The 24^th Annual Howard B. Eisenberg Do-Gooders’ Auction on behalf of the Law School’s Public Interest Law Society (PILS) will be held on February 17 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. Elisabeth Thompson, a current law student, shares her experience here as a PILS Fellow.

Where did you work as a PILS Fellow?

The ACLU of Wisconsin.

What kind of work did you do there?

Most of my work was legal research and writing.  I prepared two big pre-litigation memos, both in areas of substantive law to which I’d not been previously exposed.  I also drafted a complaint and wrote a number of on-the-fly memos on an array of legal questions, and I got to participate in some meetings with clients.

How was the experience meaningful to you?

The cases I worked on were incredibly meaningful.  They were timely; they were high-impact; they were rooted in the local community but had national resonance.  My work helped lay the groundwork for litigation that will raise awareness and advance justice.  This was motivating to me.  It also speaks to the value of the PILS fellowship; the funds that enabled me to spend the summer at the ACLU contributed directly to advancing their important work.

Kindness, patience, and compassion—those were the key words in the description of Angela Schultz when the Wisconsin Law Journal recognized her as one of this year’s outstanding “Women in the Law” at an event attended by more than 300 people last week at the Pfister Hotel.

Schultz is Marquette Law School’s assistant dean for public service. She worked as an advocate for victims of domestic violence in Oregon and as a lawyer in Milwaukee focusing on elder and disability law before joining the Law School in 2011. She has helped hundreds of law students become involved in pro bono work and has become a leader in Milwaukee in helping thousands of people receive legal help that would otherwise have been out of their reach.

In an article in the Wisconsin Law Journal, Mary Ferwerda, director of the Milwaukee Justice Center, praised Schultz. “She’s very knowledgeable about access to justice issues and how what we do makes a difference,” Ferwerda said. “She has a lot of forward thinking in how to structure a program so that it is effective for clients and for student learning.”

“At the end of the day, we are a helping profession,” Schultz said. “We have a lot of compassionate, big-hearted people who come out of Marquette Law School who do all kinds of good things across the community.” Schultz has been a big success in helping make that happen.

A video recognizing Schultz may be viewed by clicking here.