Mediation Tournament a Great Learning Experience

Two weeks ago I had to opportunity to compete in a mediation tournament. This tournament involved three rounds where each student rotated from round to round playing an attorney, a client, and a mediator. Being a participant and working with my fellow teammates has increased my understanding and skills as an attorney and a mediator.   In preparation for the tournament each of the competitors underwent a training session on effective mediation. Not only were we there to represent our schools in competition, but the session before the tournament provided us with an additional teaching element.

Round One: Attorney in a landlord-tenant action My client was involved in eviction proceedings against an intimidating ex-hockey player who refused to pay rent.  

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Public Service Conference to Consider Consumer and Community Financial Protection

Please join us for “New Directions in Consumer and Community Financial Protection,” the 2011 Marquette University Law School Public Service Conference.  We have an outstanding lineup of speakers, including Greg Zoeller, the Attorney General of Indiana and co-chair of the National Association of Attorneys General Consumer Protection Committee; Charles Harwood, the Deputy Director for Consumer Protection at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission; Don Graves, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Small Business, Community Development, and Housing Policy, U.S. Department of Treasury; and Kathleen Keest, Policy Director at the Center for Responsible Lending.

The Conference will focus attention on consumer financial regulatory reform at both the state and federal level, with a particular emphasis on the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and its implications for low-income and disadvantaged communities, and local enforcement of consumer protection laws.  The Conference will be held on Friday, February 25, 2011, in Eckstein Hall.  CLE credit is available, and attendees will enjoy breakfast, lunch, and a reception.  Review the entire Conference agenda here and register today.  I hope to see you there.

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Racial Disparities in the Federal Death Penalty: Uncovering the Key Role of Geography

The federal death penalty is plagued by two important types of disparity.  One is racial: as of last year, nearly half of federal death row inmates (28 of 57) were black.  The other is geographic: out of the 94 federal districts, just 16 have produced 75 percent of the death sentences, and nine have produced nearly half.  Although both disparities have been much commented on separately, it seems they are actually connected.  Or so argue G. Ben Cohen and Robert J. Smith in an interesting new paper, “The Racial Geography of the Federal Death Penalty,” 85 Wash. L. Rev. 425 (2010).

Their thesis is simply stated.  A vastly disproportionate number of federal death sentences come from counties with high minority populations that are located in districts that are heavily white overall.  Think diverse urban cores surrounded by lily-white suburbs.  Given that federal juries are typically drawn from the entire district, this means that capital trials in these districts are apt to involve minority defendants being judged by white-dominated juries.  Having minimal racial diversity on the jury means that black defendants have little protection from the unconscious racial biases that most of us carry around.  This, in turn, drives both the racial and geographic disparities in federal death sentences.

The patterns are striking. 

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