Collecting Pro Bono Posts and Announcing the 2023 Posner Exchange

Marquette Law SchoolThis past fall, I posted a series of blog entries seeking to capture important aspects of the work of our Office of Public Service—or, especially, the pro bono initiatives and efforts of our students. The entries on seven consecutive Mondays scarcely endeavored to capture everything important, but they remain available as a window for anyone seeking a glimpse into the Law School and the communities of which we are part—from Marquette University to the legal community in this region to Milwaukee and Wisconsin more generally. Here is a list of the posts:

  1. AALS Pro Bono Honor Roll for Marquette University Law School (Sept. 19, 2022)
  2. Participation in Pro Bono Work and Law Student Well-Being—Any Correlation? (Sept. 26, 2022)
  3. Law Student and PILS Fellow Morgan Kaplan Describes the “Steps” Required of a Pro Se “Movant” in Family Court in Milwaukee County (Oct. 3, 2022)
  4. The Mobile Legal Clinic Speeds Forward (Oct. 10, 2022)
  5. The Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic(s)—A True Legal Community Effort (Oct. 17, 2022)
  6. Reaching Rural Areas with Our Pro Bono Efforts (Oct. 24, 2022)
  7. Of Bankruptcy, Legal Action, and Marquette Law School’s Many Partners in Pro Bono Work (Oct. 31, 2022)
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NAAC Teams Shine in Philadelphia

Twenty-three teams from across the country arrived in Philadelphia at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on February 16, all prepared to present oral arguments in the National Appellate Advocacy Competition regional. Two of those teams were from Marquette University Law School, and they shone.

Emily Ward and Kyle Elderkin at the National Appellate Advocacy Competition in Philadelphia.

First, 3L team Kyle (Kip) Elderkin, Emily Ward, and Jessica Zimpfer. Unfortunately, a couple of days before the competition, Zimpfer became ill and was unable to travel. The loss of able advocate Zimpfer meant that Ward had only a couple of days to prepare to argue both sides of their issue. Even so, Ward and Elderkin advanced to the regional semifinals, but lost in that round. Both received perfect oral advocacy scores from one of the judges in an earlier round.

Andrew Holzmann, Abigail Kincheloe, and J.P. Curran at the National Appellate Advocacy Competition in Philadelphia.

Second, 3L team J.P. Curran, Andrew Holzmann, and Abigail Kincheloe. These three argued their way into the regional finals round—one win away from advancing to the national competition—but did not prevail. However, their brief tied for fourth best in the region, and Andy Holzmann was named eighth best oralist in the region.

Congratulations to each team member for their outstanding representation of Marquette Law. And our deepest gratitude goes to Attorneys Julie Leary (L’20), Jay McDivitt (L’21), Ben Edelstein (L’22), and Kyle Frank (L’22), who devoted many hours to coaching the teams. Thank you, too, to the many guest judges: Xavier Jenkins (L’21), Rebeca Lopez (L’12), Dan Murphy (L’16), Jacob Rozema (L’20), Zach Willenbrink (L’11), and Adam Woodside (L’18).

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Mission, Vocation, and Ethics: A Reflection on The Lawyer’s Conscience

This is the third in a series of three blog posts this week by Marquette law faculty on a new book.

The Lawyer's Conscience - A History of American Lawyer EthicsAs a Catholic priest and member of the Society of Jesus (that is, the Jesuits), my life is defined by mission. I may be a professor, a campus minister, even a lawyer, but these professional lives are founded upon—and to an extent dependent upon—that deeper vocational life. While there has been a role for personal judgment and discretion, specific performance of any job comes only subsequent to the religious judgment and discernment of my major superior, who formally “missions” every Jesuit to his particular assignment. I am not merely wafting through whatever I fancy or have some minimal technical proficiency in, and what makes me “good” (or not) stems not from proficiency but from the fact of mission. Vocation begets mission begets profession.

I am put in mind of this dynamic as I reflect upon Michael S. Ariens’s recently published The Lawyer’s Conscience: A History of American Lawyer Ethics (University of Kansas Press 2022). Ariens surveys the history of how lawyers imagined themselves and how competing images have been synthesized into a multifaceted, perhaps self-contradictory conception of the modern lawyer. Throughout this survey, from the eve of the American Revolution to the crises of the early 21st century, the core tension has always revolved around this same dynamic: what is the vocation of the lawyer, and, thus, what is the lawyer’s mission, and how does any of this define the lawyer’s profession?

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