Assume We Have a Can Opener

There’s an interesting article by Jim Manzi in the most recent issue of the City Journal. In it, he addresses the weaknesses of empirical research in the social sciences, a problem he attributes to the greater “causal density” of questions concerning human behavior. Because of he complexity and number of potential causes for an outcome, it is extremely difficult to conduct randomized field trials that isolate the cause to be tested.

 Manzi begins his article by referring back to the debate about the stimulus package. Noting that Nobel laureates lined up on both sides of the question, he writes that “[f]ierce debates can be found in frontier areas of all the sciences, of course, but this was as if, on the night before the Apollo moon launch, half of the world’s Nobel laureates in physics were asserting that rockets couldn’t reach the moon and the other half were saying that they could.” The only thing that could be said for sure about the stimulus is that, however it turned out, “several Nobelists would be wrong about it.”

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Marquette Graduates Account for Just Under One Quarter of All Practicing Lawyers in Wisconsin

Based on information provided by the State Bar of Wisconsin, there were 23,761 active members of the Wisconsin bar at the beginning of June 2010. Of these, 5,818 (24.5 percent) are graduates of the Marquette Law School. The remaining 17,943 were almost evenly divided between graduates of the University of Wisconsin Law School (8,982) and graduates of out-of-state law schools (8,961).

Presumably, this means that 62.3 percent of Wisconsin lawyers were admitted pursuant to the diploma privilege, compared to 37.7 percent who either passed the bar examination or were admitted based on practice elsewhere.

Unfortunately, detailed information on the alma maters of those who attended law school out of state is not currently available. However, it appears that the schools with the largest number of alumni practicing in Wisconsin are located in states bordering Wisconsin.

Special thanks to James Behan, Database Support Analyst, State Bar of Wisconsin and to Marquette law student Colin Forester-Hoare for their assistance with the compilation of this data.

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The New Law Building in 1924

Eighty-six years ago, the Marquette Law School community waited anxiously to move into a new law building.  The attached photograph is from the spring or summer of 1924 and shows the structure of what would later be known as Sensenbrenner Hall. 

The Sensenbrenner name would not be attached to the site for another three decades and, during its early history, the building was known simply as the Law Building.  (This apellation can be seen on the sign in the right hand bottom corner of the photograph.)

A note in the August 19 edition of the Milwaukee Journal newspaper indicated that by that date the building had been completed.  The official dedication ceremony—the subject of a forthcoming post—would be held later that month.

The Law Building was constructed on the site of the previous law school building, the renovated Mackie Mansion.  Where law school classes were held during construction in the spring of 1924 remains something of a mystery.  Older photographs show that the Mackie Mansion was set back from Wisconsin Avenue a good distance (while the new building fronted directly on the street), so it is possible that classes could have continued in the older building during the construction.

On the other hand, by the time of the construction of the new Law Building, Marquette University boasted a total of 15 university buildings, so there were likely a number of options where law classes could have been held.

(Editor’s note: The photo also shows the difficulty, even then, of finding an open parking space.)

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