Professor Kimberly Thomas's research, teaching, and practice concentrate on criminal law, especially on sentencing law and practice, juvenile justice, indigent persons accused of crimes, and prisoner re-entry into the community. Prof. Thomas is the cofounder (with Professor Frank Vandervort) of the Juvenile Justice Clinic. In 2011, Prof. Thomas spent three months as a legal education expert for the ABA Rule of Law Initiative in Amman, Jordan, working on law school curriculum development, especially in criminal law, as well as the creation and support of experiential education and the first clinics in the country. In addition, she spearheaded a weeklong series of trainings for Egyptian law professors through the ABA-ROLI office in Cairo, Egypt, on clinical legal education, curriculum innovation, and moot court. Prior to joining the Law School faculty in 2003, Prof. Thomas served as a major trials attorney with Defender Association of Philadelphia. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Maryland and Harvard Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. After law school, Prof. Thomas clerked for Judge R. Guy Cole of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. During law school she worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and spent time with Legal Aid of Cambodia and the Justice Committee of Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa. In addition to practicing law, she has worked as a newspaper reporter and a high school math teacher, and taught an undergraduate seminar in the economics department while she was at Harvard.

Professor Frank E. Vandervort is a clinical professor of law whose primary interests include juvenile justice, child welfare, and interdisciplinary practice. He cofounded the Juvenile Justice Clinic with Professor Kimberly Thomas in 2009. Since 1997, he has served as legal consultant to the University of Michigan School of Social Work's Family Assessment Clinic. He is a consultant to Trauma Informed Child Welfare Systems, a federally funded training program for child welfare professionals, and to the National Quality Improvement Center for the Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System. In 2010, Prof. Vandervort was elected to the board of directors of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. He is also a member of the advisory committees for the revision of the Michigan Child Protection Proceeding Benchbook and the Michigan Juvenile Justice Benchbook. He received a BA from Michigan State University and a JD from Wayne State University Law School.