Fall 2003

Laughter & Litigation

A Profile of HAN Member Marcus Cole

By Scott Bullock

Professor Marcus Cole attended IJ’s very first law student conference in 1992. Since that time, he has been an incredibly active member of the Human Action Network.

Upon graduation from law school, Marcus became an attorney with the Chicago law firm, Mayer Brown & Platt. Despite being a busy associate at a very large firm, Marcus let us know that he wanted to remain as active as possible in litigating in defense of individual liberty. An opportunity soon arose for Marcus to become local counsel in IJ’s successful constitutional challenge to a Chicago suburb’s blatantly unconstitutional administrative inspection policy for single-family homes. Since I was the lead IJ attorney on that case, I worked closely with Marcus and got to know him as a funny, passionate advocate, with a booming laugh and keen knowledge of legal doctrine and strategy. Marcus and I both hail from Pittsburgh, and we delighted in mock-shouting at each other in our best Pittsburgh accents about the “Stillers,” Iron City Beer, and “nebby” neighbors. To this day, each of us can throw the other into fits of laughter within seconds.

After a few years of practicing law in Chicago, Marcus was able to make the jump into the academy by landing a prestigious teaching job at Stanford Law School. From there, Marcus remains a principled defender of the foundations of a free society and delves into areas, such as bankruptcy law, that have been largely neglected by libertarian-leaning scholars in the past.

Since he made the jump to the academy, Marcus has returned to where he first began his affiliation with IJ—our summer law student conference. But now Marcus is at the front of the class, providing insights into public interest litigation drawn from law and economics scholarship.

From the toughest streets of Pittsburgh to the august halls of Stanford Law School, Marcus Cole knows where he is going in life but does not forget his roots. His life is a tremendous testament to his character and hard work. And although Marcus has done just about everything one can do as a member of HAN, he continues to do more. IJ and the larger cause of individual liberty are richer for it.

Scott Bullock is a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice in Washington, D.C.