Featured Faculty: Mark McKenna
Associate Professor of Law
“There’s a lot about the economy that’s up in the air,” says Professor Mark McKenna, “but intellectual property as a legal practice area has been growing and doesn’t appear to be on the verge of stopping anytime soon.”
McKenna, an expert on intellectual property (IP), particularly copyright and trademark law, joined the Law School faculty this fall. Prior to that, he taught at Saint Louis University School of Law and practiced at Pattishall, McAuliffe, Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson, a small Chicago firm specializing in IP cases.
“Trademark law is all basically about consumer behavior and how people make decisions in the marketplace,” says McKenna, who studied economics as an undergraduate at Notre Dame. “It’s fascinating to try to unpack the assumptions that the law makes about how people do that … especially as the economy becomes more intangible, and the goods and services we consume are less frequently things you can pick up and hold.”
McKenna’s scholarly research focuses on “the questions of what are, and what should be, the boundaries of trademark protection.” He stresses the importance of understanding those issues in the classroom and in preparing students for their legal careers.
“When you look at where the jobs are going to be and what the assets are that companies want to protect, intellectual property is where much of the action is,” McKenna says. Even if graduates think they only want to do general commercial litigation, “they’re going to run across intellectual property issues, and they’ve got to know enough about them to at least identify what they are.”
McKenna says that forward-looking students, faculty and administrators were part of what drew him to Notre Dame. One of his goals is to “help solidify the Law School’s place among the very best in the country. If you’re really interested in legal education and doing good scholarship, that’s an exciting thing to be part of.”
The Law School also appeals to McKenna as a place where faculty can remind students of “the human aspect of the law” and encourage them to build full, meaningful lives beyond the professional sphere. “As teachers, I hope we can help them see that what they’re doing as lawyers is only a small part of their life, and of whatever else they’re doing to make the world a better place.”
To learn more about Mark McKenna, view his faculty profile page.
