Vol. 75, No. 7, July 2002

Raising the Bar

by George C. Brown,
State Bar executive director

WHEN HOWARD EISENBERG, DEAN OF THE MARQUETTE University Law School, died on June 4 at age 55, he left a long list of accomplishments and an equally long list of unfinished business.

Howard's deep religious convictions and his strongly held belief in the law led him to a lifetime of service. Many of those activities are documented elsewhere in this month's issue. Howard also was an active volunteer member of the State Bar. I'd like to take a few moments to reflect on this relationship.

On Monday, May 20, Howard attended the swearing-in ceremony of his 2002 law school class in the beautifully restored hearing room of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Law school classes are too large to fit into the hearing room all at once, so each class is broken into three or four groups. Following their swearing-in, the State Bar hosts a reception for the new lawyers and their guests. Howard usually attended these ceremonies and often arrived at the reception with the last group of now former students.

During the State Bar's annual convention the previous Thursday, Howard had led his last meeting as the 2001-2002 chairperson of the State Bar's Appellate Practice Section. Howard had been active in the section for several years and had served as chairperson-elect the previous year. Also, during his year as chairperson-elect, the section publicly recognized Howard for his appellate pro bono work in Wisconsin.

Last year Howard, along with University of Wisconsin Law School Dean Ken Davis, accepted an appointment to serve on the State Bar's Multidisciplinary Practice (MDP) Commission. He also served as a resource to the State Bar's multijurisdictional practice (MJP) working group, providing research and written commentary as part of the State Bar's efforts to overturn a draft requirement that would have required attorneys to pass a bar examination in order to qualify for some of the safe harbor provisions in the MJP recommendations that will be before the American Bar Association House of Delegates this August.

Though no longer chair of the Appellate Practice Section, and though the work of the MDP Commission was winding down, Howard had planned to continue his active role in the State Bar, for he had just accepted a three-year appointment to serve on the Bar's Continuing Legal Education Committee.

Howard Eisenberg was there when you needed him. He believed in service to the public; that is how he lived his life. Along with so many others, we will miss him.

Wisconsin Lawyer