Wisconsin Law Journal – WI Legal News & Resources Wisconsin Legal News & Resources

This week, Wisconsin is ground zero in the battle between university bureaucrats and free speech champions. No, I'm not talking about the University of Wisconsin's attempts to stifle criticism of its admission policies. That's been going on for years, and will continue for many more.

It has been a summer of sorrow in the Milwaukee legal community. We lost our friends, David Cannon and Judge Terry Evans. And Saturday we lost another friend: Nathan Fishbach.

When you are an old man, eventually, the young people will demand accountability for your actions when you were young, asking questions such as, “Why did everybody wear mullets back in the day?”

Many years ago, I attended a public high school student’s graduation ceremony out in what I consider the sticks.

The maximum penalty for armed robbery is not just a prison term, but a fine of $100,000.

At the end of Henrik Ibsen’s play, “The Pillars of Society,” after the so-called pillars of society have been shown to be a bunch of scoundrels, the boy Olaf declares, “I don’t want to be a pillar of society.”

People say I’m crazy because I’ve gone back to practicing law full time out of my basement. Actually, people say I’m crazy for lots of reasons, but that’s the latest one, anyway.

I was having lunch last month with a friend who happens to be a law professor, when I remarked that I was finally going to write a law review article that I have been contemplating for some time.

When you are a friendly neighborhood lawyer, you never know what sort of advice or representation your clients may need.

There is an expression that goes, “The personal is political.”

When I was a child, a song by Vickie Lawrence reached number one on the charts, about an innocent man hung for murder, entitled “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.” The song warned, “Don’t trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer.”

The first thing attorneys learn in law school is not really a legal principle, but rather a historical fact: back in the day, railroads were really important.

Wisconsin is going to receive $27.5 million from the federal government to hector the citizenry into losing weight.

The latest cause de jour is passage of what its proponents call “Caylee’s Law,” which would make it a federal crime for a parent not to report a missing child within 24 hours.

Hanging out with some of the carnies who came to town this year, I was astonished at how, in a mere 10 years, the carnival industry had become so professional. And they did it without even spending mandatory carnie dues on a public image campaign.

Back in the day, there was a tavern near 29th and Cleveland in Milwaukee called, “The Duke of York.”

The two most beautiful words in the English language are: “Not guilty.”

The Takings Clause provides that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

So, who wants to head down to Body Ritual with me and get a new tattoo?

“You’ve come a long way, Baby.”

My team and I were sitting at the tavern after softball recently, and our first and second basemen were talking about seeing Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” at the Rep, and how good it was.

It has come to my attention that the nomination of University of Wisconsin law professor Victoria Nourse to the 7th Circuit is unlikely to be approved by the U.S. Senate.

I was having a nice conversation with another attorney the other day when we began talking about environmental law. We were both in agreement that the work environmental defense lawyers do is very important. But in the middle of the conversation, we discovered that we have vastly different definitions of what makes an environmental defense lawyer.

A remarkable thing happened at the Republican debate in South Carolina earlier this month. One of the candidates proposed legalizing controlled substances, and asked whether anyone would begin using heroin just because it was legal.

I don’t normally write moving picture reviews here on The Dark Side. And with good reason: as of a month ago, I hadn’t been to the movies since 1998.

There is one type of lawyer the profession has no room for -- the molly-coddler.

Friday is what the progressives call “Earth Day.” I prefer to celebrate my own holiday, “Human Achievement Day.”

My friend Nicole got called for jury duty a little while back.

I’d like to propose an experiment. We all have friends who are judges, prosecutors, public defenders, city attorneys or lawyers with state agencies. I suggest that you send to one of your friends an email at their work account that is totally unrelated to work. Maybe something along the lines of: “That David Ziemer is such a jackass; I hate ...

In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, he famously wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”