University of Wisconsin Law School Gargoyle Alumni Magazine

argoyl

Alumni Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin law School

vei. a No.2 Winter 1976

Return address:

law SchoolUniversity of WisconsinMadison, Wisconsin 53706

Second Class Postage Paid atWaterloo, Wis. 53594

Justice Rehnquis t

On Friday, October 17, JusticeWilliam Rehnquist of the SupremeCourt of the United States made avisit to the Law School, where hespoke to an overflow crowd of lawstudents and faculty. He was in-troduced by Professor FrederickaPaff, who served as his law clerk

CHRISTMAS

GREETINGS

TO ALL OUR

FRIENDS AND

READERS-

GARGOYLE

II

before joining the law schoolfacu lty in 1974. The Justiceanswered the questions of stu-dents-some of them very tough-and was rewarded with a standingovation by the audience:

Photo-credit The Capital TimesMadison, WisconsinPhotographer-B. Fritz

THE GARGOYLEBulletin of the University of WisconsinLaw School, published quarterly.

Vol. 8 No.2 Winter 1976Ruth B. Doyle, editor

Photos by G. Schullz

Publication office, Law School, Universityof Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Second class'postage paid at Madison, Wis. and Water-loo, Wis.Postmaster's Note: Please send form 3579to IIGargoyle", University of WisconsinLaw School, Madison, Wisconsin.Subscription Price: 50¢ per year for mem-bers, $1.00 per year for non-members.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Annual Visit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3

Wisconsin Law Review . . . . . .. 8

Abrahamson 9

Gullickson's Manual. . . . . . . . .. 9

Fund Drive 10

Where Are You? 10

Writing Skills 11

Pre-Law Fair 13

Enrollment Pressure 14

Placement Report 15

Alumni-Faculty Award 16

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ALUMNI VISIT LAW SCHOOL

Mary Bowman, Assistant At-torney General, is currently Chair-person of the Board of Visitors. Herreport to the alumni follows:

The annual Alumni Visitation ofthe Law School took place on Fri-day, October 22. It was followed bya joint meeting of the Board ofDirectors and Board of Visitors onSaturday.

November 3, 1976

Chancellor H. Edwin YoungUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison158 Bascom HallMadison, Wisconsin 53706

Dean Orrin L. HelstadUniversity of Wisconsin207 Law BuildingMadison, Wisconsin 53706

Re: October, 1976 Law SchoolVisitation

Gentlemen:

Members of the Board of Visi-tors and of the Board of Directorsof the Wisconsin Law Alumni As-sociation and other interestedalumni conducted the annualU.W. Law School visitation on Oc-tober 22 and 23, 1976. The visita-tion included a morning of atten-dance at Law School classes, ofwhich some 15 were made availa-ble to the visitors. This wasfollowed by lunch and an "openforum" with students and faculty,discussion and demonstration ses-sions on new teaching techniquesand curriculum questions, dinner

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Events of the visit included classattendance, lunch with students inthe student lounge, discussion ofproblems with members of theFaculty, and a well-attendedFaculty- Visitors dinner.

with faculty and friends of theLaw School, and further discus-sion at the joint meeting of theBoard of Visitors and Board ofDirectors of the WLAA on Satur-day, October 23.

The Board of Visitors is pleasedto report a productive exchange ofviews among alumni, students,faculty and administration. Inparticular, we commend the LawSchool community on the progressmade in meeting and obviatingthe criticisms voiced in 1975 bythe American Bar Association lawschool accreditation team. Thosepresent at the visitation weremade aware of substantial andtimely assistance rendered to theLaw School by the University ad-ministration and the legislature.

Since we did not report to youlast year, this report will refer toissues raised at the October 3,1975, visitation where appropri-ate.

1. ABA Accreditation Matters.Dean Helstad has kept the Chan-cellor, the alumni, and the lawschool community well informedof steps taken to correct the defi-ciencies identified by the ABA ac-creditation teams in 1971 and1974 inspections. This report willnot reiterate the details of thecomprehensive reports submittedto the ABA on November 26,1975,and May 27, 1976, which werepublished in the Winter, 1975 andSummer, 1976 issues of TheGargoyle, respectively.

To summarize, however: theCouncil of the ABA Section ofLegal Education and Admissionsto the Bar severely criticized thefunding and physical plant of theUW. Law School. Noting particu-lar problems with inadequate libr-ary facilities, faculty salaries,faculty-student ratios, rooms forfaculty offices, and provision ofspace for small-group instruction,the Council in 1975 required theLaw School to submit proof ofcompliance with the Council'sstandards by July 1, 1976. By Mayof 1976, Dean Helstad was able toreport substantial improvements,including: increased allocations tothe annual instructional basebudget totalling over $166,000; animprovement in the student-faculty ratio from 28:1 to about19.5:1; modest improvement inthe faculty salary scale; acquisi-tion of rented office space outsidethe Law School to alleviate thespace shortage within the build-ing; and progress on plans andfunding for library and classroomadditions to the Law School itself.

The Board of Directors of theWLAA offered further supportthrough its October 4, 1975,resolution approving, inter alia,establishment of a $50,000 fundavailable to the Dean of the LawSchool in his discretion for profes-sional and program improvementactivities. The dean indicated thathis reports to the ABA Councilhave now shifted, from showingcompliance with minimum stan-dards, to showing progress beyondthose standards.

III

VISITORS cent.

We cannot overemphasize ourcommendation of the Law Schooladministration, faculty, and stu-dents for their contributions tobringing the school into accredita-tion compliance, and for persever-ing in the business of legal educa-tion during the past several yearsin spite of the major inconve-niences caused by insufficientfunds and space.

In discussing pending plans forthe proposed addition forclassrooms and offices, membersof the boards were unanimous intheir concern that friends andsupporters of the Law Schoolmight underestimate thedifficulty of getting final approvaland adequate funds for the pro-posed classroom and faculty officeaddition. Expanding enrollmentsare the most common justificationfor physical plant expansion.However, the Law School enroll-ment has exceeded the school'sphysical capacity since the late1960's, and further enrollment in-creases are clearly unwarranted

until the proposed addition is con-structed.

The boards agreed that closemonitoring of the addition's legis-lative and administrative progresswill be necessary, and that follow-up by Association representativesmay be needed to: 1) secure theneeded approvals of anyclassroom/office addition; and 2)obtain enough funds to counteractthe effect of inflation on theamounts presently proposed forthe addition.

Dean Helstad showed models ofthe proposed library andclassroom additions. Constructionof the library wing is expected tobegin in early 1977.

II. Law School Administrationin General. A recurring issue inthe 1975 and 1976 visitations wasthe Law School's policy on the ad-mission of women and minorities.Women students attending the"open forum" at the 1975 visita-tion pointed out that the percen-tage of women in the enteringclass had dropped from approx-imately 35 per cent in 1974 to 28

per cent in 1975. According tothen Acting Dean Helstad, thedrop resulted from abandonmentof the school's admission policy ofselecting a woman applicant overa man when all other factors wereapproximately equal. In selectingthe 1975 entering class, the ad-missions committee had followeda sex-neutral policy in close cases,leading to the admission of ap-proximately 15 fewer women thanin previous classes. The womenstudents strongly urged therestoration of the femalepreference policy. The policy wasrestored during selection of the1976 entering class, with a com-parable restoration in the overallpercentage of women in the class.The visitors noted in 1975 thatthey were pleased to see the num-ber of women students, comparedto the profession generally. Thevisitors also supported the school'semphasis on increasing legaleduca tion opportunities for allminorities in the profession in-cluding women.

IV

Visitors-feft to rightPaul Van Valkenburg, Robert Voss (foreground), Conrad Goodkind, Tomas Russell, RobertPekowsky, Robert B. l. Murphy. Dale Sorden smiling in the rear; Professor Steven Herzberg,upper right; Justice Nathan Heffernan, back to camera.

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VISITORS cant.

At the 1976 visitation, womenstudents expressed the opinionthat the school's efforts to recruitand graduate women were still in-adequate, and that the percentageof women in the school shouldcompare closely with that of thegeneral population-about 50 percent. Dean Helstad raised thesame question at the joint meetingof the boards, noting that con-siderable time had been spent atfaculty meetings this year on theadmissions policy. The second oftwo fairly close faculty votesreversed an earlier decision andfavored restoration of the femalepreference policy; in light of theapparent division among thefaculty, Dean Helstad asked theBoards' opinions. After discussionby members of both boards, theBoard of Visitors voted three toone, with one abstention, in favorof a resolution supporting thefaculty position, in which a femaleapplicant is chosen over a maleapplicant when other factors aregenerally equal.

At both visitations, women stu-dents reiterated the need for ade-quate day care facilities forwomen students with children.Although the law school com-munity had attempted to organizeand assist such a program in re-cent years, persons working onthe project reportedly foundquality day care to be almostprohibitively expensive.

Dianne Post, a coordinator ofthe March 1977 national con-ference on Women and the Law,furnished printed informationand a verbal report to the 1976visitors concerning the con-ference. Planners of this, theeighth national conference, antici-pate up to 2,000 participants fromall over the country, and re-

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quested the boards' support in theform of money, recommendationsfor seminar leaders, and housing.Noting that the Wisconsin womenlawyers and law students had in-vested considerable effort inbringing the conference toMadison, the visitors commendedthe women for "winning" the hostdesignation, over stiff competitionfrom the University of Michiganand other law schools.

A number of students com-plained of significant inconve-niences and disappointments inthe perennially-difficult area ofclass scheduling and registration.The pervasive popularity of the of-fice practice course, for which par-ticipants must be chosen by lot-tery, reportedly led to registrationand class planning problems,since the results of the lotterywere not announced until themorning students had to sign upfor classes. Some students statedthat the major time commitmentrequired for office practice madelate announcements of the lottery"winners" especially inconven-ient, since many had to plan part-time jobs and family commit-ments. Other students mentionedcontinuing difficulty in getting theclasses they wanted, suggestingthat some popular courses seemedto be scheduled simultaneously sothat attendance would be spreadbetween them.

After hearing the dean charac-terize some of the complaints asvalid and others not, the visitorsacknowledged the extremedifficulty of balancing the desirefor innovations in small-groupteaching, the difficulty of gettingthe right number of faculty mem-bers to teach all of an optimumvariety of courses at any giventime, and the extreme physical

plant limitations of recent years.However, the visitors encouragedthe administration to keep look-ing for ways to facilitate theregistration and scheduling pro-cesses.

III. Curriculum and Teaching.In the 1975 and 1976 visitations,students, faculty, and visitors ex-pressed a desire for greateremphasis on professional respon-sibility and ethics questions in thecurriculum. The Student Bar As-sociation passed a resolution lastyear that professional respon-sibility should be addressed in alllaw school courses. The dean re-ported that three practice andclinical courses, in addition to thetraditional one-credit course, nowsatisfy the professional respon-sibility requirement. A new coursewill be offered next spring,emphasizing ethical questions.Several students commended in-dividual faculty members forworking ethical questions intotheir presentations of such tradi-tional courses as Corporations andTorts. The visitors strongly ap-proved this increased effort toemphasize ethics in both new andtraditional courses as part of thetraining in responsible conduct forpractitioners of the law.

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REMEMBER THELAW ALUMNI

FUNDv

VISITORS cont.

The 1976 visitors enjoyed dem-onstrations of the school's newvideotape and computer research("Lexis") systems, and com-mended the administration andfaculty for their willingness to trythese potentially productive newmethods of teaching and research.The visitors strongly encouragecontinued exploration-and fund-ing--of these and similar innova-tions, and note that substantial in-creases in faculty productivity(and, commensurately, studentlearning) may result from suchlabor-saving devices.

Both visitations included exten-sive discussions of the properplace of "clinical" and "practice"courses and apprenticeship inlegal education. For purposes ofdiscussion, "clinical" courses weredefined as a teaching method giv-ing students experience in thefield with "real" cases, under lawschool supervision; "practice"courses were classroom courses,using simulated cases andemphasizing such practice skillsas oral argument; and apprentice-ship was a period of legal workand study in the field, undersupervision of a licensed attorneybut not of the law school.

Many visitors and some facultyexpressed concern that the schoolmight invest too deeply in time-consuming clinical courses, with acorresponding loss in the ac-ademic area. Prof. Stuart Gul-lickson, who has run the generalpractice course, pointed out thatacquisition of practice skills in-evitably takes an "inordinate"amount of time. He added, prac-tice and clinical courses arenecessarily time-consumingbecause they are conducted forstudents in transition betweentheory and application. One visi-tor noted that practice courses

VI

may not be crucial for the gradu-ate who will go to a reasonablylarge firm and receive supervisionand training from older members;however, some solo and smallpractitioners have never acquiredcertain practice skills that the lawschool is now able to teach.

While most visitors expressedstrong support of some clinical andpractice education, both as awelcome break in the usual case-method routine and as a stimulat-ing exposure to "real world" cases,

others urged with equal vehemencethat the traditional academiccourses not be neglected, either inquantity, quality or variety. Therewas general agreement that amoderate offering of clinical andpractice courses was desirable,provided they did' not impair thequality of the basic academic cur-riculum.

This led the visitors, students,and faculty into the third area ofapprenticeship as an element oflegal education. It was generallyagreed that the "apprenticeship"program which the Law Schooldropped several years ago pro-vided insufficient supervision ofthe new attorney in too manycases. Several visitors argued thata program of supervised officetraining could be set up in such away as to make the experiencedesirable and beneficial for boththe apprentice and the supervisor.One visitor, speaking from longyears of close contact with themedical profession, pointed outthat the three-month "preceptor-ships" in the fourth year of medi-cal school provide an intensity anddiversity of clinical experience notavailable in Madison. He noted,and other visitors agreed, that thedesignation of supervisor or "pre-ceptor" under those circums-tances was considered an honor.

At a continuation of the discus-sion Saturday morning, an at-torney from northern Wisconsinmentioned that he and hispartners had been extremelypleased with their supervisedclerkship program. In the pro-gram, a student was encouragedto take off a semester or morefrom school, usually during thesecond year, and handle a varietyof supervised assignments formembers of the firm. Anothervisitor suggested that the schooldirectly confront the continuinganxiety of graduates over theirpractice skills (or lack thereoD byestablishing a one year requiredapprenticeship. Other visitorscautioned that any such proposalsshould under no circumstancesreduce the number of years ofacademic courses required.

The teaching methods discus-sion on Friday afternoon led intoan extensive exchange of ideasand concerns over the alarminglylow level of English writing andusage skills among many law stu-dents and new lawyers. The visi-tors acknowledged that the prob-lem is not unique to the presentlaw students; however, they notedthat undergraduate educatorswere warning that entering un-dergraduates appeared to havesteadily declining skills in writingand composition. Judges amongthe visitors commented that briefssubmitted to them at timesrevealed a shocking inability towrite clearly and effectively. Legaleducation, it was suggested, alsoneeds greater emphasis on iden-tification and effective use of sig-nificant facts from a client's nar-rative or from a trial transcript.

Some students and visitorsargued that writing competence issomething a law student eitherhas or lacks; that legal educationis not going to change the bad

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VISITORS cont.

habits or failures of the preceding15 years of school; that "good writ-ing" can't be taught; and thatefforts to improve writing skillsare an unwarranted deviationfrom the Law School's academicvocation. Others argued that writ-ing skills can be improved, but theprocess is expensive because itsrequisites are frequent studentwritten assignments and facultyfeedback-both time-consuming.

Dean Helstad stated that thefaculty had voted to emphasizewriting assignments and skills inthe small sections of first yearclasses, and was already requiringand critiquing more written work.Justice Heffernan noted that theHarvard School of Businessstrongly emphasized the futureexecutive's communications skillsand required frequent but notnecessarily extensive writtenwork throughout its graduate pro-gram. The school critiqued theassignments for English compe-tence as well as substance, with apositive effect on the student'swriting skills.

Mrs. Ruth Doyle, who has coun-selled hundreds of students in-terested in applying for lawschool, commented that sheroutinely encourages such stu-dents to take undergraduatecourses requiring extensive writ-ing practice. She noted that theschool could always increase itsprerequisites in the writing area.

Almost all participants in thediscussion expressed dissatisfac-tion with-and ignorance of idealsolutions for-the school's present"Legal Writing" program. Onestudent, a former English teacherhimself, suggested that some ofthe second and third year stu-

THE GARGOYLE

dents teaching the writing sec-tions were inadequately preparedto teach writing. He once returnedhis instructor's comments withannotations to the instructor'sgrammatical and structural er-rors. Another student commentedthat a fair amount of support forthe legal writing program existsamong students generally, butonly because the course is the stu-dent's first and best exposure tothe problems of legal bibliographyand legal research.

One participant questioned therecent shift from numerical to let-ter grades which are not includedin the student's overall average.Dean Helstad mentioned that in-consistency in grading had been aproblem in the legal writing pro-gram, making faculty reluctant togive much weight to legal writinggrades. Others commented thatmore faculty input could alleviatesuspicion over student gradingpractices, and that the writingprogram would not be viewedseriously unless writing gradescarried the same weight as sub-stantive courses.

After discussing the subjectfurther at the Saturday meeting,participants in the visitation con-cluded:

1. Many students and gradu-ates increasingly demonstratesuch deficiency in English writingskills as to impair their ability topractice law;

2. The traditional Legal Writ-ing course is not adequate, as pre-sently structured, to stem the in-creasing decline in writing compe-tence;

3. The Law School faculty is tobe commended for its efforts toemphasize writing skills in firstyear classes;

4. The Law School must investthe effort and money needed toimprove students' writing skills,even though that responsibilityarguably rests with educators atthe undergraduate and secondarylevel; and

5. The Board of Visitors andBoard of Directors should help thefaculty in every way possible todevelop and to fund a better writ-ing skills program.

IV. Miscellaneous. The visitorswere generally impressed with theexcellent quality of teaching andstudent participation in theclasses they attended. Recogniz-ing that the Friday visitationsuffered stiff competition fromsunny autumn weather and thedemands of students' part-timejobs, the visitors agreed that avisitation should be scheduled ona Monday, with the visitation por-tion compressed somewhat. Thevisitors also discussed condensingthe "open forum" and discussiongroups, with more emphasis onthe "forum" aspects of lunch withstudents and faculty.

V. In Summary. The visitorswere pleased to see some easing ofthe severe budget and space prob-lems which have haunted the LawSchool since the late 1960's. Bothboards recognize that seriouscrowding still exists, and that therelief anticipated from physicalplant expansion may notmaterialize soon enough unlessfriends of the school remain alertto possible abandonment of pro-jects and commitments, or erosionof the funding promised.

The boards continue to supportand encourage the school's effortsto admit and graduate morewomen and minority students. Tothat end, the Board of Visitorsspecifically supports the faculty'svote to admit female over male ap-plicants when all other factors areequivalent. The Visitors commendthe women law students for theiraccomplishments and efforts insecuring and planning the eighthnational conference on Womenand the Law, set for March, 1977.

VII

COMING ATTRACTIONS IN

-IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS-

THE WISCONSIN lAW REVIEW

THERE ARE A FEW COPIES OF LAW SCHOOL

The Use of Federal Receivershipsto Protect Constitutional Rights

Scope of Bargaining in TeacherNegotiation in Wisconsin

Impleading Third Party Defen-dants in Workmen's Compensa-tion Cases

In number 4, volume 1976 to bepublished in February 1977:

Articles:When Push Comes to Infringe-ment of State Sovereignty: Imple-mentation of EPA's Transporta-tion Control PlansRobert A. Gordon Jr.

Piercing the Veil of State Action:The Revisionist Theory and aMythical Application to Self-HelpRepossession.Anthony Thompson

Promotional Price Cutting andSection 261 of the Robinson-Pat-man Act.Daniel J. Gifford

Student notes and comments:SEC Regulation of CorporationsMaking Illegal Foreign Payments

State Action and Primary Elec-tions

INCOMPARABLE ARTIST, PAT SHEA, '76.

MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH, BY THE

Campaign Finance in WisconsinAfter Buckley

Procedural Due Process in PublicSchools-The "Thicket" of Goss u.Lopez

Section 8(b)(l) (B) National LaborRelations Act: When Does UnionDiscipline of Supervisor-MembersConstitute Restraint or Coercionof the Selection of EmployerRepresentatives?

Secured Transactions Under Arti-cle 3 of the Uniform Land Tran-sactions Act

Articles:Renaissance of Retribution-Anexamination of Doing JusticeMartin R. Gardner

Electing State JudgesDavid Adamany and PhilipDuBois

Student notes and comments:Access to Student Records inWisconsin: A ComparativeAnalysis of the Family Educa-tional Rights and Privacy Act of1974 and Wis. Stat. Sec. 118.125

With each : copy ordered for $1.25, we

will include a short history of the Law School preparedfor the University's 125th anniversary.

In number 3, volume 1976 to bepublished in December 1976:

Reports on the School's explora-tions into computerized legalresearch ("Lexis") and videotapeteaching methods provoked con-siderable interest and excitementamong the visitors, who en-courage the school's continued in-vestigation of these potentialtools.

Mary V. BowmanChairman

The Board of Visitors will ex-periment with different visitationdays in the future in an effort tofacilitate greater student andfaculty participation in the visita-tion process. The Board of Visitorsand the other attorneys who par-ticipated in the 1976 visitationwere consistently positive in theirreactions to the overall quality ofeducation available at the U.W.Law School.

Respectfully submitted,

WLAA Board of Visitors

The familiar problems of classscheduling, crowding, balancing oftraditional and clinical or practicecourses, and boredom with tradi-tional education methods remainwith us, to no one's surprise. Thevisitors identified and expressedprofound concern over the ap-parently accelerating decline inwriting skills in some of the stu-dent population. While identifyingpre-law school causes for the prob-lem, the visitors agreed that a stu-dent's writing deficiencies becomethe Law School's concern andresponsibility if not correctedearlier. The writing skills problemwill undoubtedly occupy furthertime and discussion in futurevisitations.

VIII THE GARGOYLE

GULLICKSON'S BOOK-

A MANUAL FOR GENERAL

PRACTICE COURSES

Professor Stuart Gullickson isthe author of a newly publishedbook, Structuring a General Prac-tice Course, published jointly inOctober, 1976, by the AmericanLaw Institute and the AmericanBar Association's Committee onContinuing Professional Educa-tion (ALI-ABA).

The book, which is a manual forlaw teachers and law school ad-ministrators, grew from ProfessorGullickson's pioneering GeneralPractice Course. Paul Wolkin, Ex-ecutive Director of ALI-ABA, inthe Foreword, states, "The book,reflective of the rich Wisconsinexperience, is intended to aideducators in deciding to offer apractice course and to serve as aguide to those who choose to pre-sent such a course "

Readers of the Gargoyle mayremember several articles in pre-vious issues dealing with theGeneral Practice Course. TheCourse, now being offered to 80students each semester, continuesto be one of the most popularcourses in the Law School. It istaught by 44 members of the prac-ticing Bar, who come in teams of4, to deal with different subjectseach week for 10 weeks.

The book includes the followingsections: roles of the Director, cur-riculum, teaching methods, teach-ing materials and future develop-ments. A well developed group ofAppendices provides samples ofthe exercises for the students andteaching plans for 150 hours of in-struction.

Professor Gullickson is on leaveduring 1976-77, to serve on theMadison campus Chancellor'sstaff. He will return to the LawSchool in September, 1977.

PROFESSOR ABRAHAMSONAPPOINTED TO SUPREME COURT

The law School takes great pride in the appointment of Professor ShirleyS. Abrahamson to the Supreme Court of Wisconsin on September 1. Mrs.Abrahamson became a member of the Faculty in 1961 , and was promotedto professor in 1966. She takes with her from the law School all the goodwishes of her colleagues and her students.

* * *THE GARGOYLE IX

'fls THg SEIi5'0"'/ TtJ BE' J~I-LY

CHR.IStM4S 41 THE L.Aw S~HtJt:JL

ANNUAL FUND DRIVEIN PROGRESS

The 1976-77 Fund Drive is nowunderway. The fund drive theme,"TWO HUNDRED YEARS-TWOHUNDRED PERCENT," calls at-tention to the legal profession'scontribution to the founding ofthis nation and to the fund drive'sgoal. This year our 5,600 alumsare being called upon to, doublelast year's record number of con-tributors (665).

The financial position of theUW Law School is better todaythan at anytime since the sharpupswing in student population inthe late 1960's, thanks in no smallpart to the assistance of its alum-ni. Be that as it may, tax supportis, and will continue, to provideonly the basics of legal education.Most of the LAW SCHQOL FUNDgoes for student financial aid. Theneed for this assistance shows nosign of abatement.

If the legal profession is to con-tinue fulfilling the role carved forit by such lawyers as Adams,Jefferson and Henry, it will haveto depend upon the unselfish con-tributions of time, energy andmoney from its practitioners. Helpus now, and help the future ofyour profession and your country.

YOU HAVE UNTIL

JANUARY 31

TO CONTRIBUTE

NameSachtjen, Peter D.Safer, Edward I.Saunders, Eugene B.Scallon, Hugh J.Scheinfeld, AaronSchlicht, William M.Schneider, Donald R.Schroeder, Lee J.Schuldt, Jess M.Scorgie, John G.Scott, Richard J.Seaver, Claude E.Shannon, Frank J.Sheldon, William A.Siegel, Richard M.Silverman, Eldon E.Silvian, Westley W.Simmons, Robert M.Simrell, Earle V.Siratovich, Thomas H.Skewis, Harry C.Skroch, Ernest J.

WHERE ARE YOU?

Last Known LocationMadison, WIMadison, WINew York, NYLos Angeles, CAChicago,ILMadison, WIMerrill, WISuitland, MDMadison, WIBoulder, COMadison, WIMiami, FLMadison, WIKenosha, WIMadison, WIWashington, D.C.Palm Beach, FLWashington, D.C.Madison, WISeattle, WAShullsburg, WISacramento, CA

Class'66'59'36'62'23'35'59'66'43'72'66'59'19'29'39'71'36'73'38'64'41'61

x THE GARGOYLE

THE LAW SCHOOL'SPROGRAM

FOR TEACHINGWRITING SKILLS

No gathering of lawyers and lawschool teachers is able to avoid thesubject of legal writing. Why can'tlaw students write in persuasive,direct, accurate and simpleEnglish?

Almost everyone agrees that

*

Legal Writing at the Universityof Wisconsin Law School is athree-credit course required of allstudents in the second semester ofthe first year. The Legal Writingprogram is designed to teach firstyear students to use legalanalysis, research and writingskills to solve specific problems. Itis taught in 20 sections by teach-ing assistants who are third yearstudents. For the past two years, ithas been supervised and coordi-nated by Mary Beth Gleaves ('74),who was herself a high schoolEnglish teacher before coming tothe University of Wisconsin LawSchool.

*

the best way to learn writing is bywriting. All efforts so far in theUniversity of Wisconsin LawSchool are directed toward provid-ing a variety of opportunities, withsupervision and evaluation, togain writing experience.

*

During the fall semester, stu-dents take a brief introductorycourse in Legal Bibliography. Stu-dents apply the knowledge ofresearch tools learned in the fallsemester, to the writing problemsthey do in the spring semesterLegal Writing course. Studentsprepare a case brief andmemorandum involving a simpletort problem. In the second groupof exercises, students writeanother memorandum and a trialbrief on a more complexnegligence problem. The two finalexercises are another memoran-dum on a problem involving aWisconsin statute and an appell-ate brief. All of these are carefullyevaluated by teaching assistants.

For the first time this year, thethird year students who will teachLegal Writing in the secondsemester are themselves taking athree-credit course in researchand legal analysis taught by Ms.Gleaves. They are workingtogether to study problems andprovide a legal writing course inthe second semester which willhave equal standards of perform-ance.

It is now quite clear that theLegal Writing course itself is notsufficient to make good writersout of poor writers or even writersout of non-writers.

The efforts to meet the crisis ofliteracy among law students nowproceeds on several fronts.

A. The Small Section ProgramFor several years, each first

year student has been assigned toone small section in one of theregular courses offered in the firstsemester. These sections haveenrollments of 15-20 students andare taught by regular facultymembers in the areas of contracts,torts, civil procedure, and sub-stantive criminal law. They pro-vide an opportunity to use otherteaching methods in addition to,or instead of, the large lecture orthe Socratic method of analyzingonly the decisions of appellatecourts.

Many law schools have legalwriting courses-some called byother names. All the courses,however, include instruction onbasic research and writing techni-ques. Increasingly, legal writingcourses also teach students thebasic analytical skills they need tointerpret and use statutes and ap-pellate court decisions. In somelaw schools, legal writing is boundto a moot court or law review pro-gram. In others, like Wisconsin,the director is a member of theLaw School staff supervisingteaching assistants.

THE GARGOYLE

Mary Beth Gleaves

XI

th i s

LEGAL WRITING Cont.

Professor Lawrence Church,Associate Dean, is the coordinatorof the small section program. Heemphasizes that the program isnot primarily a legal writingcourse. In addition to its substan-tive component, it provides anearly exposure to legal analysisand American legal process.Nevertheless, the writing skill isthe one most readily used to com-municate, so that it inevitablybecomes an important part of theprogram. Although there may bedifferences in the day to dayclasses, each section requiresthree papers and a mid-term ex-amination, in addition to the regu-lar final examination. The courseteacher comments extensively oneach paper and the mid-term ex-amination, often in individual con-ferences with each student.

The small sections lend them-selves admirably to the develop-ment of communicative skills,because the professors are able toevaluate in detail the work ac-complished, and the students areprovided an opportunity to ex-press themselves in various ways.They have another importantaspect: the written requirementsare an integral part of a regularcourse and greatly enhance, in theopinion of nearly all the professorsinvolved, substantive understand-ing of the respective courses.

B. The Writing TutorStudents with particular prob-

lems in expressing themselves arereferred by the professors teach-ing small sections and others tothe writing tutor. The tutor workswith each student individually tocorrect basic deficiencies, whichinclude grammar, organizationaland editing handicaps. Consulta-tion with the tutor is voluntary.

XII

During the first semester,1976-77, the tutor is June Gertig,a third year student who in springof 1976 won the Davies Prizegiven to the two students of high-est standing in the second yearclass. She, too, has been anEnglish teacher. Her experienceincludes teaching English as aforeign language in West Africaduring her service as a PeaceCorps volunteer.

Any student enrolled in the LawSchool is eligible for the tutorialprogram. Students voluntarilyconsult the tutor or faculty mem-bers refer students for assistance.About 40 students have soughtthe tutor's assistance during thefirst semester, 1976-77. Many stu-dents consult her more than once.

The tutorial program allowsstudents to improve their writingand analytical skills by workingclosely with a tutor. Ms. Gertigcritiques student writing and com-ments on grammatical, organiza-tional and stylistic strengths andweaknesses. Students may askher to evaluate a specific writingsample or to develop a long-termprogram for improving the stu-dent's general writing abilities.She also helps students acquirethe skills necessary to write avariety of documents includinglaw examinations, memoranda,essays and briefs.

In addition to working with in-dividual students, Ms. Gertig willteach a small legal writing sectionduring the second semester,1976-77. Students in her sectionwill have a chance to work inten-sively on legal writing skills in asetting designed to increase con-tact with the instructor and max-imum feedback on writing techni-ques.

C. Hastie FellowsThe two Hastie Fellows are

graduate lawyers from minoritygroups, who are earning LLMdegrees to prepare themselves forlaw school teaching. They serve as

half-time advisors to thoseenrolled in the Legal EducationOpportunities Program. Whilethey do not devote themselves ex-clusively to writing, it inevitablybecomes a part of their efforts toassist students in developing anumber of skills.

D. Assistance in RegularClasses

It must not be overlooked thatmany members of the Facultyhave been attempting to add sometraining in legal writing in a sub-stantial number of the coursesoffered in the regular program.They are handicapped, of course,by large classes (some almost 150students), which makes any largeamount of writing in the first yearclass an unmanageable burden onthe professor.

To second and third year stu-dents, the seminars offer chancesfor very specialized study andwriting.

The FutureSome people in position to know,

state that the recent writings oflaw school graduates are morecareful, more concise, and morecommunicative than are thosepresented by older, more ex-perienced lawyers.

Others disputecategorically.

Whatever may be the truth,there is anxiety in the extremeover the apparent failure of thenation's vast educational systemto produce graduates who canread and write. Clearly, if the ele-mentary schools were doing theirjobs and the high schools weredoing theirs, colleges and lawschools would not need to worryabout what should be assumed tobe unnecessary.

A number of colleges, includingthe University of Wisconsin, areabout to launch a variety of ex-periments in search of a workablemethod of teaching writing. Thelaw schools and other graduateprograms will eagerly await theresults.

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PRE-LAW FAIR

No law schools need to solicitapplications these days. Thesecaravans have as their main pur-pose answering prospective appli-cants' questions in an efficientmanner.

Other stops in the Big Ten weremade at Northwestern University,the University of Michigan, andIndiana University-Bloomington.Professor Walter Raushenbushspoke to the group in Madison. Hehas been Chairman of the Univer-sity of Wisconsin Law School's Ad-missions Committee for manyyears and has carried a number ofresponsibilities in the Law SchoolAdmissions Council, including insome past years, the preparationof the invaluable Pre-LawHandbook.

CHRISTMAS COMESAND

GOES-AND SUD-DENLY

IT'S SPRINGI

34th Spring ProgramFriday and Saturday

April 22 and 23, 1977

Continuing legal educa-tion Specialrecognition for Reunionclasses: 1927, 1932,1937, 1942, 1947,1952, 1957, 1962,1967, 1972 . .

Special Events for 25thand 40th; Dinner andDance on Saturday.

DETAILS LATER***

Sponsored by the Midwest Asso-ciation of Pre-Law Advisors a sec-ond annual law school c~ravanvisited the University of Wiscon-sin campus on October 20. Forty-one law schools sent admissionsofficers to provide information tostudents who are considering ap-plication to law schools. Theschools were widely spreadgeographically from Boston andNew Haven to California. Theywere private and public lawschools; large and small. They in-cluded some large and venerablelaw schools such as Harvard, andsome new and small, like WesternState in California. Each set up atable on the second and thirdfloors at the Wisconsin Centerand answered questions and dis:cussed admissions policies withhundreds of law school applicantswho came from the Madison cam-pus and several other stateuniversities and private collegesin Wisconsin.

Mary Duckwitz at the Pre-law Fair

THE GARGOYLE XIII

PRESSUREON ENROLLMENT

CONTINUES

Despite the advantages givenresidents of Wisconsin in terms ofnumbers admitted, the LawSchool still turns away hundredsof qualified Wisconsin residentseach year.

Law School faculties and ad-ministrators keep testing thewinds of change to get some no-tion of what is ahead. There are afew indicators this year whichmay have implications for thefuture. One is the increase in un-dergraduate enrollments-adevelopment which has filled thedormitories in Madison andelsewhere, and has caused somecolleges and universities to an-nounce enrollment limits.

The median undergraduategrade point average of the class of1979 is 3.51; the median LSATscore is 628, down a little from ayear ago.

There are 98 women in the en-tering class, compared to 83 whoregistered in 1975, and 96 in 1974.It is a trend which accounts forsome of the pressure on enroll-ments, and there is no reason tobelieve it won't continue.

Nineteen participants in theLegal Education OpportunitiesProgram are members of the newclass, making the total LEOenrollment in the Law School 49.

Students entering in 1976represent 95 undergraduate col-leges from all areas of the UnitedStates. The University of Wiscon-sin-Madison contributed 110,while other campuses in theUniversity system produced 65 ofthe new law students, 24 of themfrom University of Wisconsin-Mil-waukee.

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Professor Walter Raushenbush,long time chairman of the Admis-sion Committee, will be on leave atthe law school of Arizona StateUniversity during the springsemester, 1976-77. ProfessorArlen Christenson will replacehim as chairman.

Another indicator adds uncer-tainty to the future. There hasbeen a small decrease in the num-ber of people taking the LawSchool Admission Test and in thenumber of candidates registeredwith the Law School Data Assem-bly Service, a service of the Educa-tional Testing Service which pre-pares transcript summaries forlaw school admissions committeesand officers. This decline will notimmediately have any effect,since every law school has manymore applications than it can han-dle. As a possible indication of atrend, however, it deserves closeobservation over the next fewyears.

Speculation as to the future ofthe profession also clouds theenrollment picture. Although it isnot possible to judge the presentjob market with any hard data,nor that of 1980 and beyond, someapplicants may fear what hasbeen called a "glut" of lawyers.This may appear to be true insome areas. At the University ofWisconsin Law School (and proba-bly at many others) the employ-ment picture for 1977 is somewhatbrighter than in 1976-whichturned out to be a pretty goodyear, after all. [See page 15.]

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The Class of 1979 was chosenfrom 1,991 applications, thelargest number for several years.Of these, 845 are residents ofWisconsin, and 1,146 are non-resi-dents. In the class as it arrived toenroll, 237 members are classifiedas residents, and 51 as non-resi-dents.

Applicants are notified whentheir files are complete and con-sideration can begin. Early in themonth of April all applicantsoffered admission are asked torespond promptly to a letter ask-ing their intentions. Afterresponses to the second mailingare received, the files in the"Hold" category are reviewedagain. All of those placed in"Hold" are considered to be poten-tially successful law students.Some are accepted, and in latespring some others among themare placed on a ranked waitinglist, from which applicants areselected right up until Registra-tion Day.

To come that close to its target,the Admissions Committee spendsmany hours in the slow, carefulselection from almost 2,000 ap-plications.

Two hundred eighty-eight fulltime law students enrolled in thefirst year class in September,1976. The total was three wide ofthe mark (285) set by the Faculty.

XIV THE GARGOYLE

REPORT FROM THE PLACEMENT OFFICE

THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE

Like the nursery rhyme motherwith more children than she couldhandle, some law school place-ment offices facing a tight jobmarket and an increasing numberof graduating students are wont tothrow up their hands in despair.Thanks to the diligence andachievement of the students atthe University of Wisconsin LawSchool, the favorable reputation ofthe school itself, and the positiverelationship of employers with theschool, we have not experiencedthe same problems many otherschools have, and certainly havenot begun to despair.

The class of 1976 consisted of 66graduates in December of 1975,211 in May of 1976 and 15 inAugust, for a total of 292. Data onthe August grads is still too in-complete for meaningful com-ment.

Of the 66 December graduates,12 failed to supply information tothe placement office. It is ourassumption that most of thesegraduates are satisfied with theiremployment status. Only two ofthe 66 indicated that they werenot placed and were actively seek-ing employment. One of thesesituations resulted from a spousecompleting his education andrelocating. Of the fifty-fourDecember graduates who suppliedinformation, 38 (73%) remained inWisconsin including 12 inMadison, 12 in Milwaukee and 14in other Wisconsin communities.Seventeen of these 38 are in pri-vate practice. Three persons wentto Chicago and three to Washing-

THE GARGOYLE

ton, D.C., while seven went toother states and one to Japan. Se-venteen of the 52 personsemployed (32%) are associatedwith private law firms, 10 withgovernmental agencies (19%), 6 inprosecuting offices, 5 in corporateor business situations, 4 with legalaid or defender offices. Two arecontinuing their educations, onehas accepted a judicial clerkship,one is unidentified, and six haveopened their own practices. Threeof these have opened an officetogether.

Of the 211 May graduates, six-teen have not supplied informa-tion. Eight are not employed andactively are seeking work, and oneis not seeking employment at thistime. Ninety-six percent of thosereporting are employed (187 per-sons). One hundred thirty-nine(74%) stayed in Wisconsin, includ-ing 59 (32%) in Madison, 30 (16%)in Milwaukee, and the remaining50 in at least 32 other com-munities. Eighty-two of the 139are in private practice. Forty-seven persons (25%) left Wiscon-sin, going to Illinois (12 persons,6%), Washington, D.C. (7 persons,4%), and 18 other states and oneforeign country. Of the 187employed persons, 88 (47%) areassociated with private law firms,26 (14%) with governmental agen-cies. Fifteen (8%) accepted judicialclerkships, 12 each (6%) havelegal aid and corporatelbusinesspositions. Ten (5%) opened theirown offices, 9 (5%) joinedprosecuting offices, 2 concentr-ated on bar exams, and 7 wentinto other types of situations.

This statistical compendium isnecessarily cursory. Looking atthe individual employment datacards, one is impressed by the richvariety of situations and locations.Several of the members of thisclass have already run for politicaloffices. Many of the nations mostprestigious firms have employedmembers of the class of 1976. Thefuture is certainly bright for thesenew lawyers.

The future also seems bright forthe class of 1977, currently seek-ing employment. The number ofon-campus interviews during thepeak, fall season is up more than25% over the fall of 1975, and in-terviewers report an increasedneed for lawyers in their firms.

Ed Reisner, Placement Director

xv

DISTINGUISHED AlUMNI-FACUl TV AWARD

Bill, please come up. Accept thiscertificate, Bill, as a token of ouresteem. The WLAA honors you.Your life work and your presencehere does the Law School andWLAA honor.

Bill is a constant reminder tome-and I hope to each of you inthis room-that advancing ageand prominent position give us theopportunity and obligation toreview each accepted truth andtradition and ask Why?, and giveus the opportunity and obligationto review each cry for change andask Why not?

Bill joined our Law Schoolfaculty in 1922. He was attractedto Wisconsin by then SenatorRobert M. La Follette, although inlater years Bill was to become anoutspoken critic of La Follette'sisolationist policies.

Since 1922 Bill Rice has been ofservice to the law school, the com-munity, this state and the nation.

I met Bill first in 1957. He was afaculty member when I was a stu-dent. Then Bill and I were col-leagues on the faculty and workedtogether in the Civil LibertiesUnion at the state and local levels.On retirement from the LawSchool Bill hung out a law shinglein Madison and became a fellowpractitioner at the young age of70. Few of us after many years ofpractice are fortunate enough tohave to our credit a landmarkcase. Bill had such a case involv-ing the rights of unwed fathers.

A part of each annual AlumniVisitation of the Law School is theFaculty-Alumni dinner, purely asocial occasion.

This year, there was a program.An important former faculty mem-ber returned to the Law School to

And here is what she said:

When the Law School called andasked if I would come to this din-ner at which the WLAA dis-tinguished faculty/alumni awardwould be presented I wasdelighted. 1 then discovered I wasnot getting the award, but Idecided to come anyway.

It is truly my honor tonight tomake the presentation of theWisconsin Law Alumni Dis-tinguished Faculty/Alumni Awardto William Gorham Rice, EmeritusProfessor of Law. It's only fair totell you that a significant numberof hours of my life in Madisonhave been spent attending din-ners and testimonials honoringBill Rice and his wife Hazel BriggsRice, noted author. The WLAA isjoining a multitude of organiza-tions and individuals that havealready honored Bill for one facetor other of his distinguishedcareer. Therefore it is very ap-propriate that the Association hasdecided to recognize the totality ofBill's achievements.

Two years ago, October 12 wasproclaimed Bill of Rice Day. Onthat day Bill was toasted by theCapital Area Chapter of theWisconsin Civil Liberties Unionfor his continuing fight for thecause of civil rights and civil Iiber-ties on the national, state andlocal levels.

present the Distinguished Faculty-Alumni award to Emeritus Profes-sor William Gorham Rice, still ac-tive and busy 15 years after hisretirement.

The important former facultymember is Justice ShirleyAbrahamson.

On Bill of Rice Day ProfessorJoel Grossman attempted to tracethe accomplishments of Bill andsaid the following:

"It is a tradition in events likethis not only to recount the lifeand extoll the virtues of the guestof honor, but to demonstrate howhe has personified the HoratioAlger myth; how he has risenfrom poverty and obscurity,through the strength of hischaracter and fortitude, to wealthand fame. . . . I looked for someevidence that Bill Rice was born ina log cabin or raised in anorphanage the likes of OliverTwist. But my search was in vain.All I could find was that his grand-father was a congressman whovoted against the impeachment ofAndrew Johnson; his father wasan important public official inNew York; his grandfather-in-lawwas the President of Harvard Col-lege; and he himself attendedHarvard College and Harvard LawSchool and clerked with JusticeLouis Brandeis. And to top it offhe was initially educated in theWhite House with the children ofthat distinguished civil liber-tarian, Grover Cleveland. Thiswas an inauspicious beginning.We might say of Bill Rice not thathe has risen from rags to richesbut that he has risen out of the es-tablishment into a place in histo-ry."

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XVI THE GARGOYLE

William Gorham Rice

Professor Rice s response in ac-cepting the award was graciousand brief

Madam Justice ShirleyAbrahamson, members of theBoard of Visitors and friends ofthe University of Wisconsin LawSchool:

This evening I shall longremember-if for those of my ageprospective memories can becalled long. The person chosen topresent the award as well as theaward itself make it a memorableoccasion. For this school a centuryago first granted a law degree to awoman, Belle Case, and nowGovernor Lucey has distinguishedthe state by conferring for thefirst time on a woman, ShirleyAbrahamson, the right to don therobes of its highest tribunal. I amproud to accept your award fromher hands.

But how can I respond to yourbounty when I know and youknow that many in this room havedone more to deserve such recog-nition? At least I can wish you inthe years ahead many oppor-tunities to add to your dis-tinguished service to the school.

For me our school has been ahappy place in which to havespent most of my efforts as a law-yer. You in large part have madeit and continue to make it so. Forteaching should be an interchangeof ideas. The man on the platformis not a soloist though he has to beto some degree a conductor at alltimes ready to make his voiceclearly heard. But (changing from

THE GARGOYLE

the figurative to the concrete) soshould the student speak outclearly. He is addressing the wholeclass, not just the instructor or thespeaker's next seatmate.

But we are not at this dinner toconfer about how to teach. Proba-bly most of you would prefer to behearing from Jimmy Carter andGerald Ford what they so eagerlywish to tell us about the laws theywould like to have us embrace asvoters next month.

This situation reminds me of averse my grandmother taught mewhen I was learning in school todeclaim some famous orations ofpast generations. My apologies tothose of you who may have heardme recite it two years ago whenthe C.A.W.C.L.U. with friendlyhumor turned Bill of Rights Dayinto Bill of Rice Day for that year.I think the verse fits better thisevening when Demosthenes Fordand Cicero Carter are in thespotlight. **

So let the anonymous" authorspeak for me:

You'd scarce expect one ofmy ageTo speak in public on thestage.So if perchance I fall belowDemosthenes (Ford) orCicero (Carter),Don't view me with a critic'seyeBut pass my imperfectionsby.

But do not pass my thanks by, mythanks for your bounty in addingmy name to your roll of awards fordistinguished service.

RICE'S ADDENDA

* Hazel has now found in Bartlett,p. 401, that this verse was com-posed in 1791 by David Everettfor Ephraim H. Farrar, aged 7.W.G.R.

**The references to Ford andCarter stem from the fact thatthe WLAA dinner happened tocoincide with the third of thetelevised debates between thetwo presidential candidates.(Ed.)

XVII

HOMECOMING ---The Badgers won;

XVIII THE GARGOYLE

---1976so did the lawyers.

THE GARGOYLEXIX