Milwaukee – Page 58 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

A Public Service Environment

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:March 1, 2010
Post category:Marquette Law School Milwaukee

When I was hired by the Law School in October, I joked that my basketball affections were for sale – Go, Golden Eagles – but, especially when I was writing in my own reporting voice, I didn’t expect to change my journalistic standards (there really are such things) after more than 35 years of newspapering in Milwaukee. So if you want to consider this hopeless pandering to my bosses, I can’t stop you. But I regard this as just a blog item in my voice.

The annual Law School Public Service Conference was this past Friday at the Alumni Memorial Union, with a theme of “Water and People.” It’s one of the centerpieces of the Law School’s involvement in public issues and its commitment to promoting knowledge of and involvement in those issues.

But I’ve been impressed in the four months I’ve been hanging around the building with how strong the public service environment is in the Law School and with how little of the reason for saying this is rooted in once-a-year events. Consider a partial list:

Milwaukee Sick Leave Ordinance May Be Headed to State Supreme Court

Post author:Paul M. Secunda
Post published:February 24, 2010
Post category:Health Care Labor & Employment Law Milwaukee

Hat tip to CCH Technical Answer group for an update on the status of the Milwaukee Sick Pay Ordinance that was passed by referendum in November 2008, only to be invalidated by a state trial court judge. According to the posting, the Milwaukee paid sick leave case has now been referred to the state supreme court:

On February 18, 2010, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to take up the constitutionality of Milwaukee’s paid sick leave mandate.

In June 2009, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Cooper ruled that the city’s paid sick leave ordinance, which provided up to nine paid sick days per year based on the number of hours worked and the size of the business, was “invalidly enacted and unconstitutional.” (Metropolitan Milwaukee Assoc. of Comm. v. City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County Circuit Court, No. 08cv018220, June 12, 2009). 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, appealed Cooper’s ruling. The supreme court has been asked to decide whether the ballot question put before the voters of the City of Milwaukee complied with the statutory requirement that it contain “a concise statement of [the ordinance’s] nature” — whether voters were informed of the contents of the ordinance . . . .

Nearly 70 percent of . . . voters approved the referendum for paid sick leave in the November 2008 election.

Marcia McCormick (St. Louis) has written before on the ordinance. I personally think the law was properly enacted and constitutional. It will be interesting to see whether the Wisconsin Supreme Court takes the case.

I Started Law School . . .

Post author:Ashanti Cook
Post published:February 5, 2010
Post category:Marquette Law School Milwaukee

books Thank you to Professor Slavin for asking me, back in my first month as a wide-eyed 1L, to be on the blog. I thank you for both your confidence in me and this opportunity to attempt to prove you correct.

I started law school at a disadvantage; I didn’t want to be a lawyer. I say this is a disadvantage because I met many people who not only wanted to be a lawyer but had known this about themselves since childhood. Some followed in the steps of a family member and some found their way by other means. That wasn’t me. I don’t want to dwell on myself for very long; I only introduce this to preface my assessment of the legal community in Milwaukee.

As a woman who knew nothing more about being a lawyer than the little that I had seen on television, I was surprised and pleased by what I have found through Marquette. I moved from one of the largest cities in the country with a huge, and quite imposing, legal community to Milwaukee—for reasons other than to go to Marquette University Law School. I allowed myself to be swayed by the sparse contact that I had with Marquette officials to move to a city that I had previously given little thought to, let alone visited.

I’m glad that I did.