Alumni Magazine for the University of Wisconsin Law School
On the Reasons Why People Falsely Confess “The most prominent is simply that people are subjected to psychologically coercive, very intensive interrogation tactics. To make it stop or secure the best outcome that they possibly can, they’re led to believe that they should just confess, even though they didn’t do it.” KEITH FINDLEY, WISCONSIN PUBLIC …
The Neighborhood Law Clinic (NLC) received honorable mention from the Clinical Legal Education Association, a national group of clinical law teachers, for excellence in delivering public interest legal services. Marsha Mansfield, who directs the Law School’s Economic Justice Institute, nominated the NLC for the honor. She commends clinic students, along with clinic director Mitch, for …
A digital archive launched this fall at UW Law Library sheds light on the legal aspects of the world’s worst industrial disaster. According to Marc Galanter, UW professor emeritus of law and South Asian studies, more than 20,000 people died and hundreds of thousands more were injured as a result of the 1984 chemical leak …
Nearly 300 veterans have been offered free legal assistance since UW Law School started its Veterans Law Center (VLC) in November 2012. Volunteer attorneys, along with paralegals and law students, provide brief legal advice, information, and referrals on a variety of civil legal matters. Laura Smythe wants to help more. “There’s a huge unmet need,” …
UW Law School family law expert selected for research chair. A University of Wisconsin Law School professor will use an innovative research chair to complete a project that examines the civil justice experiences of unrepresented parents in child support cases. Professor Tonya Brito, a nationally known family law expert, is the 2016 recipient of the …
“The work I’m doing affects so many people. That’s something I never forget. Someone wins … and someone loses. That burden feels very heavy to me” Justice Sonia Sotomayor at the 2016 Kastenmeier Lecture Center for Patient Partnerships, along with Other Health Organizations, Launched a Patient Insight Website, healthexperiencesusa.org, designed to help patients and doctors …
Former US Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. told an audience of UW Law School graduates in May, “As of today, you are no longer merely students of law. You are now stewards of our justice system.” Holder spoke at this year’s hooding ceremony at the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center in Madison. In his …
Case Likely Headed to Supreme Court Twelve Wisconsin voters are challenging the constitutionality of the state’s Republican-drawn legislative maps. Bill Whitford, a UW Law professor emeritus, is lead plaintiff in Whitford v. Gill, formerly Whitford v. Nichol. His group accuses state GOP leaders of using a political tactic known as gerrymandering when they redrew district …
Professor Steven Wright is a clinical instructor at the Wisconsin Innocence Project, where he specializes in DNA exonerations. He is a former trial attorney in the Voting Section of the United States Department of Justice. During his five years in the section, Wright ligated cases to enforce the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Acts, …
University of Wisconsin Law School Professor R. Alta Charo, an internationally known bioethicist, is the inaugural recipient of the Sheldon B. Lubar Distinguished Research Chair in Law. Lubar ’53, a Milwaukee business executive, and his wife, Marianne Lubar, both ardent UW–Madison supporters, provided the $3 million endowment to create the chair. Unlike other endowed chairs, …