with Speta.

The full set of pieces on internet issues may be read by clicking here.

The new Marquette Lawyer also includes a probing discussion of the duties and obligations of lawyers, focused on a new book by Michael S. Ariens, L’82, who serves as the Aloysius A. Leopold Professor of Law at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. Ariens’s book—The Lawyer’s Conscience: A History of American Lawyer Ethics—is described in the opening section of the article.

There then follow pieces engaging with Ariens’s book from three Marquette Law School faculty members—Peter K. Rofes, Rebecca K. Blemberg, and Nathaniel Romano, S.J.—and a pertinent excerpt from a 1982 law review article by the late Robert F. Boden, L’52, during his long tenure as dean of the Law School.

The whole package, titled “Acting in the Best Interests of Client and ‘King,’” may be viewed by clicking here.

Ellen Henak, a well-known criminal defense attorney and former adjunct professor at Marquette Law School, is retiring. As she draws her practice to a close, she offers careful but candid and provocative thoughts in a piece titled “Unretiring Thoughts from a Retiring Criminal Defense Lawyer,” which may be read by clicking here.

John D. Johnson, research fellow at the Marquette Law School Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education, has done groundbreaking work analyzing significant shifts in property ownership in Milwaukee. He brings together much of his work in an article, “The Rise and Impact of Corporate Landlords.” It may be read by clicking here.

Any change in the faculty and staff of Marquette Law School is important, but retirements of two pillars of the Law School and appointments to two major positions are of particular note. In a set of short profiles, titled “Great Appreciation . . . and Great Anticipation,” we first say thank you to Professor Tom Hammer, L’75, and Associate Dean Bonnie Thomson, each of who has served for several decades. And then we welcome Derek Mosley, L’95, who was named director of the Lubar Center for Public Policy and Civic Education after serving as a Milwaukee municipal judge for 20 years, and Mary Triggiano, who will lead the Law School’s Andrew Center for Restorative Justice after serving as a judge of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court since 2004 and as chief judge since 2020. The four profiles may be read by clicking here.

In his column, titled “Leadership and Mission at Jesuit Schools Today,” Dean Joseph D. Kearney focuses on Marquette University President Michael R. Lovell and Katie Mertz, L’11, director of pro bono and public service at the Law School. Lovell recently honored Mertz with a Marquette University “Difference Maker” award. The column may be read by clicking here.

Finally: the Class Notes describe recent accomplishments of more than 30 Marquette lawyers and may be read by clicking here, and the back cover (here) makes a point about the Marquette Law School Poll.

The full magazine may be read by clicking here for the PDF or here for the “interactive” version.

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