Debra Chopp is the associate dean for experiential education, clinical professor of law, and director of the Pediatric Advocacy Clinic at Michigan Law. Her research, teaching, and legal practice focus primarily on education law, family law/domestic violence, and cross-cultural communication.

Chopp has presented on these and other topics at local, state, and national conferences. She also provides regular trainings to medical providers on patient advocacy, special education, and social determinants of health.

As the director of the Pediatric Advocacy Clinic, Chopp works with medical providers and law students to provide free legal services that address the social determinants of health of families and improve child health. She is the Law School faculty representative to the Child Health Evaluation and Research Center at the University of Michigan.

Immediately before joining the Pediatric Advocacy Clinic, Chopp was a staff attorney with the Pediatric Advocacy Initiative at the Law School. She has represented survivors of domestic violence as an attorney for Sanctuary for Families: Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services in New York. 

Related Information

Education
  • University of Michigan, BA, with high honors, political science
  • University of Pennsylvania Law School, JD

    • Recent Courses

    Featured Scholarship

    "Preventing Child Maltreatment Through Medical-Legal Partnership"

    Preventing Child Abuse: Critical Roles and Multiple Perspectives
    MLaw Repository
    • Children and the Law

    "Strengthening Medical-Legal Partnerships: The Advocacy Letter Project"

    Academic Pediatrics
    WWW
    • Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility

    "Ineffective Homeschooling in a Child with a Learning Disability"

    Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics
    WWW
    • Children and the Law

    "Addressing Cultural Bias in the Legal Profession"

    N.Y. U Review of Law & Social Change
    MLaw Repository HEIN
    • Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility
    See All Scholarship
    Activities
    July 2020

    Convened and co-led virtual conference for professors in law school clinic Medical-Legal Partnerships throughout the country.
     

    March 2019

    Guest speaker, “Rights of Children with Disabilities when Facing School Discipline,” University of Michigan School of Education.

    October 2018

    Presented “Integrating Legal Advocacy into the Healthcare Setting,” Michigan Medicine Department of Pediatrics.

    June 2018

    Presented “Experiential Health Law Opportunities through the Medical-Legal Partnership Model,” Health Law Professors Conference, American Society of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, Cleveland, Ohio.

    May 2018

    Facilitated the Medical-Legal Partnership Working Group, Association of American Law Schools Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Chicago.

    February 2018

    Testified before the Michigan Senate Judiciary Committee on Amending the Michigan Do-Not-Resuscitate Procedure Act, Lansing.

    May 2017

    Presented “Addressing Social Determinants of Health: Family Stability,” St. John Providence Children’s Hospital, Detroit.

    March 2017

    Presented “Taking Type 1 Diabetes to Schools,” JDRF T1D Summit, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

    February 2017

    Presented “The Importance of Medical-Legal Partnerships: Helping Children with Life-Limiting Illness with DNR Orders in Schools,” Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Care, Phoenix.