Judge Derek Mosley appointed director of Lubar Center at Marquette Law School // News Center // Marquette University
November 1, 2022
MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Justice Mosley will be available to media for interviews from 1-3 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1 at Eckstein Hall, 1215 W. Michigan St. To schedule an interview, contact Kevin Conway, Associate Director of University Communications at kevin.m.conway@marquette.edu.
MILWAUKEE — Derek Mosley, a Milwaukee City Court judge for 20 years, has been named director of the Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education at Marquette University Law School, Marquette President Michael R. Lovell announced today. . Mosley, who was appointed as a Municipal Court judge in 2002 after a seven-year career as an assistant district attorney for Milwaukee County, will take office Jan. 9, 2023.
“The Marquette community is blessed to welcome Derek Mosley back to campus as Director of the Lubar Center. Our students and our community will benefit greatly from Derek’s breadth of knowledge, deep understanding of social dynamics and his extensive nonprofit background,” Lovell said. “The Lubar Center serves as an important hub of public discourse in Milwaukee, and Derek’s deep connections and love for our city will help advance the center’s mission. deep way.”
Alumnus of Marquette Law School in 1995, Mosley will direct the Lubar Center. In this role, he will organize public events and work with colleagues to develop strong programming that will fulfill and expand the law school’s role as a public place for timely and important public policy discussions.
“I am thrilled to return to Marquette to serve the public good in new and valuable ways as director of the Lubar Center,” Mosley said. “It was a great honor for me to have served the people of Milwaukee for more than 27 years, first as a prosecutor and then as a presiding judge. I now look forward to the unique and exciting challenge of helping to advance public understanding and discourse on issues of law and public policy through the city’s preeminent public forum.
The Lubar Center is home to an extensive program of research and public programs such as the Marquette Law School Poll, “Issue” conversations with journalists, public lectures by prominent scholars, and lectures on policy issues. public importance. The work of the Lubar Center advances Marquette Law School’s mission to advance civil discourse on law and public policy issues.
“The Law School has engaged with the general public since its founding, but our outreach and engagement took on new forms and significance in 2007, with the appointment of Mike Gousha as a Distinguished Law and Public Policy Scholar , and in 2017, with the creation of the Lubar Center,” said Joseph D. Kearney, Dean and Professor of Law. “With Mike leaving his full-time role earlier this year, we have been looking for someone with commitment and integrity to continue and grow our work, as Center Director. His experience and connections in Milwaukee help make the Judge Mosley uniquely qualified for this role, and I am grateful for his confidence and enthusiasm for his new role.
“Since its inception, the Lubar Center has sought to be a public resource for this region, a home for important conversations, new ideas, and independent polling and research,” said Mike Gousha, who is now a senior legal and public policy. at law school. “As a respected voice and innovative thinker on issues of law and public policy, Justice Mosley is a terrific choice to build on the Lubar Center’s previous work and expand its reach in the years to come.”
After graduating from Marquette Law School, Mosley served as the Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney from 1995 to 2002. He was later appointed by the Milwaukee City Council to fill the vacancy at City Court Branch 2. of the city effective August 1, 2002. At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest African American to be appointed as a judge in the state of Wisconsin. In August 2004, he was first appointed presiding judge of the Milwaukee City Court.
As an assistant district attorney, Mosley represented the state of Wisconsin in more than 1,000 criminal prosecutions and helped found the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Community Prosecution Unit. This unit places assistant district attorneys in neighborhoods throughout the city of Milwaukee to work with residents to reduce urban blight and improve quality of life. As head of this unit, he helped establish after-school programs, develop a second-chance employment initiative for offenders, shut down 100 drug houses and nuisance properties, and launch a police and civic initiative to crime control, which targeted street drug trafficking. This initiative, called “Operation Streetsweeper”, received the Law Enforcement Honor Award from the United States Department of Justice.
Mosley serves on the board of several organizations, including Froedtert Hospital, Urban Ecology Center, YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee, Safe and Sound, Divine Savior Holy Angels High School, United Way Diversity Leadership Committee, and TransCenter for Youth, a longtime operator of small high schools in Milwaukee. He has served as a lecturer at both Marquette Law School and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and serves on the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s Judicial Education Committee.
Mosley’s community involvement extends beyond the legal and philanthropic aspects, as he has become a visible presence throughout Milwaukee. In his spare time, he regularly speaks nationally and internationally about unconscious bias and black history. Mosley is also a popular wedding officiant, having officiated over 1,000 weddings, and a local Milwaukee foodie. He was a 2022 James Beard Judge for the James Beard Foundation and recently started a regular feature on WUWM. lake effect“Monthly with Mosley”, where he discusses Milwaukee food and history.
About Kevin Conway
Kevin is the Associate Director of Academic Communications in the Office of Academic Relations. Contact Kevin at (414) 288-4745 or kevin.m.conway@marquette.edu.
