Rine’s Last Class
Clinical Professor Nick Rine taught his last class on December 3. Michigan Law faculty gathered at the start of his class to applaud his long teaching career, which began at the Law School in 1989. Rine, who taught in the Civil-Criminal Litigation Clinic, retired on December 31.
Carroll Honored for Teaching Excellence
Assistant Professor Maureen Carroll was selected by students as the recipient of the 2018 L. Hart Wright Award for Excellence in Teaching. Carroll was only in her second year of teaching at the Law School when she earned the recognition.
“This award makes me so happy,” she says. “I love my students, and I put a lot of effort into providing a good experience for them. I’m really honored and flattered to win the award because it tells me I’m not entirely on the wrong path, and I intend to keep working on my teaching.”
Carroll teaches Civil Procedure, Complex Litigation, and a seminar on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and the Law. She previously taught at the UCLA School of Law, where she was the Bernard A. and Lenore S. Greenberg Law Review Fellow.
Ratner Reappointed to State Department Committee
Steven Ratner, the Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law, has been reappointed for a two-year term to the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Law. He has served on the committee since 2009. Ratner’s teaching and research focus on public international law and on a range of challenges facing governments and international institutions since the Cold War.
Queen’s Honors
Christopher McCrudden, a William W. Cook Global Law Professor at Michigan Law, was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to human rights law as part of the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for 2019.
Bridget Mary McCormack, in a press release announcing her unanimous election as chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. McCormack is an adjunct clinical assistant professor of law.Michigan’s courts must be accessible to all, engaged with the communities they serve, independent of political pressure, and efficient in making the best use of public resources. My goal is to build on past achievements while redoubling our efforts to help Michigan’s judiciary become more responsive to the public we serve.”
Associate Deans Appointed
The U-M Regents approved the appointment of Clinical Professor Debra Chopp as associate dean for experiential education and Clinical Professor Bridgette Carr, ’02, as associate dean for strategic initiatives. Both are serving three-year appointments.
Chopp—who directs the Pediatric Advocacy Clinic—oversees the Law School’s clinical, legal practice, and pro bono and externship programs, which teach practical legal skills to students with the aim of helping them become career-ready, regardless of their career path. She also supervises the Law School’s Clinical Fellows Program, which enables lawyers interested in becoming clinical law professors to gain teaching experience in their chosen field.
Carr leads the Problem Solving Initiative, which brings together U-M graduate and professional students for team-based, experiential, and interdisciplinary work. Students collaborate with one another and with faculty to engage in problem solving around complex, pressing issues. Through her work with the Human Trafficking Clinic, which she founded in 2009, Carr advocates for the rights of human trafficking victims and develops comprehensive domestic and international anti-trafficking policies.
