Public – Page 166 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Speakers Differ at Lubar Center Program on Whether Success in School Can Increase Social Mobility

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:November 29, 2017
Post category:Education & Law Lubar Center Milwaukee Public Schools Public Speakers at Marquette

When you say “social-emotional learning,” you’ve said something that prompts wide-ranging and provocative conversations about kindergarten through twelfth grade education.

That was the case Wednesday at a morning-long conference in the Lubar Center of Eckstein titled “What K-12 Students Need: Striking a Balance between Social-Emotional and Academic Learning.” The session included moderated conversations with two nationally-known education commentators and a panel discussion with Wisconsin educators who are working on increasing the success of schools in helping children deal with their personal needs as a step toward improving their success in school in beyond.

The conference, a program of the Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education and the Marquette University College of Education, attracted a capacity audience of more than 200, with other people watching it on a livestreamed internet broadcast.

The Myth About Practicing IP

Post author:Stacy Alexejun
Post published:November 28, 2017
Post category:Intellectual Property Law Legal Practice Pro Bono Public

I was recently visiting a relative in the hospital when the attending physician struck up a conversation with my family. When he found out that I am an attorney, he asked about my area of practice. I told him that I practice product liability defense and intellectual property litigation. He then asked me the following question, a variation of which has been posed to me dozens of times over the past five years: “What type of engineer are you?”

I am an English major, and I practice IP litigation. Not only do I not have a science background, but I made a concerted effort to avoid science classes in college. Law schools precipitate a myth that you can’t practice IP without a science background. It’s a myth because it’s not true. I’m proof. (Disclaimer: it is true that you can’t prosecute patents before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office without a science background. But patent prosecution is only one part of IP.)

Voter Identification Laws Set Off Alarm Bells for “On the Issues” Speakers

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:November 16, 2017
Post category:Lubar Center Political Processes & Rhetoric Public Speakers at Marquette

A cycle in which expansion of the right to vote is followed by efforts to suppress voting can be traced back to the 18th and 19th centuries, according to Professor Atiba Ellis. And the cycle continues now in ways that are keeping many people from voting and making voting much harder for others.

“We seem to be repeating the same pattern over and over again,” Ellis said at an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” program Thursday in the Lubar Center of Marquette Law School. Ellis, the Boden Visiting Professor at Marquette Law School this fall, is a professor at the West Virginia University College of Law who has made study of voting rights a focus of his scholarship.

Joining Ellis in the program was Molly McGrath of the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project, who called the current surge of laws requiring such things as presentation of photo identification in order to vote “incredibly alarming.”