Kevin Conway

This is an edited text of a talk Judge Sykes gave on a number of occasions, starting in November 2012. When I came to the Seventh Circuit in 2004, I had been a state court judge for 12 years—seven years on the trial-court bench in Milwaukee and five years on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. So…

This an edited text of remarks by Judge Sykes to the Indianapolis Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society on December 12, 2012. One of the important and recurring themes in our perennial debate about constitutional adjudication is the role of judicial restraint. But the issue only rarely breaks through into the public consciousness. The role…

This is an edited text of remarks by Chief Judge Sykes at the orientation for first-year Marquette law students on August 22, 2025. I am a proud Marquette lawyer—Class of 1984—and I’m delighted to join you today as you begin your legal education at this wonderful law school. Forty-four years ago, I sat where you…

My first-year torts class reaches something of a climax when we read Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co., the landmark 1928 New York Court of Appeals decision. Palsgraf is one of those old chestnuts that are simply irresistible to law professors. It combines engrossing facts, beautiful writing, and philosophical richness. I would probably assign it…

Every fall semester, my first-year class in Legal Analysis, Writing & Research 1 is filled with eager students, excited to learn the law. Law students and lawyers know that legal writing is a skills class. I don’t teach doctrine for its own sake, as does, say, a torts professor who teaches about negligence, its elements,…

A little more than a decade ago, I switched from teaching Criminal Law with a traditional casebook, featuring opinions from across the United States, to doing so using almost entirely Wisconsin materials. One of the benefits of the change is that it allows students to start to familiarize themselves with the criminal code many of…

In Contracts, a required first-year course each fall, we use one opinion by Judge Diane Sykes. And this past year, a second of the judge’s opinions shaped my final exam. The case we study together is Karma International, LLC v. Indianapolis Motor Speedway, LLC, a 2019 Seventh Circuit decision. The opening line draws us in:…

I switch over late in the semester in first-year Property from traditional common-law doctrine to modern zoning law. The students for the most part welcome the switch, but some find the abundant map amendments, conditional permits, special uses, and assorted variances as problematic additions to existing zoning ordinances. Fortunately for instructor and students alike, Justice…

We have used opinions by Judge Diane Sykes in two of my classes. In both instances, I looked for an opinion that presented a complicated doctrinal issue in clear terms that students could understand and debate. In Copyrights, for many years, I supplemented the casebook with Kelley v. Chicago Park District, a Seventh Circuit decision…

Some cases break ground or set precedent, while others are less well-known but useful for their representativeness of a doctrine or concept. In Advanced Civil Procedure, an upper-level elective offered each spring, we have occasion to read all or parts of five opinions by the Hon. Diane Sykes. One we consider for its role in…