Welcome to Professor Michael Smith

Smith_michael_rThis fall, Marquette University Law School is fortunate to have Professor Michael R. Smith as a Robert E. Boden Visiting Professor of Law.  Professor Smith is visiting from the University of Wyoming College of Law, where he is the Winston S. Howard Distinguished Professor of Law and the Director of Legal Writing.  Professor Smith’s work in legal writing and written advocacy is nationally renowned.  He has published a book on persuasive legal writing entitled Advanced Legal Writing:  Theories and Strategies in Persuasive Writing (Aspen 2002).  This book has received such interest and acclaim that the release of the second edition was the impetus for a 2008 conference, A Dialogue About Persuasion in Legal Writing & Lawyering, which was held at Rutgers Law School-Camden. 

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“Be Wise: Revise,” Lisa A. Mazzie Advises in Latest Wisconsin Lawyer Magazine

lisaHatlenFor nearly a year, several of the Law School’s legal writing professors have been offering legal writing advice in a semi-regular column in the Wisconsin Lawyer magazine.  The latest such contribution is Lisa Mazzie’s “Be Wise: Revise,” which provides “guidelines for creating effective style through revising – guidelines on when to revise, how to revise, and when to quit.”  Her helpful advice highlights the importance of an objective attitude and critical eye during revision of one’s own work.

Professor Mazzie contributed another column, in June of this year, entitled, “Conciseness in Legal Writing.” Past legal writing columns from Marquette’s legal writing faculty also included Jill Koch Hayford’s November 2008 piece, “Style Books, Websites, and Podcasts:  A Lawyer’s Guide to the Guides,” as well her March 2009 advice, “Update Contract Language to Meet 21st Century Readers.” A column about split infinitives, “Dispelling Grammar Myths:  ‘To Split’ or ‘Not to Split’ the Infinitive,” by Rebecca K. Blemberg, appeared in the December 2008 issue.

The legal writing faculty will continue to write about legal writing for Wisconsin Lawyer magazine during the coming year.

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IP Geeks Rejoice: 13 Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review (2009) is Here

ip-lawreviewThe thirteenth volume of the Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review (Summer Edition 2009) has recently been published and is now available.   Our outgoing editor-in-chief, Melissa Benko and her excellent board have done an outstanding job once again.

Highlights of the issue include:

* Jessica Litman’s wonderful and innovative Nies lecture on current copyright reform;

*  Interesting articles by Vanessa Rollins, Amy Tindall, Dmitriy Vinarov (and me, but I am not wearing that hat today!) on diverse subjects such as trademark fair use, the impact of the Seventh Amendment on patent litigation, and the re-thinking of patent fraud enforcement in light of current congressional reform;

*  Our initial entry in the Emerging Scholars Series, which highlights works of intellectual property scholars in the first three years of their career, by Marketa Trimble, on cross border injunctions in the United States; and

* Our Annual Intellectual Property Law Review Banquet Speech, by the General Counsel of the Subway Advertising Trust Fund, Mary Jane Saunders, on her practitioner’s life in copyright.

In particular, I want to highlight the scholarship of two our students—Renee Metzler and Kevin Rizzuto—who in their comments, undertook innovative scholarship on grace periods in patent law as well as an empirical look at fixing continuation application at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

I look forward to the work of incoming Board in the new school year!

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