Welcome to Our December Guest Blogger

Our Student Guest Blogger for December is 1L Monica Reida. Prior to going to law school, Monica worked as a journalist, contributing to Barista Magazine, OnMilwaukee, NewCity, and Gapers Block, where she was the politics editor from 2013-2015. She has a B.A. in journalism from Michigan State University, with a concentration in public affairs reporting. Monica is also the author of a chapter in the recently-released book Midwest Architecture Journeys, edited by Zach Mortice and published by Belt Publishing. According to the publisher, Midwest Architecture Journeys contains “dozens of essays written by architects, critics, and journalists” that “take[ ] readers on a trip to visit some of the region’s most inventive buildings,” but also “includes stops at less obvious but equally daring and defining sites, such as indigenous mounds, grain silos, parking lots, flea markets, and abandoned warehouses.” Monica’s chapter, “Please Return Again,” is about the public library in Waterloo, Iowa. We’re looking forward to hearing more about the chapter and Monica’s experience in getting it published. Welcome, Monica!

Continue ReadingWelcome to Our December Guest Blogger

Marquette Teams Make Successful Showing at NMCC Regionals

six students standing in law school
Marquette Law students who participated in the NMCC Region VIII competition (left to right): Kieran O’Day, Abby Hodgdon, Brooke Erickson, Kylie Owens, Micaela Haggenjos, and Kylie Kaltenberg.

Marquette University Law School hosted the Region VIII round of the 70th annual National Moot Court Competition on November 23-24, 2019. Both Marquette teams made successful showings.

Team members Kylie Kaltenberg, Abby Hodgdon, and Kieran O’Day advanced to the semifinal round before being eliminated after losing by less than one-half point. That team also had the third highest brief score* in the region. Professor Melissa Love Koenig advised the team, which was coached by attorneys Jason Luczak, Brianna Meyer (L’17), and Max Stephenson (L’13).

Brooke Erickson, Micaela Haggenjos, and Kylie Owens advanced to the quarterfinals before being eliminated after losing a close round to the other Marquette team. Professor Lisa Mazzie advised the team, and attorneys Bryn Baker (L’18), Chal Little (L’16), and Nicole Muller (L’18) coached the team.

Our attorney coaches are extremely dedicated and put in many hours of work with our students. We are lucky to have coaches who come back year after year. Our students benefit greatly from working with them. Our teams put in many hours of practice to prepare for the competition.

We are grateful for the time donated by the many judges and lawyers who judged the briefs and oral arguments for the NMCC Region VIII regionals. Moot Court Associate Justice Jake Rozema put in countless hours to ensure the competition ran as smoothly as it did. He was ably assisted by his committee, consisting of John Black, Colin Dunn, Danielle Gorsuch, Tyler Jochman, Peter Klepacz, Darrin Pribbernow, Alexander Sterling, Lucas Tabor, Brandie Tartza, and Caleb Tomaszewski. We appreciate the students who participated as bailiffs:  Alicia Bernards, Suzanne Caulfield, Vanessa Flores, Joshua Kundert, and Daniel Sievert.

Continue ReadingMarquette Teams Make Successful Showing at NMCC Regionals

A Community Lawyering

(Gratitude to Rodrigo Sanchez for assistance in compiling data on 53206.)

The Shriver Center in Chicago provides training on a particular model of community-based lawyering.  They define “community lawyering” as “using legal advocacy to help achieve solutions to community-identified issues in ways that develop local leadership and institutions that can continue to exert power to effect systemic change.” The concept grew out of the older ideas of community organizing generally pioneered by Saul Alinsky’s work in 1930s and 40s Chicago, where, broadly speaking, the goal is to promote the empowerment of citizens, i.e. members of the community, to address problems and effect change. These ideas were applied to the practice of law at least as far back as 1970 in the form of a Yale Law Journal article where Stephen Wexler outlined a number of ways in which effective lawyering in an impoverished community is different from the traditional practice of law.

Whereas the traditional lawyering model sets up an adversarial dynamic between parties, community lawyering may engage alternative systems of relational power or power sharing aimed at ultimate reconciliation or compromise, founded on a recognition of common interests between parties.  (See Ross Dolloff & Marc Potvin, Community Lawyering—Why Now?, 37 Clearinghouse Review 136 (July–Aug. 2003)).  Whereas traditional lawyering may entail simply spotting issues that can be resolved through litigation or formal legal recourse, community lawyering can approach citizen-identified problems as opportunities to engage stakeholders in a broader conversation in the hope of building authentic, trusting relationships.  Whereas the traditional lawyer model is that of a litigator, negotiator of claims, and counselor to the client, the community lawyer’s focus may be to “develop inside the client population a sustainable knowledge base that allows the population to build foundations for opportunity from within,” to identify and defeat the causes of poverty.  Whereas in the traditional lawyering model the attorney is the “voice” of the client before the court, in a community lawyering model, the strategy and policies are accountable to the voice of the population being served.  The lawyer assists a community in identifying a structural barrier (access to economic resources, housing, sustainability, stability, employment opportunities, political voice, etc.) and then helps build capacity within the community to take action (through organizing, relationship building, advocacy, policy development, traditional case work, etc.).

The Legal Aid Society of Milwaukee applied for and received a grant funded by the Wisconsin Trust Account Foundation to introduce its related but unique approach of embedding lawyers into communities called “neighborhood lawyering,” focused on two targeted communities in Milwaukee. 

Continue ReadingA Community Lawyering