Michigan Law Unveils New Pro Bono Pledge

Oct. 1, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

Two new faculty members boost M Law’s International Transactions Clinic

July 17, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---The faculty of Michigan Law’s innovative new International Transactions Clinic stands to gain this year by the additions of Professor Jennifer Drogula and Professor Carl Valenstein.

Michigan Law's ACS Chapter Honored Twice at National Convention

July 10, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Members of Michigan Law’s student chapter of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy brought home two top honors from the group’s recent national convention, including the coveted award for Chapter of the Year. 

Michigan’s student chapter was named the best of 170 student chapters nationwide. It was also honored with a Network Building Award for Special Recognition of Programming.

The society is comprised of lawyers, students, judges and policy makers.

The convention, held at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., gathered as many as 1,000 ACS members from around the country for a weekend of hobnobbing with luminaries from the progressive world. Those attending included senators Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, and noteworthy law professors from around the country.

About a dozen Michigan students attended the gathering, said member Ron Spinner, a 2009 Michigan Law graduate.

"We’re very excited to have brought this award back to Ann Arbor," Spinner said. "We have every reason to expect Michigan’s ACS chapter will continue to thrive long into the future."

June 2009

Its hiring season over, M Law’s world-class faculty grows by 10

June 9, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---With the pace of change in the legal profession accelerating daily, Michigan Law’s 10 newest faculty members are positioned to help the school continue training lawyers widely acclaimed as among the country’s most employable.

The new professors—who come from widely divergent backgrounds in private practice, the academy, and public service—will begin arriving in Ann Arbor next month and most will start teaching in the fall. They include: 

• Civil rights and constitutional law expert Samuel Bagenstos, who comes to Michigan from Washington University School of Law;
• Regulatory, health, and administrative law expert Nicholas Bagley, who arrives from the Justice Department in 2010;
• Contract and antitrust expert Daniel Crane, who joins Michigan from the Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University;
• International and environmental law specialist Kristina Daugirdas, who will come to Michigan from the State Department in 2010;
• Former American Bar Association President Robert Hirshon, who also will become Dean Evan Caminker’s Special Counsel on Developments in the Legal Profession;
• Constitutional, transnational, and national security law expert Julian Davis Mortenson, who arrives from Fordham;
• Legal historian Bill Novak, who comes to Michigan from the University of Chicago;
• Current U.S. Soccer Federation general counsel Timothy Pinto, a Michigan Law graduate;
• Civil rights and empirical legal studies expert Margo Schlanger, who comes to Michigan from Washington University in St. Louis; and
• Domestic and international criminal law scholar Sonja B. Starr, who most recently taught at the University of Maryland School of Law.

That broad mix of experience is designed to keep Michigan Law alumni ranked near the top for their readiness to tackle the real world after law school. Proof of the school’s strength was published last year by Vault.com, which ranked Michigan Law grads, from the perspective of employers, second in the country for immediate employability.

"There’s no doubt this has been an extraordinarily challenging year for the economy in general and the legal profession in particular. But here at Michigan Law, we were also fortunate to have an extraordinarily strong hiring season," Caminker said. "For years to come, these ten new colleagues will help keep our students and graduates among the most competitive in the new employment landscape." 

DUAL ROLE PLANNED FOR NEWEST M LAW FACULTY MEMBER

June 4, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---With an eye toward keeping its students among the most employable in the world by staying on top of changes roiling the legal profession, Michigan Law welcomes to its faculty Robert Hirshon, a 1973 graduate and a former president of the American Bar Association.

By design, Professor Hirshon will wear two hats at the Law School. First, he’ll become the inaugural Frank G. Millard Professor from Practice. He’ll teach courses such as practical ethics, law and practice, and other classes designed to help keep Michigan law students and alumni at or near the top of law firm employability rankings. But equally important will be his role as Dean Evan Caminker’s Special Counsel on Developments in the Legal Profession.

"I’m absolutely delighted to be back in Ann Arbor, and to have the opportunity to work with incredibly talented students who will one day lead our profession," Professor Hirshon said.

Drawing on expertise and contacts developed over more than 30 years in practice and service to the profession, Professor Hirshon will work closely with the school’s Career Services and Public Service offices to open up new employment opportunities for Michigan Law students and alumni. He’ll also spearhead new Michigan Law initiatives reflecting best practices in the legal profession and examine innovative ways the school can continue maximizing employment prospects for its graduates.

"That’s what I love about this new job– there’s so much going on in the legal profession right now," Professor Hirshon said. "We are being buffeted by economic forces beyond our control, but if we can better understand the environment in which we’re operating we will be able to shape that environment to make it work in the best interests of our students, our profession and the communities in which we live."

Apart from a career in private practice that began in Portland, Maine and eventually took him to Portland, Oregon, Professor Hirshon also served in leadership positions in a variety of professional organizations. Among other roles, he was president of the Maine State Bar Association, the Maine Bar Foundation, and the American Bar Association.

During his tenure as president of the ABA he guided the organization’s response to events as disparate as the 9/11 terror attacks and the collapse of Enron. He was an outspoken advocate for the need to balance civil liberties with the government’s war on terror. He urged the organization to tackle the question of law student debt, and he remains a member of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants. He’s also served as chief executive officer and chief operating officer of medium and large law firms and is active in law practice management issues. And he serves as a member of the Law School’s Dean’s Advisory Council.

Dean Caminker said the breadth and depth of Professor Hirshon’s experience will be a boon for Michigan Law students in uncertain economic times.

"In many ways Bob Hirshon is the perfect addition to the Law School’s faculty at this crucial juncture," Dean Caminker said. "His ability to analyze trends and future changes in the legal profession is unsurpassed, and we fully expect him to be an invaluable asset for our students for years to come."

May 2009 

General Counsel from U.S. Soccer Federation joining M Law Faculty

May 27, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Michigan Law’s Legal Practice Program will add a new faculty member over the summer when U.S. Soccer Federation general counsel Timothy M. Pinto joins the Law School as a Clinical Assistant Professor.

Prof. Pinto, who graduated Michigan Law in 1997, returns to Ann Arbor from his current home in Chicago, the Soccer Federation’s headquarters. He brings deep experience as a litigator and legal affairs manager for an organization with a national base.

"I'm incredibly excited to be returning to Ann Arbor and to be joining the Law School's faculty," Prof. Pinto said. "I've greatly enjoyed my various legal jobs since graduation, and I look forward to teaching my students not only about practicing law, but enjoying the practice of law."

A cum laude graduate of both Williams College and the University of Michigan Law School, Prof. Pinto also clerked for Judge Roderick R. McKelvie in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Following his clerkship he worked as an associate at Winston & Strawn in Chicago, where he handled patent infringement cases and other large commercial disputes. He joined the United States Soccer Federation as a staff attorney in 2001, and was appointed its general counsel in 2004.

"We’re looking forward to welcoming Professor Pinto back to Ann Arbor," said Law School Dean Evan Caminker. "The breadth of his experience will allow him to offer unique real-world insights to our students, and that in turn will help hone their clinical skills to an even sharper edge."

Prof. Pinto is expected to begin his Law School duties July 1.

Regents authorize bidding on Michigan Law expansion project

May 15, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---On May 14, the University’s Board of Regents authorized issuing the Law School’s building expansion and renovation project for bids and awarding construction contracts. Work gets underway this summer, including site preparation and utility relocation. New construction will begin later in the fall/winter.

A ceremonial groundbreaking for the project is a highlight of the Law School’s Sesquicentennial weekend September 10-13 in Ann Arbor. The ceremony will be Friday, September 11, at 2 p.m. on the building site at State and Monroe streets, with special guests John G. Roberts, Jr., Chief Justice of the United States, and University President Mary Sue Coleman.

Michigan Law expects to have full use of the new facilities sometime in 2012 and is still raising funds to support the $102 million project, which includes a new four-story academic building south of Monroe Street and a Commons adjacent to Hutchins Hall and the Legal Research Building.

April 2009

State Department official joins M Law faculty  

April 22, 2009
Contact: John Masson, (734) 647-7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Kristina Daugirdas, an attorney-adviser in the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser for United Nations Affairs, will be joining the Michigan Law faculty as an assistant professor.

In her role at the Department of State, Daugirdas advises policy bureaus on the negotiation and implementation of Security Council resolutions.  Previously, in the Office of the Legal Adviser for Diplomatic Law and Litigation, Daugirdas evaluated the appropriateness of U.S. participation in lawsuits with foreign policy implications and provided guidance on immunity and other diplomatic law issues. In 2007, her achievements on behalf of the department earned her a Meritorious Honor Award. Among her primary teaching interests are foreign affairs law, international law, administrative law, and environmental law.

Daugirdas has written on topics as diverse as foreign policy, agency rulemaking, and child poverty and well-being. Her article, "Evaluating Remand Without Vacatur: A New Judicial Remedy for Defective Agency Rulemakings," which appeared in the NYU Law Review 278 (2005) as a student note, was cited in several court cases and received the Paul D. Kaufman Memorial Award for the most outstanding note published in the Law Review that year. Another article, "International Delegations and Administrative Law," published in 66 Maryland Law Review 707 (2007), earned an award from the American Constitution Society’s 2008 Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition on Regulatory and Administrative Law. A work in progress, "When Congress Wins Foreign Policy Fights," examines the separation-of-powers consequences of the 1976 enactment of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. As a research assistant at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Daugirdas co-authored several publications about welfare and child support programs.

In welcoming Professor Daugirdas to the faculty, Michigan Law Dean Evan H. Caminker cited her expertise in international law and foreign affairs law. 

"Michigan has a legacy of leadership in international law dating back more than a century," Caminker said. "Professor Daugirdas will help reinforce and invigorate that tradition, to the benefit of the Law School and its students."

Daugirdas received her J.D., magna cum laude, from New York University School of Law, where she served as staff editor and later senior articles editor for the NYU Law Review. She clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  

Justice Department lawyer joining M Law faculty in 2010

April 22, 2009
Contact: John Masson, (734) 647-7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Nicholas Bagley, an attorney in the Civil Division at the United States Department of Justice with expertise in administrative law and civil litigation, will join the Michigan Law faculty in the fall of 2010 as an assistant professor.

During his two-year tenure on the appellate staff of the Civil Division, Bagley has served as lead counsel in more than two dozen civil appeals on behalf of the federal government and has argued nine cases before the U.S. Courts of Appeals.

Bagley’s articles have appeared in the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Journal on Legislation, the New York University Law Review, the Washington Post, and Slate.com. His article, "Centralized Oversight of the Regulatory State," which he co-authored with Richard Revesz, was selected as the best article in the field in 2006 by the American Bar Association’s Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice.

Following his graduation from Yale University, Bagley spent two years teaching in the Bronx as part of Teach for America. He also served as a research assistant for the Campaign for Fiscal Equity in New York.  After receiving his J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he also served as a notes editor for the NYU Law Review, he clerked for Judge David S. Tatel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and for Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Professor Bagley brings with him a rich repertoire of skills, particularly in areas relating to administrative regulation," said Michigan Law Dean Evan H. Caminker. "He will be a valuable addition to our faculty, and a marvelous resource for colleagues and students alike."

National security, int’l arbitration new faculty member’s strengths

April 8, 2009
Contact: John Masson, (734) 647-7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Julian Davis Mortenson’s career has taken him from the business districts of Hong Kong and Great Britain to the courtrooms of The Hague and, beginning in the fall of 2009, to the classrooms and research stacks of Michigan Law. 

A specialist in constitutional law, international law, and national security law, Mortenson worked in the office of President Theodor Meron at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Later, as an associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, he was one of the principal drafters of the merits briefs in the landmark case of Boumediene v. Bush, in which the Supreme Court recognized the right of Guantanamo detainees to petition for the writ of habeas corpus. He also represented a group of discharged military service members in Cook v. Gates, the first post-Lawrence challenge to the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" law.

In 2008, Mortenson entered the academy as a visiting assistant professor at Fordham Law School, where he taught national security law and criminal law as well as an international justice clinic. In his research, he focuses on the developing network of international tribunals and the application of civil liberties norms in the national security context. His articles and commentary have appeared in venues such as the Iowa Law Review, Columbia Journal of European Law, Global Arbitration Review, National Security Law Report, International Legal Materials, Opinio Juris, and Slate.com.

"We are indeed fortunate to count Professor Mortenson among our new faculty," said Michigan Law Dean Evan Caminker. "His real-world experience in international arbitration and national security are a complement to the wide-ranging expertise that has made Michigan a leader in the realms of international and transnational law."

Mortenson received his J.D. from Stanford University, where he was salutatorian of the graduating class, and his A.B. in European history summa cum laude from Harvard College. After law school he served as a law clerk to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court.

New Human Trafficking Clinic set to open at Michigan Law this fall

April 8, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu 

Noted antitrust scholar and practitioner heading to M Law

April 7, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---He couldn’t be coming at a more interesting time.

Daniel Crane’s legal practice and scholarship in the areas of antitrust and economic regulation are not only particularly relevant in the current climate, but also will make him a particularly valued addition to the Michigan Law faculty when he arrives in the fall of this year.

Prof. Crane, who comes to Michigan from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, will teach contracts, antitrust and antitrust and intellectual property.  He will also continue his research into antitrust and economic regulation, focusing on the institutional structure of antitrust enforcement, predatory pricing, bundling, and the antitrust implications of various patent practices. 

Prof. Crane’s work has appeared in journals such as the University of Chicago Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Texas Law Review, the California Law Review, and the Minnesota Law Review. He is the co-editor, with Eleanor Fox, of the Antitrust Stories volume of the Law Stories series (Foundation Press) and his book on the institutional structure of antitrust enforcement is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. Crane has also contributed chapters to numerous books, including The Law and Economics of Antitrust edited by Keith Hylton (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 2008).

Prior to accepting the Michigan Law post, Crane was a visiting professor at New York University Law School and the University of Chicago Law School, where he received his JD with honors.  In the spring of 2009, he taught antitrust law on a Fulbright Scholarship at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon, Portugal.  A member of the American Antitrust Institute’s Advisory Board and editor of the Antitrust Law Journal, he also serves as counsel in the litigation department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison of New York.  

"With his wide-ranging expertise in antitrust and economic regulation, Professor Crane will both enliven our curriculum and add an important voice to our faculty," said Law School Dean Evan H. Caminker. "We’re very much looking forward to welcoming him to Ann Arbor."

Civil rights specialist joins Michigan Law faculty

April 2, 2009
Contact: John Masson, (734) 647-7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Samuel R. Bagenstos, an active scholar and litigator in civil rights and constitutional law, will join the Michigan Law faculty in the fall of this year.  

The author of numerous articles and an upcoming book, Law and the Contradictions of the Disability Rights Movement (Yale University Press), Bagenstos has argued civil rights and federalism cases in the Supreme Court as well as most of the federal circuit courts of appeals. In one of his most notable cases, United States v. Georgia, 546 U.S. 151 (2006), the U. S. Supreme Court upheld, as applied to his client’s case, the constitutionality of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He has also testified before Congress in support of the Fair Pay Restoration Act and the ADA Amendments Act.

Prior to joining Michigan Law, Bagenstos served as a professor of law and, most recently, associate dean for research and faculty development at the Washington University School of Law. He has also held prior faculty appointments at Harvard Law School and was a visiting professor at the UCLA School of Law. 

After receiving his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard in 1993, Bagenstos joined the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he briefed and argued cases in the federal courts of appeals involving the full range of federal civil rights issues. He later served as law clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bagenstos is no stranger to Michigan Law, as Dean Evan H. Caminker noted.

"We were privileged to have Professor Bagenstos as a member of our visiting faculty in 2008, when he taught an outstanding introductory course in constitutional law," Caminker said. "Now we welcome him as part of our full-time faculty. With his wide-ranging experience in practice and in the academy, he adds luster and depth to our already strong offerings in civil rights and constitutional law."  

President Obama taps M Law professor for Treasury post 

April 2, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---President Barack Obama announced over the weekend his intention to nominate Michigan Law Prof. Michael S. Barr as the Treasury Department’s Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions.

Prof. Barr teaches courses at Michigan Law on financial institutions, international finance and transnational law, and also helped found the Law School’s new International Transactions Clinic. In addition to his duties at Michigan Law, he’s also a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and at the Brookings Institution.

In addition to his teaching, Barr, 43, is a prolific writer who conducts large-scale empirical research into financial services and low- to moderate-income households. He also researches issues in financial regulation. His recent publications including An Opt-Out Home Mortgage System, Behaviorally Informed Financial Services Regulation, Credit Where It Counts, and Banking the Poor.

The presidential nomination, if confirmed, would not mark Barr’s first stint in government. He previously served as a special assistant to Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, as a Special Advisor to President William J. Clinton, as a special advisor and counselor on the policy planning staff at the State Department, and as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter and then-District Court Judge Pierre N. Leval, of the Southern District of New York.

"Professor Barr’s colleagues are of course thrilled that he’ll have the opportunity to serve in this very challenging assignment," said Law School Dean Evan Caminker. "And we’re equally thrilled he'll bring that one-of-kind experience back into his classroom and scholarship once his work in Washington is done."

Barr is the latest in a series of faculty and alumni tapped by the Administration to help run the government, including technology and communications advisor Prof. Susan Crawford, senior advisor and 1981 graduate Valerie Jarrett, and Secretary of the Interior (and fellow 1981) grad Ken Salazar.

More information about Professor Barr is available at http://cgi2.www.law.umich.edu/_FacultyBioPage/facultybiopagenew.asp?ID=125

March 2009

International criminal law expert joins M Law faculty

March 31, 2009
Contact: John Masson, (734) 647-7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--- One of Michigan Law’s newest faculty members brings unique perspective and experience to the teaching of criminal procedure, both in this country and abroad. Sonja B. Starr, who will teach first-year criminal law and international criminal law at Michigan beginning in the fall 2009 term, was formerly an associate with Goldstein & Howe, PC, a firm specializing in U.S. Supreme Court litigation. She then went on to clerk for Judge Mohamed Shahabuddeen of the shared Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague.

"My recent scholarship has centered on prosecutorial decision-making," Starr said, "and on the development of workable and effective remedies for violations of defendants’ rights." In a forthcoming piece in the Georgetown Law Journal, she argues that U.S. courts generally resist invoking the remedies available to them for prosecutorial misconduct because they are perceived as too drastic, and proposes instead a more practical intermediate alternative of sentence reduction. And in a recent article in the NYU Law Review, she demonstrated that international criminal tribunals have no effective remedies at their disposal for violations of defendants’ rights, and suggests a variety of new remedies that would avoid "the untenable costs of full retrial or release."

Other articles by Starr have appeared in the Northwestern Law Review, the University of Illinois Law Review, and the Berkeley Journal of International Law. Her scholarly work is also represented in the soon-to-be-published International Human Rights Law: 60 Years After the UDHR (Cambridge University Press).

Starr comes to Michigan from the University of Maryland School of Law. Prior to her post at Maryland, she spent two years at Harvard Law School as a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law. She received her A.B. from Harvard, summa cum laude, and her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she also served as senior editor of the Yale Law Journal. She clerked for Judge Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Award-winning legal historian William J. Novak joins faculty

March 26, 2009
Contact: John Masson, (734) 647-7352, jpmasson@umich.edu 

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Beginning in the fall 2009 term, Michigan Law students will benefit from the discipline-spanning acumen of one of the Law School’s newest faculty members, historian and legal scholar William J. Novak.

Novak comes to Michigan from the University of Chicago, where he served as professor of history and, for several years, as director of the university’s Center for Comparative Legal History. While at Chicago, he also helped organize the Human Rights Program and the Law, Letters, and Society Program. In addition, he is a research professor at the American Bar Foundation. He received his Ph.D. in American History from Brandeis University.

Novak’s areas of specialization include U.S. legal, political, and intellectual history, with emphasis on issues of liberalism, state building, and public law. His first book, The People’s Welfare: Law and Regulation in Nineteenth-Century America, won the American Historical Association’s coveted Littleton-Griswold Prize and was named Best Book in the History of Law and Society. In 2003, he co-edited a volume of essays entitled The Democratic Experiment: New Directions in American Political History. He is currently at work on The People’s Government: Law and the Creation of the Modern American State, which traces the legal and governmental revolution that ultimately led to the rise of the contemporary administrative regulatory state. As well as contributing chapters to numerous books, he has published articles in venues ranging from the American Historical Review and Polity to the Law and History Review.

This appointment represents a return engagement for Novak, who was a visiting professor of law at Michigan during the fall 2007 term.

"During that time, Professor Novak proved himself to be an immensely gifted teacher as well as a superb scholar," says Michigan Law School Dean Evan H. Caminker. "His knowledge of American law and history is both broad and deep, and the interdisciplinary perspective he brings to our curriculum is immensely valuable."

Let the April Madness begin

March 26, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu 

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---It’s a good thing Michigan Law is such a friendly place.

Because at a less collegial school, a basketball contest between law professors and the students they’ve been teaching for the past couple of years might well need to bill itself with a  movie title: "There Will Be Blood."

Let’s call it one more example of The Michigan Difference. But that doesn’t mean the game – scheduled for 7:30 p.m. April 3 at the Sports Coliseum on the corner of Fifth Ave. and Hill St. – won’t be spirited, said Prof. Vivek Sankaran.

"I’ve already been exchanging trash-talking emails with one of the student organizers," Sankaran said.

The student team earned the right to face the fearsome, co-ed faculty squad by bidding at Michigan Law’s annual auction benefiting Student Funded Fellowships. The winning bid, according to student team organizer and 3L Siddharth Nag, was $1,000.

"It was actually bought by an uncle of a 3L," Nag said. "He was counter-bidding against us with the intent to purchase the game for us, but without telling us, resulting in our suffering multiple heart attacks during the bidding process."

The faculty team comprises professors Steve Croley, Sherman Clark, Bridgette Carr, Christine Gregory, Kyle Logue, and Sankaran. The students, in a nod to the more advanced state of antiquity of the academics, will allow the professors to field two non-faculty players. Rumor has it that one such ringer is drawn from Michigan’s football squad, while the other plays on the Wolverines basketball team, which was bounced from the NCAA tournament March 21.

For now, the students' roster remains under wraps.

MARCH 30 marks M Law Milestone

March 26, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Happy birthday to us!

When the University of Michigan Regents put pen to paper and created the Faculty of Law on March 30, 1859, they may have had an inkling that what they had created would become one of the world's premier public law schools.

But while it's tempting, from a distance of 150 years, to see Michigan Law's success as pre-ordained, what began with the appointment of Charles Walker, James Campbell, and Thomas Cooley as the founding members of the faculty was far from a sure thing. All three initial faculty members -- two of whom, Campbell and Cooley, were sitting judges on the Michigan Supreme Court -- were paid $1000 per year.

We hope you'll return periodically to the Law School's website for updates on the school's Sesquicentennial Celebration, set to culminate with a gala celebration weekend September 10-13.

U.S. District Court Motion Day returns to Michigan Law

March 25, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---A Michigan Law tradition continues March 30 when U.S. District Court Judge George Caram Steeh brings his courtroom to the University of Michigan Law School.

Judge Steeh, a 1973 graduate of Michigan Law, will preside over an actual session of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, which he’ll convene at 10 a.m. in Room 100 of Hutchins Hall. Students and faculty are invited to observe while lawyers bring motions in live cases.

After the court session, Michigan Law students interested in judicial clerkships also will have the opportunity to speak with Judge Steeh in a lunchtime setting.

Judge Steeh was appointed in 1998 by President Bill Clinton. Before his federal appointment he served as a circuit court judge for eight years in suburban Detroit, where he also was active as chair of the Macomb County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, as a founder and board member for the Child Advocacy Center of Macomb County, and as president of the Arab American Bar Association.

Prison reform and torts expert joins M Law faculty

March 25, 2009
Contact: John Masson, (734) 647-7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – As senior trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division at the U.S. Department of Justice, Margo Schlanger worked to remedy civil rights abuses by prison and police departments—earning two Division Special Achievement Awards in the process.

Since joining the academy in 1998, she has deepened her commitment to prison reform: working on appellate and Supreme Court cases on behalf of the ACLU and other prisoner’s rights groups, serving on the Vera Institute’s blue ribbon Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons, and testifying before Congress to support proposed amendments to the Prison Litigation Reform Act. 

More generally, her scholarship deals with how the threat and reality of lawsuits influence the behavior of the organizations that get sued.

Now she’ll bring that experience and expertise to her students at Michigan Law.

While a member of the Harvard Law School faculty, Schlanger also spent a year as a faculty fellow on the Harvard University Center for Ethics and the Professions. In 2004, after joining the law faculty of Washington University in St. Louis, she founded the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse (http://clearinghouse.wustl.edu), the Internet’s leading source of information on injunctive civil rights cases relating to jail and prison conditions, fair lending, police reform, employment discrimination, and other issues. She currently serves as reporter for the American Bar Association task force charged with revising ABA legal standards governing the treatment of prisoners.

Using sophisticated empirical methods to examine important questions in her fields of study, Schlanger’s publications have appeared in the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Law and Contemporary Problems, the NYU Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, and other venues. A graduate of Yale Law School, she served as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for Justice Ginsburg’s first two years on the Court.

"Professor Schlanger is recognized nationwide for her expertise in torts, corrections law and prison reform, civil rights, constitutional law, and empirical legal studies," said Evan H. Caminker, dean of the Michigan Law School, who also noted that Schlanger had been a visiting professor of law during the fall 2008 term. "We are both pleased and privileged to welcome such a distinguished scholar to the Michigan Law faculty."

Asia Law Society Sets Symposium On Asia Corporate Governance

March 10, 2009
Contact: John Graham, 206-883-6663

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Building on the momentum generated by our 2008 symposium, the Asia Law Society at the University of Michigan Law School will convene a symposium on Saturday, March 21, 2009 entitled "Convergence or Cataclysm: Corporate Governance and Market Development in Asia."

What forces explain the dominant corporate structures and shareholder behavior in a given country?  In our ever more "globalized" world, is competition propelling us toward one standard model of corporate law and securities regulation?

Scholars have debated the relative merits of rival models of corporate governance for decades.  In the past, the tension was posed in terms of a stock market centered-system of dispersed ownership versus the blockholder and cross-shareholding system that generally prevailed across Asia.  Many argued that the Anglo-American pattern of dispersed ownership was inferior to the bank centered capital markets of Japan because the latter enabled corporate executives to manage for the long run, while U.S. managers allegedly looked merely to maximize short-term earnings.  Yet with the burst of the bubble economy in Japan and the Asian financial crisis, a tide of opinion turned against the presumed superiority of banks as monitors.  A U.S.-style shareholder rights-centered ideology seemed to go mainstream even among the later-developing "transition" economies of the region (China and India).

Today, global markets have been rattled by a new economic crisis.  A crisis which many in Asia attribute to the U.S. led financial system.  Does our current economic malaise mean that the pendulum will swing once again and, this time, away from the standard shareholder-oriented model as the normative view of corporate structure and governance?

To better understand these issues, we have asked legal scholars, practitioners, and market regulators to comment on the present state and future trajectory of corporate governance and financial market development in Asia. Please view our list of highly esteemed participants, and don't forget to register for the symposium, which will ensure that we can accommodate you for our keynote lunch at the Michigan Union.

Special thanks to our sponsors, including the University of Michigan Law School, The Michigan International Institute, Michigan Center for Chinese Studies, Center for Japanese Studies, and Center for Korean Studies.

Registration for the symposium is free and open to the public.  Please register here: http://students.law.umich.edu/als/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=49.

February 2009

SIAS Summer Institute coming to Michigan Law

Feb. 9, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Post-doctoral scholars interested in convening in Berlin and Ann Arbor for an elite Summer Institute session covering "Comparative Perspectives on Federalism and Separation of Powers: Lessons From – and for – National, Supranational, and Global Governance" have until Feb. 27 to apply.

The seminar, sponsored by the SIAS coalition of several institutes for advanced study, is being organized by Michigan Law’s Prof. Daniel Halberstam and Prof. Dr. Christoph Mollers of Georg-August-Universitat in Gottingen, Germany. The sessions come at an important time, as federalism gains new importance in countries as diverse as the United Kingdom and Iraq, and as supra-national organizations such as the European Union establish a new model for its possible application in other parts of the globe.

The first of two summer sessions will be held this year in Berlin and is slated to cover such topics as the origin and structures of federations; federal powers and individual rights; federalism and citizenship; the free movement of goods; and several more. In 2010 the sessions will come to Michigan Law in Ann Arbor.

The Summer Institute program, in general, is designed to develop scholarly networks and collaborative relationships among junior scholars from Europe and the United States, before, during, and after the seminars themselves. Each seminar is designed for post-doctoral students and Ph.D. candidates who are studying or teaching at an institution of higher education either here or in Europe. The Federalism seminar, in particular, will explore theoretical, methodological, and empirical issues, and its organizers also hope to examine fruitful areas for future research.

The program is supported by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The costs of travel, meals, and lodging, plus a personal stipend, are covered for all participants. More information is available at http://www.wiko-berlin.de/index.php?id=112&l=0.

New professorships honor Sax and Simma

Feb. 6, 2008
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

 Michigan Law is celebrating two distinguished longtime faculty members, Joseph. L. Sax and Bruno Simma, with the creation of new professorships bearing their names.

The Joseph L. Sax Collegiate Professorship honors Sax, a world-renowned environmental law expert who taught at Michigan from 1966-1986 as the Philip A. Hart Distinguished University Professor. Sax’s scholarship, particularly on the public trust doctrine and on takings law, has frequently been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and remains definitive in the field.

In his 1970 landmark book, Defending the Environment: A Strategy for Citizen Action, Sax developed the idea of citizen enforcement of environmental laws. He worked as a policy advocate and legislative draftsman to turn this concept into practice in the "citizen suit" provisions of several federal environmental laws and in the Michigan Environmental Protection Act, popularly known as the "Sax Act."

From 1994 to 1996, he served in President Clinton's administration as the counselor to the secretary of the interior and deputy assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Sax is on the faculty of Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is James H. House and Hiram H. Hurd Professor Emeritus of Environmental Regulation.

The Bruno Simma Collegiate Professorship honors Simma, a leading figure in public international law who has been a judge on the International Court of Justice since 2003. Simma came to Michigan Law in 1986 as a visiting professor and held a joint appointment on the faculty from 1987-1992, while also serving on the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and as vice president of the German Society of International Law. Simma was a professor of international law and European community law from 1973-2003 at the University of Munich, where he was also director of the Institute of International Law.

In 1995, Simma was both a visiting professor at the Law School and a lecturer at The Hague Academy of International Law. Since 1997, he has been a member of the Law School’s Affiliated Overseas Faculty. 

Simma’s outstanding reputation in the field of public international law began with his textbook "Universelles Völkerrecht" of 1976, co-authored with his teacher and mentor Alfred Verdross and still widely cited in German literature and jurisprudence. Over a career that spans more than three decades, Simma has focused on the relationship between human rights law and general international law.

The Sax and Simma Chairs will be held by faculty members to be named for initial terms of appointment of five years, with the possibility of renewal.

January 2009

Award honors Laycock’s contributions to religious freedom

Jan. 13, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--- Michigan Law Professor Douglas Laycock, whose nuanced thinking has led all sides of the debate over religious liberty to seek his counsel, was recently honored with a national First Freedom Award.

The annual honors, awarded Jan. 15 in Richmond, Virginia by the First Freedom Center, are bestowed on individuals who make important contributions in advancing freedom of conscience and basic human rights for people of all faiths, traditions and cultures. Past winners of the national award include Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills, Emmy-award winning television producer Norman Lear, Sen. George Mitchell, and Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke.

Laycock, the Yale Kamisar Collegiate Professor of Law at Michigan, is a leading authority on the law of religious liberty, including conflicts between government regulation and religious practice, religious speech by both citizens and government, and government funding of social services delivered by religious entities. He has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and has been consulted on such thorny questions as animal sacrifice, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. In addition to being regularly sought out by members of the news media for his take on local religious conflicts, he has often testified before Congress about those issues and has argued many sensitive cases in court.

His opinion is respected enough to be valued by a range of petitioners from conservative religious groups to secular civil liberties organizations.

The awards are timed for January 16, National Religious Freedom Day, the anniversary of the 1786 enactment of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. The Statute was the immediate forebear of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. Each year the First Freedom Center selects individuals in the Virginia, national, and international arena for the awards.

This year’s Virginia winner is Samuel Ericsson, president and CEO of Advocates International in Fairfax. W. Cole Durham Jr., a law professor at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, is the international honoree; past international honorees have included Ethan Allen CEO M. Farooq Kathwari for his work as founder of the Kashmir Study Group, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Second consecutive M Law grad earns Bristow Fellowship

Jan. 8, 2009
Contact John Masson, 734.647.7352,jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — For the second straight year, a Michigan Law graduate has been chosen for one of only four year-long Bristow Fellowships at the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office.

Matt Owen graduated in May 2008. Like most other Bristow selectees, Owen is currently clerking for a federal appeals judge – in Owen’s case, with Judge Neil M. Gorsuch of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Denver.

Once he assumes his new position this fall, Owen’s duties will include helping draft briefs in opposition to certiorari filed in the Supreme Court, and also helping make recommendations to the Solicitor General about potential appeals in lower courts. Bristow Fellows also work with staff attorneys to write briefs on the merits in Supreme Court cases and help prepare for oral argument in the Supreme Court.

Owen succeeds Shiva Nagaraj, a 2007 Michigan Law graduate, who earned the Fellowship last year.

The Fellowships are named in honor of the first U.S. Solicitor General, Benjamin H. Bristow of Kentucky. He was appointed shortly after the Civil War by President Ulysses S. Grant after serving as U.S. Attorney in his home state, where he had helped quell a tide of Ku Klux Klan violence that arose after the Civil War. He also helped break up a burgeoning trade in illegal Kentucky whiskey.

After a successful career as Solicitor General, Bristow became Treasury Secretary before retiring to private practice, where he founded one of the East Coast’s prominent law firms. He also served as president of the American Bar Association.

Today the fellowship offers a priceless opportunity to learn more about the inner workings of the appeals process, said Michigan Law Professor Adam Pritchard, who worked as a Bristow Fellow himself.

"I learned so much about how to argue a case before the Supreme Court during my year as a Bristow," Prof. Pritchard said. "The Bristow Fellowship is a great opportunity for anyone who aspires to be an appellate lawyer at the top level."

Three Skaddens, EJW  and Coffin Family fellowships among
those recently captured by michigan students and alumni

Jan. 7, 2009
Contact: John Masson, 734.647.7352, jpmasson@umich.edu

ANN ARBOR, MICH. -- From protecting the rights of Native Alaskans in villages devastated by global warming to ensuring that low-income people receive appropriate legal representation in a Portland, Maine family court, high-profile post-graduate public interest fellowships are once again helping recent Michigan Law students serve the greater good -- literally from one end of the country to the other.

Five Michigan Law students and alums have been selected for prestigious fellowships thus far this season. Among them are three recipients of Skadden Fellowships, widely recognized as the most competitive public service awards in the country.

Michigan’s most recent Skadden recipients continue a ten-year run during which the Law School’s graduates have received at least one Skadden Fellowship per year – one of only three such schools in the country. Michigan has the fourth highest number of total recipients since the fellowships were founded in 1988.

Two additional awards -- a Coffin Family Law Fellowship and an Equal Justice Works Fellowship -- round out this year’s crop. Recipients include:

• Jessica Berry, ’07, whose Skadden Fellowship will help her represent high-risk adolescents in foster care with the Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts.
• Stacy Braverman, a 3L whose Equal Justice Works Fellowship will see her helping low-income people with Bread for the City Legal Clinic in Washington, D.C. Braverman will represent clients on benefit and housing matters before the District’s Office of Administrative Hearings, as well as working to simplify OAH procedures.
• Melissa Cohen, a 3L who will use her Skadden Fellowship to work in New York with Children’s Rights, Inc. to ensure that children around the country have effective counsel in abuse and neglect cases.
• Erin Dougherty, '08, whose Skadden Fellowship will take her to the far west of Alaska. She’ll work with the Native American Rights Fund to directly help Native Alaskans who are being forced to relocate their coastal villages as a result of global warming.
• Malinda Ellwood, ’08, whose Coffin Family Law Fellowship will allow her to work work for Pine Tree Legal Aid in Portland, Maine, representing low-income people in family law cases.

"These fellowships serve as launching pads to public interest careers," said MaryAnn Sarosi, the Law School's Assistant Dean for Public Service. "Landing a position in the public interest world is challenging. Students have the daunting task of competing for very few entry-level jobs, and that just leaves me more in awe of all of our public service students, who persevere in order to do the work they love in the face of low salaries and high student loan debt."