Israel Reflections 2015: Vienna to Israel and the Lady in Gold

adele-bloch-bauerWell, I had very high hopes for being able to blog while in Israel and those were quickly dashed between the total lack of sleep and need to reflect on what we were seeing!  So finally, now that we have been back for a week, I will start posting about the sights and visits that we had.  We stopped over on the way and spent about 8 hours running around Vienna.  This proved to be a terrific stop because we were able to link two different visits in Israel to what we saw in Vienna.  We started at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna where the famous Klimt painting, The Kiss, is shown.  Up until very recently, the Belvedere also housed a painting known as the Lady in Gold (seen above).  And you can still see t-shirts and mugs bearing the likeness of this painting through downtown Vienna.  But this painting is now longer there.

It turns out the Lady in Gold is actually The Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a well-known society woman in Vienna who commissioned the portrait at the turn of the century.  Unfortunately for her and her heirs, Adele was Jewish.  The painting was looted during the Holocaust, the name changed to hide its original identity, and it took a U.S. Supreme Court case in 2004 (Republic of Austria v. Altmann)  to get this painting back to the family — a niece by the name of Maria Altmann.

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Congratulations to Marquette’s 2015 AAJ National Trial Team

Congratulations to Marquette’s AAJ National Trial Competition Team for its third place finish in the Omaha regional.

This year’s team was comprised of Alexander Foundos and Christopher Kradle for the Plaintiff and Jennifer McNamee and Cameron Weitzner for the Defense.  The coaches for the team were Attys. Nate Blair and Jason Luczak, who spent countless hours working with the team as part of the Trial Skills Competition class at the Law School.

The American Association for Justice (AAJ) National Student Trial Advocacy Competition is one of the premier national trial competitions in the country. Well over 200 teams from law schools around the country compete.

The Omaha regional hosted 16 teams. After the three preliminary rounds, Marquette was undefeated and advanced to the semifinal round. While the Marquette team ultimately lost a well-fought trial in the semifinals, the team ended up placing third overall—an excellent showing.

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Congratulations to the 2015 Marquette Wagner Moot Court Competition Team

2015WagnerCongratulations to 3Ls Angela Harden, Amanda Luedtke, and Samuel Weinberg for reaching the quarterfinals of the 39th Annual Robert F. Wagner National Labor & Employment Law Moot Court Competition in New York this past weekend.  The team also took second place for its Respondent’s brief.  This year’s competition was comprised of 41 teams.

Professor Paul Secunda served as the team’s faculty advisor, and Attys. and Marquette Law alumni Jesse Dill and Tony Flint coached the team.  This year’s Wagner problem involved application of the WARN Act to a plant closing of an oil company (Fazal Oil) after a coup de etat occurred in the country where the oil company was located (San Marcos). Specifically, the problem asked whether the Liquidating Fiduciary, Unforeseeable Business Circumstance and Faltering Company exceptions were able to be claimed by Fazal Oil after they closed the San Marcos oil plant without giving the employees the 60 day notice of closing required under the WARN Act.  Congratulations, again, to our Marquette Law School team for their tremendous effort in tackling these complex employment issues.

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