2010 News Archive
December
DECEMBER 13–DECEMBER 31
A Justice Department civil suit against petroleum giant BP is only "the opening salvo in the government's response to the gulf oil spill," Prof. David Uhlmann tells The New York Times. A criminal case, he added, would "bring the most significant penalties and provide the most meaningful accountability for this tragedy."
In Other News
Prof. Len Niehoff talks to the Detroit Free Press about the thoroughness of the corruption investigation, overseen by 1991 MLaw grad and U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
The Free Press talks to Prof. David Uhlmann, a former federal prosecutor, about how the RICO laws apply to Kilpatrick
USA Today again cites John Pottow’s study on elder bankruptcies.
Frank Vandervort is quoted in the Detroit Legal News in a story on the Detroit organization Motherly Intercession.
Prof. David Uhlmann quoted in the Los Angeles Times about the Justice Department civil suit against BP.
The New York Times quotes Uhlmann on the Justice Department's civil suit against BP.
Reuters relies on Uhlmann's envrionmental crime expertise for a report on the BP suit.
DECEMBER 6–DECEMBER 12
Two Michigan Law 3Ls selected by Skadden Fellowship Foundation for coveted Fellowships; one will help schoolchildren in St. Louis and one will serve migrant women in London.
Michigan Law professor and 1993 LL.M. grad Prof. Susanne Baer is elected to the Federal Constitutional Court, Germany's highest.
In Other News
The Washington Post is among more than 200 papers to publish AP's national investigative piece, citing Prof. Bridgette Carr, on human traffickers' abuse of student visas.
AP adds a video element featuring one of Prof. Carr's clients as part of its human trafficking report.
Prof. Dan Crane discusses the antitrust implications of a possible Barnes & Noble/Borders merger with The Detroit News.
Who turns down a check for $5 billion? According to the Chicago Tribune, 1993 MLaw graduate and Groupon entrepreneur Eric Lefkofsky does.
Prof. David Moran discusses the 6th Amendment on public radio.
The State Bar of Michigan's blog reports that Wolverine football coach Rich Rodriguez recently regretted the timing wasn't right for him to hire one of his current players, future MLaw 1L Zac Ciullo, as his attorney.
The State Bar also notes the Law School's recent agreement with Jindal Global Law School.
November
NOVEMBER 29–DECEMBER 5
CNN's Anderson Cooper highlights slavery in America, focusing on a New Jersey hair braiding case involving clients of Prof. Bridgette Carr's first-of-its-kind Human Trafficking Clinic at Michigan Law. The case resulted in a 27-year prison term for the lead trafficker, and shorter terms for her two accomplices.
Key Obama economic advisor and Michigan Law Prof. Michael Barr heads back to Ann Arbor in time for the winter term, The New York Times reports.
In Other News This Week
Prof. Lawrence Waggoner makes the pitfalls of perpetual trusts clear to Jane Bryant Quinn and CBS Moneywatch.
Prof. Waggoner, who's retiring at the end of this term, is also the subject of a glowing tribute in an Association of American Law Schools, reproduced here with the AALS' permission.
NOVEMBER 22–NOVEMBER 28
"The more things you say, the more chances you have to be wrong and the more chances you have to mislead the lower court." —Edward H. Cooper, Thomas M. Cooley Professor of Law, in a front-page New York Times story on increasingly lengthy Supreme Court opinions.
In Other News This Week
The National Law Journal notes the new collaborative arrangement between Michigan Law and India's Jindal Global Law School, as spearheaded by MLaw Prof. Vikramaditya Khanna.
The Catholic Review on Prof. Bridgette Carr's work in the field of human trafficking.
Videogames. The Supreme Court. Satan. Prof. Len Niehoff sorts it out in a recent New York Times letter to the editor on an important First Amendment case.
NOVEMBER 15–NOVEMBER 21
"What do women trafficked into the commercial sex trade in Michigan and Mexico have in common? Thanks to Bridgette Carr, they both have a shot at getting justice." —Amanda Kloer, writing about Prof. Bridgette Carr's Human Trafficking Clinic on a Change.org blog.
In Other News This Week
Several Michigan editions of The Legal News take interest in Michigan Law's recent agreement with India's Jindal Global Law School.
Prof. John Pottow's study on elder bankruptcies draws the attention of US News & World Report.
Prof. Pottow's study also catches the eyes of a nation of Googlers. TheStreet.com notes that news reports about John’s study caused a measurable bump in the number of internet searches on the word "bankruptcy".
The San Antonio Express-News runs a Houston Chronicle story quoting David Uhlmann on the BP oil spill.
September
"Bottom-line, it is crucial for our students to begin considering legal career paths early in their law school careers, so that they can effectively identify and build necessary skills." -- Assistant Dean for Admissions Sarah Zearfoss, on assuming her new role as Special Counsel for Professional Skills Development.
AnnArbor.com previews an upcoming talk on the local face of human trafficking by Prof. Bridgette Carr
Prof. David Uhlmann tells Politico that BP and Feds are almost certainly not negotiating – at least, not yet
"Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, director of the international tax program at the University of Michigan Law School, called (Singapore and Hong Kong) 'the new alternative' to Swiss bank secrecy after the shackles placed on UBS by the United States last year." --The New York Times, in a story on the quest for secret banking.
"The Justice Department's [civil] cases will be the biggest they've ever brought under the environmental laws ... and I think the criminal case will have the biggest penalty." --Prof. David Uhlmann, former head of the Justice Department's Environmental Crimes Section who now directs the Law School's Environmental Law & Policy Program, in an NPR story on the BP oil spill.
1996 grad Kamal Ahmad talks to Newsweek about founding an educational institution for women in Bangladesh
Detroit Free Press columnist Jeff Gerritt addresses a proposed time limitation that would cripple Michigan Law's Innocence Clinic
An Innocence Clinic case leads to marathon parole board hearing on a possible commutation, Detroit's Metro Times reports
"And how, exactly, would Michigan be better off if an innocent man remained in prison, barred from presenting evidence of his innocence that his prior lawyers never bothered to find?" --Prof. David Moran, co-founder of the Michigan Law Innocence Clinic, in a Detroit Free Press op-ed on a proposal that would limit inmates' ability to present new evidence.
"Governments around the world have vilified plain old human smuggling — that is, assisted border crossing with no exploitation or coercion involved — in a completely dishonest way." —Prof. James C. Hathaway, director of the Program in Refugee and Asylum Law, in Canada's National Post on efforts to toughen Canadian penalties for human smugglers.
Myrtle Beach columnist highlights Prof. Vivek Sankaran in six-part series on Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children
Prof. David Uhlmann talks to WEMU about the BP spill
The National Law Journal notes attempts to strip M Law Innocence Clinic students of attorney privilege
" ... (V)enture capital is a really great long-term driver of economic growth ... the creation of new industries and new technologies for the last 30 years (has) relied very heavily on new venture capital." Chris Rizik in AnnArbor.com story on a $50 million Renaissance Venture Capital fund designed to boost investment in Michigan businesses.
CrimProf blog notes Prof. Eve Brensike Primus’ new paper, in the Columbia Law Review, on “Disentangling Administrative Searches”
The Innocence Clinic is hard at work for a Port Huron man who’s been locked up for 25 years
The Legal News writes about a proposed rule expressly permitting law students to argue before the Court of Appeals
Yale’s The Politic interviews Prof. David Uhlmann on the BP oil spill
The Grand Rapids Press and the Muskegon Chronicle help the Human Trafficking Clinic tell the story of human trafficking
Prof. Bridgette Carr expands on the Human Trafficking Clinic's role in this Michigan Today video feature
"My view is that the tax cut didn't achieve much in terms of encouraging distributions." --Prof. Reuven Avi-Yonah, in a Wall Street Journal story this week suggesting that an increase in corporate taxes might not force a cut in dividends paid out to shareholders.
Prof. Adam Pritchard in The Deal on judges, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the penalties that ultimately are borne by shareholders
Prof. David Uhlmann talks to the Houston Chronicle about criminal charges in the BP debacle
The Chicago Tribune cites Prof. James J. White in a story about the Tribune Company’s ongoing bankruptcy case
Prof. Reuven Avi-Yonah tells The Wall Street Journal that higher taxes for corporations may not mean an inevitable cut in dividends
The New Yorker quotes David Uhlmann in a story on Charles and David Koch
"I think the best thing to do to fix this case is for Congress to pass clarifying legislation, especially given that Congress seems supportive of stem cell research, and the public is supportive of stem cell research." --Nina Mendelson in The New Republic, on a judge's ruling this week making federally funded stem cell research illegal.
Canadian Business reviews Andrew Stumpff's book, Fifty Years of Utopia: A Half-Century after Louis Kelso’s The Capitalist Manifesto, a Look Back at the Weird History of the ESOP
Prof. Vikramaditya Khanna appears on a panel at NYU, part of a program on "Regulation by Prosecutors"
Prof. Dana Thompson is profiled in the Legal News
Assistant Dean for Admissions and Special Counsel for Professional Strategies Sarah Zearfoss, in Legal News on the job market
"Internet search is very important. ... It's important to understand the economic implications of the search, and the legal implications, and to make sure that this remains a competitive market." -- Damien Geradin, William W. Cook Global Law Professor at Michigan, speaking at Northwestern's Searle Center on Law, Regulation, and Economic Growth
Prof. David Moran explains to The Flint Journal about the extradition process for the accused Flint serial stabber
"Prof. Croley's colleagues are delighted that he has the opportunity to showcase his extraordinary talents at a national level," Dean Evan Caminker said in a press release. "But those same colleagues -- not to mention his students -- are also extremely pleased to hear that he'll be returning to Michigan Law to teach, once his leave of absence ends. He's a valuable member of our community, and while he's gone he'll be missed."
Lourdes Sereno, 1993 LLM grad, appointed to Supreme Court in Philippines
Damien Geradin on the economics of Internet searches
Former MLaw associate dean Kent D. Syverud named to oversee $20 billion BP fund
Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett blogs about visit by MLaw students
MLaw adjunct and Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith Levy earns victory in hard-fought case
Prof. David Uhlmann Says Size of BP Spill Means Quicker Investigation
BusinessWeek quotes 1998 grad, adjunct Noah Hall on the subject of fines for BP
"Capture is a recurring problem" whereby government agencies become unduly influenced by the industries they're charged with regulating. "As the financial meltdown and the Gulf oil spill have both vividly demonstrated, addressing capture where it does exist is an urgent priority."
— Prof. Nicholas Bagley, in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts (testimony begins at the video's 35-minute mark).
"That moment of someone figuring things out for themselves, whether it's intellectually or in another way, is an important moment in someone's development as a lawyer, a participant in our democracy, a person."
— Prof. Alicia Alvarez, in the Legal News on teaching in a clinic focused on community development
Profs. David Uhlmann and Noah Hall talk to Bloomberg in a story about subpoenas for BP executives
Prof. Jill Horwitz talks in USA Today about converting non-profit hospitals into for-profit enterprises
Prof. David Uhlmann in Washington Post Story on BP Spill
Prof. Len Niehoff tells the Detroit Free Press Every Witness Has a History
JULY 2010
Prof. David Uhlmann, on Canada's Business News Network
High Marks for Ann Arbor/U-M
The University of Michigan in The Chronicle of Higher Education: "Great Colleges to Work For"
Ann Arbor in Parenting magazine: "The Best Cities for Families"
Transfer Pricing
Prof. Reuven Avi-Yonah and Prof. James R. Hines testified on the same day and the same subject, transfer pricing, before the House Ways and Means Committee recently. Here are the transcripts:
Prof. Avi-Yonah's testimony
Prof. Hines' testimony
Auto Lending
Prof. John Pottow on American Public Media's Marketplace: "Opportunity resurges in Chrysler's loan business"
Gulf Oil Spill
Prof. David Uhlmann in the New York Times: "Liability at Issue in Oil Flow Rate in Gulf"
Goldman Sachs Settlement
Prof. Adam Pritchard in the New York Times: "After Goldman’s Concession, Regulators May Be Satisfied"
Possible Cuts in Retiree Benefits
Prof. John Pottow in the Detroit Free Press: "Visteon may target benefits again"
Human Trafficking in the U.S.
Prof. Bridgette Carr on WDET (audio): The Craig Fahle Show
Nonprofit vs. For-Profit Hospitals
Prof. Jill Horwitz in USA Today: "Mergers of for-profit, non-profit hospitals: Who does it help?"
Gulf Oil Spill
Prof. Adam Pritchard in a Reuters wire service story: "Analysis: BP investors face tough road in court fights"
Prof. David Uhlmann on American Public Media's Marketplace: "The bigger the oil spill, the bigger the fines for BP"
Prof. Uhlmann in a McClatchy.com story: "Despite new toughness, Obama faces hurdles in spill"
Prof. Uhlmann in a Reuters wire service story: "Analysis: New moratorium could spell more legal fights"
Rise in Applications
Assistant Dean Sarah Zearfoss in the National Law Review: "Hope drives rise in law school applications"
Gulf Oil Spill
Prof. David Uhlmann in a Reuters wire service story: "Obama administration fights to keep deepwater drill ban"
Arizona Immigration Law
Prof. Rich Friedman in Voice of America: "Arizona Immigration Law Causes Constitutional Clash"
Prof. Julian Davis Mortenson in The Christian Science Monitor: "Immigration law in Arizona target of federal lawsuit"
Gulf Oil Spill
Prof. David Uhlmann on Bloomberg: "BP Criminal Case in Oil Spill May Be Inevitable, Analysts Say"
U.S. Drone Attacks
Prof. Steven Ratner in the St. Petersburg Times: "Do drone attacks comply with international law?"
Internet Piracy on Campus
Prof. Jack Bernard in an AP wire service story: "New rules bring online piracy fight to US campuses"
Reunification Day
Prof. Vivek Sankaran's op-ed in The Detroit News: "Change the culture of the foster care system"
JUNE 2010
Clergy Sex Abuse Case
Prof. Doug Laycock in an AP wire service story: "Court lets Vatican-sex abuse lawsuit move forward"
U.N. Panel on Human Rights
Prof. Steven Ratner appointed to U.N. panel: "Ban appoints panel to advise on human rights issues during Sri Lankan conflict"
Gulf Oil Spill
Prof. David Uhlmann in the BNA's Daily Environment Report: "Criminal Charges Said Likely in Gulf Spill; Corporate Penalties, Prison Terms Possible"
Prof. David Uhlmann in the Wall Street Journal: "BP Case Will Be One of Largest Ever for DOJ"
Prof. David Uhlmann on the Business News Network (video): "Beyond BP's Cleanup Costs"
Prof. Uhlmann in Reuters: "US administration appeals decision blocking drill ban"
Prof. Uhlmann speaks to Bloomberg's Margaret Brennan (video): "Uhlmann Expects Criminal Charges Against BP on Oil Spill"
Prof. Nina Mendelson in The American Prospect: "Calculating BP's Liability"
Prof. David Uhlmann in The New York Times: "With Criminal Charges, Costs to BP Could Soar"
Prof. Uhlmann on NPR's Morning Edition: "Before Gulf Spill, BP CEO Tony Hayward Won Praise"
Prof. Uhlmann in The Times-Picayune: "When animal rescues fall short, evidence of oil spill's toll on wildlife is collected"
Prof. Noah Hall on Aljazeera.net's Riz Khan (video): "Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill"
Prof. Uhlmann in a Reuters wire service story: "Q+A—How would penalties apply to the Gulf oil spill"
Prof. Uhlmann in Time magazine: "Who Decides if a BP Spill Claim Is Legitimate?"
Prof. Uhlmann on NPR's Morning Edition: "Justice Department Probes Spill; Charges Expected"
Prof. Uhlmann in International Business Times: "Obama's spill urgency grew after blowout preventer failed"
Prof. Uhlmann in The Michigan Daily: "University experts say BP oil spill will leave lasting effect on Gulf ecosystems"
Prof. Uhlmann:
New York Times (Op-Ed): "Prosecuting Crimes Against the Earth"
Nightly Business Report (video): "BP Braces for Criminal Charges"
Bloomberg Business Week: "BP Gulf Spill Prompts Criminal, Civil Investigations by U.S."
Canadian Business Online: "Without evidence of oil spill coverup, experts say US faces hurdles in charging company execs"
Here & Now (audio): "Justice Department Investigation Into Oil Disaster Raises Legal Questions"
AP: "Oil spill criminal case difficult against execs"
The Wall Street Journal: "BP Risks Big Fines and Loss of Major U.S. Contracts"
CNBC (video): "Criminal Charges for BP Execs?"
MSNBC (video): Countdown with Keith Olbermann
CNN (transcript): CNN Newsroom
BNN (video): "BP Versus the Feds"
Aol News: "The Case Against BP: What Makes an Oil Spill a Felony"
Politico: "BP execs probably won't see slammer"
Human Trafficking
Prof. Bridgette Carr speaks on Voice of America's Crossroads Asia about the American market for human trafficking
Dean Caminker weighs in on Kagan
Law School Dean Evan Caminker in The Christian Science Monitor: "Top law school deans endorse Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan"
Death Penalty in Mighigan?
Prof. Bridget McCormack on WJBK Fox 2 Detroit (video): "Should the Death Penalty Return in Michigan?"
Innocence Clinic Appeal
Prof. McCormack on Michigan Radio WUOM: "Man Convicted of 1983 Murder May Get Clemency"
Prof. Bridget McCormack on WWMT-News Channel 3 (video): "Fight for innocence hits roadblock"
Boston Hospital Conversion
Prof. Jill Horwitz in The Boston Globe: "No decisions yet on Caritas deal, AG says"
Weight Discrimination Case
Prof. J.J. Prescott in the Detroit Free Press: "Hooters case sparks debate about weight discrimination"
Chinese Offshore Holding Companies
Prof. Nico Howson in Dow Jones Investment Banker: "China—When You Can Buy But You Can't Own"
Supreme Court ruling on Miranda Rights
Prof. Eve Brensike Primus speaks to the Detroit Free Press: "Supreme Court reins in Miranda rules in case from Southfield"
Prof. Richard Friedman in the Detroit News: "High Court limits Miranda rights; Michigan convict stays in prison"
MAY 2010
M LAW OFFERS WEBSITE, FACULTY EXPERTS ON KAGAN NOMINATION
May 10, 2010
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The Law Library at the University of Michigan Law School has established an informational website gathering video and press clippings, speeches and scholarly works of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan for use by scholars and journalists interested in the nomination.
The site can be accessed at http://www.law.umich.edu/library/info/kagan/Pages/default.aspx
Additionally, two Michigan Law professors are available to provide perspective on the nomination:
• Professor Richard D. Friedman, 734.647.1078, rdfrdman@umich.edu, is an expert on Supreme Court history, and has argued there in the recent past. More information about Friedman is available at http://web.law.umich.edu/_FacultyBioPage/facultybiopagenew.asp?ID=148.
• Professor Richard Primus, 734.647.5543, raprimus@umich.edu, teaches the law, theory, and history of the Constitution and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. More information about Primus is available at http://web.law.umich.edu/_FacultyBioPage/facultybiopagenew.asp?ID=145.
April 27, 2010
Contact John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu
ANN ARBOR, Mich—Ongoing environmental efforts in the information technology department at Michigan Law recently garnered the unit a Gold Level Green IT Achievement award from U-M’s Climate Savers Computing Initiative – an occasion marked, as one might expect, with the planting of a tree on the Diag.
The award recognizes the Law School’s “extremely high level of commitment to environmental stewardship and IT resource conservation” and is based on CSCI’s evaluation of the environmental friendliness of the Law School’s IT policies and practices. Members of the IT department, led by manager Rosa Peters and IT staffers Kurt Kaiser and Daniella Williams, have been working for several years to minimize the environmental impact of Law School computing.
Some measures are simple, like supplying smart power strips that shut off when users aren’t at their desks. Other measures are more complex, like figuring eliminating 34 law school servers and the room that housed them, or figuring out how best to apply software patches without having employees leave their computers turned on overnight.
Other Law School measures recognized by evaluators included training faculty and staff in simple ways to reduce energy use, buying energy-efficient computers and monitors in the first place, and setting them up with energy savings in mind. Proper recycling of batteries and dead electronic gear was also a requirement.
The Law School also tries to avoid issuing individual users their own printers, uses recycled paper for printing, and further minimizes paper waste by setting up two-sided printing when possible.
With the Law School now boasting nearly 600 workstations for students, more than 100 faculty and nearly twice that many staffers, the savings – in sustainability, and in dollars – is significant, Peters said.
“We’ll always continue looking for new ways to save energy and minimize our impact on the environment,” Peters said. “We’ve already worked hard to make a difference, and we’re very excited that our sustainability efforts have been recognized by the university.”
April 15, 2010
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu
ANN ARBOR, Mich.--- Michigan Law’s Program in Asylum and Refugee Law, already a global standard in theory and practice, is set to expand its leadership role with the return to the program this fall of its founder, Prof. James C. Hathaway.
Hathaway comes back to Ann Arbor after a leave during which he served as dean of Australia’s oldest law school, at the University of Melbourne. There he undertook the transformative task of instituting graduate-level legal training in a country where legal education has been conducted at the undergraduate level.
While helping the school make that transition, Hathaway said, he kept the Michigan Law model constantly in mind.
“I took the best of what Michigan does and transposed it to an environment that had never seen a law school remotely run on the Michigan Model,” Hathaway said. “I find it telling that, when a school in Australia decided to leap out of the pack, it chose to emulate Michigan.”
Among the changes instituted at Melbourne during Hathaway’s deanship: a reorganized library drawing on the expertise of Michigan Law Librarian Margaret Leary, expanded career services and alumni affairs offices similar to those at Michigan, and even the establishment of a series of informal faculty lunches, which in Ann Arbor are instrumental in creating Michigan Law’s collegial atmosphere.
“What’s best about Michigan is its collegiality – the way people engage each other routinely across discipline areas,” Hathaway said. “One of the things I wanted to take to Melbourne was that spirit. The school was already the most research-intensive law school in Australia, with a dozen organized research units. I wanted to create a means for colleagues in a very large faculty regularly to hear about and contribute to each other's research."
More immediately exciting to Michigan students, of course, is the return of an internationally recognized authority on refugee and asylum law to Ann Arbor. During Hathaway’s absence the Program in Refugee and Asylum Law was ably directed by Prof. Penelope Mathew, herself a prominent expert in refugee and asylum law who came to Michigan from the Australian National University College of Law.
“Jim’s return to Michigan Law marks an important moment as we continue our commitment to a dynamic and influential refugee law program,” said Michigan Law Dean Evan Caminker. “We’re eager to welcome Jim back to Ann Arbor, in part because the continuing success of our Program in Refugee and Asylum Law is such an integral part of our strong international law offerings, and in part because we look forward to his continuing creativity in the program he founded.”
April 13, 2010
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---The Henry M. Campbell Moot Court Competition, a Michigan Law tradition that stretches back more than 80 years, earned top team and best brief honors last week for 3Ls Jake Walker and Jane Metcalf, and a best oralist award for 2L Cheryl Palmeri.
Palmeri and classmate Rory Wellever were runners-up for the best team award.
The case being mooted involved two questions: first, whether the warrantless use of cell-site technology to locate and track a person violates that person’s rights under the Fourth Amendment, and second, whether the government should be allowed to use a Mirandized suspect’s response to a police consent-to-search request as part of its case-in-chief.
More than 150 students competed this year, assisted by many members of the faculty. Professors Joan Larsen, Eve Brensike Primus and Sam Gross were singled out by the student board that administers the competition for their help in designing the problem and assisting the board and competitors.
This year’s judging panel for the final round included Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Judge Neil M. Gorsuch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and Judge David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
The Henry M. Campbell Moot Court Competition was established in 1926 and honors the 1878 Michigan law graduate who founded the Detroit law firm that became Dickinson Wright. Competition lasts much of the year, and is open to all second- and third-year students, as well as to LL.M., visiting, and dual-degree students.
March 24, 2010
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu
DETROIT---Michigan Law’s Innocence Clinic won a hard-fought victory today after the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, citing lack of evidence, dropped murder charges against a man who has been wrongly imprisoned since 2001.
Dwayne Provience, 36, has been on an electronic tether since he was freed from prison in November. The prosecutor’s decision comes on the 10th anniversary of the shooting death of the man Provience was accused of killing.
“If it wasn’t for the Michigan Innocence Clinic … students doing the legwork to find information, I’d still be in prison today,” Provience said. “They started with one lead, and they took it from there, just kept finding more and more details.”
Students in the Innocence Clinic argued Provience should be freed in part because a key witness recanted and in part because the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, in a separate homicide case, actually argued that someone else committed the killing Provience was locked up for. Other holes in the government’s case and missing investigatory files also helped convince the judge to free Provience on an electronic tether in November.
But until today the Prosecutor’s Office declined to drop the charges. It was the Innocence Clinic’s third major exoneration since it was founded in the winter of 2009.
“What we had amassed over the year that we worked on this case was overwhelming evidence” that police had prosecuted the wrong man, said clinic cofounder Professor David Moran. “We hope that, having found that overwhelming evidence of who the real killers are, the prosecution will consider bringing to justice the killer who is still out there walking the streets.”
In addition to the satisfaction of freeing a man Moran called “a wonderful person, the nicest man you’d ever want to meet,” both he and clinic cofounder Professor Bridget McCormack pointed out the intense learning experience their students went through.
“I think this case was a tremendous educational experience for all six students who worked on it,” Moran said. “They learned about knocking on doors, never taking no for an answer, digging for documents even after they were told those documents didn’t exist. And they learned about how a prosecution goes wrong. They learned about the flaws in the criminal justice system, and how we all need to be really vigilant.”
Third-year Michigan Law student Judd Grutman, one of the first two student attorneys who worked on the case, agreed.
“I feel great, but I’m mostly happy for Dwayne,” Grutman said. “He’s a great guy and he’s going to do great things. Obviously, we changed his life – but more than that, he’s changed us, too.”
March 17, 2010
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Michigan Law alumna and senior White House advisor Valerie B. Jarrett will deliver this spring’s commencement address at the University of Michigan Law School.
“I am very excited to return to the Michigan Law campus and congratulate this year’s graduating class,” said Jarrett. “Some of the best times of my life were spent in Ann Arbor, and this is an incredible honor, not just as an alumna, but as somebody who’s very familiar with how much we need these smart, talented and committed scholars to help us confront the many challenges facing our country.”
The ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. May 8 at Hill Auditorium.
Jarrett is the Senior Advisor to the President and head of four departments in the White House: Intergovernmental Affairs; Public Engagement; Olympic, Paralympic, and Youth Sports; and Urban Affairs. She chairs the White House Council on Women and Girls and leads the White House’s business outreach efforts.
Prior to joining the administration, Jarrett was the President and CEO of the Habitat Company. She was a leader in the civic and business communities of Chicago and served on several corporate and not for profit boards, including serving as Chairman of the University of Chicago Medical Center Board of Trustees, Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Stock Exchange, Chairman of the Chicago Transit Board, and Director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Jarrett served as Finance Chair for President Obama's 2004 run for the U.S. Senate. She also served as a Senior Advisor to President Obama’s presidential campaign and Co-Chair of President Obama and Vice President Biden’s Transition Committee.
Additionally, Jarrett served for eight years in several positions in Chicago City government including Deputy Chief of Staff for Mayor Richard M. Daley and Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development. Prior to that, she practiced law at two different Chicago firms.
Jarrett, who earned a B.A. at Stanford before graduating with a Michigan J.D. in 1981, is slated to visit Ann Arbor just one week after President Obama – the fourth sitting president to visit U-M – delivers the commencement address for the University as a whole.
“Selection of Jarrett as the Law School commencement speaker continues the school’s tradition of inviting accomplished, high-profile Law School graduates to Ann Arbor to help usher new graduates into the professional world,” Dean Evan Caminker said.
“We’re absolutely delighted to invite Valerie Jarrett back to Michigan Law to address our graduating students,” Caminker said. “In so many ways she personifies the many avenues open to our graduates as they enter the legal world, the business world, the political world – or, in Ms. Jarrett’s case, a progression including all three. We know our graduates will benefit from her remarkable breadth of experience, and we look forward to hearing what she has to say.”
More information about Senior Day is available at http://www.law.umich.edu/SENIORDAY/Pages/MaySeniorDay.aspx.
Jan. 26, 2010
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Finding solutions for the seemingly intractable problems of Michigan’s largest city—and by extension, other distressed urban areas around the country—will be the focus of a gathering at the University of Michigan Law School Feb. 5 and 6.
The symposium, presented by the Michigan Journal of Race & Law, will feature an opening keynote by Columbia Law Professor Jack Greenberg, former director and counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Dr. Arthur Johnson, the former director of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP and a former deputy director of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, will appear as a panelist, and Hardy Vieux, an early editor-in-chief of MJR&L, will also make an appearance. The closing keynote will come from noted trial attorney and legal journalist Raymond M. Brown. In between those speakers, the program – “Reinventing the Wheel: Why Broken Cities Stay Broken and New Ways Civil Rights Attorneys Can Fix Them” – will seek to provide concrete suggestions that can help Detroit turn around decades of decline.
Three breakout discussions will include a look at problems overcome by 20th Century civil rights lawyers, how new issues mean old methods no longer work, and how the first two topics can help today’s civil rights lawyers analyze and correct systemic problems in Detroit and elsewhere in the country. The discussions will be moderated by Professor Steven P. Croley; Sara Gosman, a Michigan Law lecturer; and Saul Green, Detroit’s deputy mayor and a Michigan Law graduate who also teaches at the school.
The goal, organizers said, is to analyze problems plaguing urban areas in general, then hone potential solutions so that they’re directly applicable to the issues facing Detroit – with the possibility that those solutions might also apply elsewhere.
“We want to draw attention to these endemic problems that we’re all aware of, yet seem incapable of fixing,” said Ashley Washington, one of the symposium’s organizers. “This is an effort to stimulate a productive dialogue and encourage greater action to enable these broken cities to one day rise again."
More information is available on the Michigan Journal of Race & Law website at http://students.law.umich.edu/mjrl/.
Jan. 13, 2010
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Doug Laycock’s time at Michigan Law made it clear that it doesn’t necessarily take a large span of years to become a leading light.
So it was with slightly bittersweet hearts that students, faculty and staff offered congratulations this week to Professor Laycock, whose wife, U-M Provost Teresa Sullivan, this week was named president of the University of Virginia. Laycock, one of the country’s preeminent scholars on religious freedom and on the law of remedies, is accepting a faculty position at the University of Virginia School of Law.
Both will remain in Ann Arbor until their appointments take effect Aug. 1.
“There’s no doubt that Doug will be keenly missed here at Michigan Law,” Dean Evan Caminker said. “But our loss is tempered by the continuing positive impact Doug and Teresa will be able to make in their new positions.”
Laycock came to Michigan after a 25-year career at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, where he remains a professor emeritus. While at Texas he established himself in the top rank of legal scholars in his chosen areas of expertise. He also served as the school’s associate dean for research.
“Doug is a highly respected scholar, and an important institutional player wherever he goes,” said Professor Richard Primus, one of Laycock’s colleagues. “He takes the business of being a law professor very seriously.”
Apparently so, if scholarly output is any indication. During four years at Michigan, Laycock completed several major pieces of scholarship, including an important piece on the Establishment Clause, an edited volume on same-sex marriage and religious liberty, and a new edition of his existing remedies casebook.
“Maybe I’ll come to see these pieces as my Michigan phase,” Laycock said. He said he understands why senior university officials like his wife must move from school to school, but added that “my own preference would be to stay in one place and sink deeper roots.”
In the absence of those deep roots, he said, there’s consolation to be found in variety of experience.
“The trajectory of my work was changed by my time at Michigan,” he said. “It’s a great law school and a collegial law school; the faculty welcomed me with open arms and were supportive from beginning to end. I will always value my time here.”
Jan. 5, 2010
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---A 30-year career in public service will help Law School alum and Detroit Deputy Mayor Saul Green bring unique perspective to his Martin Luther King Day talk at Michigan Law Jan. 18.
Green, who earned undergrad and J.D. degrees at U-M in 1969 and 1972, is scheduled to deliver a talk on “New Challenges and the Same Old Pitfalls,” beginning at 4 p.m. in Room 220 of Hutchins Hall. A question-and-answer period will follow, along with a brief reception.
The former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan has been a Detroit deputy mayor since 2008. Green also has served as Wayne County Corporation Counsel, chief counsel at the Detroit field office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and senior counsel at Miller Canfield. As a federally appointed independent monitor, Green also helped the city of Cincinnati implement police reforms.
Green brings that distinguished base of experience to the classroom at Michigan Law, where he serves as an adjunct professor, co-teaching classes on fair housing and police integrity.
His talk is being co-sponsored by the Law School and several student groups, including the Michigan Law Review, the student chapter of the ACLU, and the Law School Student Senate. All are welcome and admission is free.