From One Generation to the Next
At University of Wisconsin Law School, the Wisconsin Idea is more than a principle. It’s a daily practice.
Through direct representation, community partnerships and public service, faculty and students bring legal knowledge beyond the classroom, helping individuals and families navigate challenges, access opportunity and pursue justice.
Thanks to a generous gift from Rodney “Rod” Uphoff ’76 and his wife, Marsha, more students will have access to improve lives across Wisconsin and beyond.
It’s a full circle journey.
Uphoff grew up in Madison. The double Badger played basketball as an undergrad at the university and is a former clinical professor at the Law School. This year, in celebration of his 50th Reunion, he wanted to make an impact for the school that offered him so many meaningful experiences.
Early Beginnings
After receiving an international Rotary fellowship after graduating from University of Wisconsin–
Madison in 1972, Uphoff went to the London School of Economics to pursue a master’s degree.
“At that point, I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to go into the Foreign Service or go back to the United States,” he said.
He ultimately decided to apply to UW Law School because he thought an education from the school would give him the “most options.” Also contributing to his decision was someone well-known to the UW Law community: Frank J. Remington ’49.
“Professor Remington was one of the leading scholars at UW at the time, and he was also the father of one of my high school friends,” Uphoff recalled. “So, I knew him before I came to UW as an undergraduate. When I was looking at law schools, knowing that he was here was significant to me. He was an important mentor.”
While a student at UW Law, Uphoff participated in the Criminal Defense Clinic, at the time known as the Legal Defense Project, led by Stephen Herzberg.
“It was a phenomenal experience that sparked my interest in clinical work,” he said. “Professor Herzberg was a terrific trial advocacy teacher, and I learned a lot from taking his course.”
Following his graduation in 1976, Uphoff worked briefly in private practice and a government agency before joining the State Public Defender’s Office in Milwaukee. After he became chief staff attorney, he trained new lawyers in the office, sitting with them when they completed their first jury trial and providing feedback.
“I very much enjoyed that aspect of my job,” he said. “So, when a position opened at UW Law to run the Legal Defense Project — the same clinic I had been a student in — I thought it would be great to come back and operate in that role and bring what I had learned during my six years at the public defender’s office into my teaching.”
Return to UW
In 1984, Uphoff got the job at UW Law and became very active in the national clinical legal education movement.
“At the time, clinical education was really undervalued at most law schools in the United States,” he said. “Clinical educators taught a heavy course load but made significantly less money than tenure-track professors. But we all saw the value in allowing students to work on real cases under the close supervision of real, practicing lawyers.”
Today, clinical education is an important aspect of all law schools across the nation, UW included.
“Law clinics provide unparalleled learning opportunities for UW Law students,” said Associate Dean for Experiential Learning Emily Buchholz. “Our robust clinical offerings, which give students the chance to advocate and advise real clients in civil and criminal settings alike, exemplify the Law-in-Action approach.”
Uphoff left the clinic in 1988 to work for Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown LLP. He later joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where he served as a professor and director of clinical legal education and ran a criminal defense clinic for 10 years.
In 2001, he joined the University of Missouri faculty, serving as Elwood L. Thomas Missouri Endowed Professor of Law as well as the associate dean of academic affairs.
In 2006, he was selected to be the director of the University of Missouri South Africa Educational Program, representing the four University of Missouri System campuses. Although he’s semi-retired, he still directs the School of Law’s study abroad program in Cape Town, South Africa, and runs the University of Missouri South African education program.
Making an Impact
Boasting a long and successful career in academia, Uphoff understands the value for students when they’re exposed to good clinical teaching. He also recognizes the challenges that often arise in terms of law school funding, particularly for clinics.
To celebrate his 50th Reunion from UW Law, Uphoff made an extraordinary commitment to establish what will become the Law School’s first endowed professorship for a clinical faculty member.
“I am deeply grateful to Rod and Marsha for their extraordinary generosity in creating the Rodney and Marsha Uphoff Clinical Law Faculty Support Fund,” said Elizabeth Feist, senior director of development.
“Wisconsin holds a special place in my heart. No matter where I’ve gone, Madison is always home to me.”
“This meaningful gift will provide vital support, and well-deserved esteem, for the University of Wisconsin Law School’s exceptional clinical faculty, whose work changes lives, strengthens our community and prepares our students to put law in action.”
Uphoff said he absolutely benefitted from his clinical experience as a student.
“And I like to think I helped students as a clinical professor,” he added.
Mark D. Richards ’87 met Uphoff 40 years ago when he was his faculty advisor. Ever since they met, Richards has viewed Uphoff as a “trusted resource to talk through sticky ethical and factual issues.”
“Rod was always available to quickly work through the issues with me,” Richards explained. “I am now retired and can look back at the advice he gave me, the things I learned in his classes and the example he set as the most important things I learned in law school and used in my practice.”
Uphoff hopes the support fund will help UW Law attract the “right professor” to operate in a role that will benefit students moving forward.
“This gift will support clinical legal education here at UW Law, and, importantly, will elevate the status of the incredible clinical professors who make our programs some of the best in the country,” said Buchholz.
Fifty years after graduating from UW Law — and after a career spent teaching students in Wisconsin, Missouri and South Africa — Uphoff is proud to give back to the place where it all began.
“Wisconsin holds a special place in my heart,” he said. “Not only did I grow up in Wisconsin, but I played basketball at UW, did my undergraduate degree here and went to law school here. No matter where I’ve gone, Madison is always home to me, and UW is a big part of that home. Hopefully, my gift will help ensure UW Law continues its proud tradition of excellence moving forward.”