Faculty Briefs

Faculty Briefs is a series that showcases the written advocacy of the Law School's faculty. Professor Patrick Barry gives a short writing lesson on some particularly noteworthy part of the brief and then students get to ask questions about its composition to the author.

Julian Mortenson

October 24, 2018
Featured Faculty: Julian Mortenson
Featured Brief: Professor Julian Mortenson discusses the winning brief he helped craft in the landmark Supreme Court case Boumediene v. Bush. Read...

Matt Andres and Yulanda Curtis

April 18, 2018
Featured Faculty: Matt Andres and Yulanda Curtis
Featured Brief: Professor Matt Andres and Clinical Fellow Yulanda Curtis discussed two complaints they helped students write on behalf of clients in the Veterans Clinic.

Gautam Hans

January 17, 2018
Featured Faculty: Gautam Hans
Featured Brief: Michigan v. Wood (2017), a case Clinical Fellow Gautam Hans participated in by writing an amicus brief on behalf of the ACLU. Read...

Michelle Crockett

November 29, 2017
Featured Faculty: Michelle Crockett
Featured Brief: This special session of Faculty Briefs featured Professor Michelle Crockett, the hiring partner at Miller, Canfield, Paddock, and Stone in Detroit. She talked about what she looks for when evaluating briefs written by law students.

Evan Caminker

September 15, 2017
Featured Faculty: Evan Caminker
Featured Brief: Hixson v. United States (2016), a case Professor Evan Caminker won while working as a special assistant U.S. Attorney in Detroit. Read...

Barbara McQuade

July 23, 2017
Featured Faculty: Barbara McQuade
Featured Brief: Instead of focusing on a specific brief, Professor McQuade talked about the way she edited all kinds of briefs during her tenure as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Richard Friedman

June 23, 2017
Featured Faculty: Richard Friedman
Featured Brief: Hammon v. Indiana (2006), a case that marked the second time the Supreme Court adopted Professor Friedman's view of the Sixth Amendment's Confrontation Clause. Read...

Maureen Carroll

February 20, 2017
Featured Faculty: Maureen Carroll
Featured Brief/Complaint: Baustista v. State of California (2012), a complaint so compelling it led to a favorable settlement for a group of California farmworkers Professor Carroll represented when she was a staff attorney at Public Counsel, the biggest pro bono law firm in the country. Read...

Ted Becker and Margaret Hannon

November 2, 2016
Featured Faculty: Ted Becker and Margaret Hannon
Featured Brief: Johnson v. Bargas (2016), a case in which Professor Becker and Professor Hannon wrote an amicus brief on behalf of the ACLU. Read...

John Pottow

October 5, 2016
Featured Faculty: John Pottow
Featured Brief: Executive Benefits Insurance Agency v. Arkinson (2014), a case Professor Pottow won 8-0 in the U.S. Supreme Court. Read...

Paul Reingold

September 28, 2016
Featured Faculty: Paul Reingold
Featured Brief: Makowski v. Snyder (2014), which not only earned Professor Reingold's client a victory but also won the State of Michigan's "Best Brief" award in 2014. Read..., View...

Vivek Sankaran

September 14, 2016
Featured Faculty: Vivek Sankaran
Featured Brief:  In re SANDERS (2015), a case that fundamentally changed child welfare law in the state of Michigan—for the better. Read...