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At the Crest of a Wave: Artificial Intelligence in the Law Quad
Artificial intelligence tools have arrived. Millions of people are using them every day, and they are shaping the lived experience of nearly everyone—including those who would prefer to eschew the technology. Lawyers and law schools are no exception. In this series of articles, Law Quadrangle examines how our faculty and students are navigating this new landscape and exploring how AI may be incorporated into legal education and the profession.
Features Winter 2025
AI and the Evolution of Law and Legal Education
As society pieces together how artificial intelligence (AI) fits into the education puzzle, Professor Nicholson Price invites Michigan Law students to wrestle with questions of how the law shapes AI and how AI shapes the law.
Features Winter 2025
Michigan Law Students Get Hands-on with AI Tools
When 3L Ryan Distaso first came to Michigan Law, he was a self-described “AI Luddite” and possessed a healthy skepticism about artificial intelligence. Intent on demystifying the technology, Distaso turned to AI Sandbox, a Law School class taught by Patrick Barry, clinical assistant professor of law and director of digital academic initiatives.
Features Winter 2025
New Michigan Law Clinic to Explore if AI Tools Can Broaden Legal Access
Professors Bridgette Carr, ’02, and Vivek Sankaran, ’01, have dedicated their careers to finding ways to make the justice system accessible to people who have been left behind. Now, they’re looking to artificial intelligence (AI) as an ally in the effort.
Features Winter 2025
Michigan Law Mini-seminar Considers AI Doomerism and Technology Risk
Assistant Professor Salomé Viljoen’s mini-seminar, Does AI Pose an Existential Threat to Humanity?, opened with discussion about what AI technologists and philosophers call the alignment problem: Will AI develop in a way that conflicts with the continued existence of humanity?
Features Winter 2025
New Research from Michigan Law Professors Supports Real-World Value of AI for Lawyers
Most past empirical research has concluded that generative AI tools don’t offer much value in real-world lawyering. However, a new study by Professors J.J. Prescott, Patrick Barry, and their colleagues suggests that AI can help with particular legal tasks—in terms of speed, clarity, and, in some cases, accuracy and legal reasoning.
Features Winter 2025
Professor Patrick Barry Wants His Students to Become “Conspicuously Good” at AI
When he teaches about artificial intelligence and the legal profession, Professor Patrick Barry’s goal is for his students to become the go-to person in their office, their industry, or their network when someone needs help with an AI-related issue or wants to learn more about the latest AI innovation.
Features Winter 2025
AI and Legal Research in the Michigan Law Library
Christine Schauder, who joined Michigan Law in 2025 in the new role of head of emerging legal technologies in the Law Library, oversees the Law School’s Legal Tech Series, an ongoing program that offers training and resources for students to learn about new legal tools, including those powered by AI.
In Practice Winter 2025
For Sean Grimsley, ’00, and Eric Olson, ’00, Co-founders of an Impact Litigation Firm, Their Partnership Began at Michigan Law
When Sean Grimsley, ’00, and Eric Olson, ’00, started their impact litigation firm in September 2023, they had the loftiest of goals: to chart a path that would allow them to make a difference in the world. Two years after founding Denver-based Olson Grimsley, they are realizing that goal by taking on several cases that support the public interest through plaintiff-side litigation.
In Practice Winter 2025
Her Own Experience with Infertility Motivates Alexis Cirel, ’03, to Advocate for Better Surrogacy Laws
Alexis Cirel, ’03, a partner at Schwartz Sladkus Reich Greenberg Atlas LLP in New York City, spent years advocating for new surrogacy laws in New York and Michigan. Her dedication to the issue is rooted in her own experience with infertility in the early 2010s.
Class Note Winter 2025
Matthew Preston, ’21, Selected for ABA Young Lawyers Division Award
The Young Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association (ABA) recently honored Matthew Preston, ’21, as a 2025 On the Rise – Top 40 Young Lawyers awardee. Recipients are selected for their leadership, innovation, and example in upholding the law.
Class Note Winter 2025
Martha Umphrey, ’91: A New View as Provost at Amherst College
Martha Umphrey, ’91, thrived as a professor in Amherst College’s Department of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought for 30 years. Since 2024, she has embraced the challenge of serving as the college’s provost and dean of faculty.
Impact Winter 2025
New Fellowship to Fund LLM Public Service Opportunities Honors Longtime Assistant Dean for International Affairs Virginia Gordan
A new fellowship at Michigan Law will help fund important postgraduate opportunities for masters of law students, while honoring a longtime champion of international students. The Virginia Gordan LLM Public Service Fellowship is named for the first assistant dean for international affairs at Michigan Law.
Impact Winter 2025
Celebrating Three Decades of the Nannes 3L Challenge
In 1995, John Nannes, ’73, had an idea. Today, that idea—the Nannes 3L Challenge—continues to provide annual support to student organizations while fostering connections between classmates and bolstering philanthropy at Michigan Law.
Impact
Charles Knox, ’73, Honors His Father, the Hon. William W. Knox, ’35, Through a Legacy Gift to Michigan Law
Knox recently gave $200,000 to the Law School in honor of his father, William W. Knox, ’35, using two Charitable Gift Annuities (CGAs), a type of legacy gift. The gift establishes the Honorable William W. Knox Family Endowed Scholarship Fund.
Impact
Arn Tellem, ’79: Taking Chances and Giving Back
Arn Tellem, ’79, and his wife, Nancy Tellem, established the Arn Tellem Faculty Research Support Fund in 1999. They amended it in July 2025 by adding $500,000 and renaming the fund to the Arn and Nancy Tellem Faculty Support Fund.
Impact Winter 2025
Ashley M. Washington, ’10: Serving the Next Generation
Staying connected to Michigan Law is important to Ashley M. Washington, ’10, and her involvement with her alma mater comes in many forms. She has served on her class’s Reunion planning committee and, since graduation, has remained a loyal donor to the Law School Fund, Michigan Law’s primary discretionary fund.
Impact
Aaron Lewis, ’05: Embracing, and Extending, a Family Legacy
Aaron Lewis, ’05, comes from a long line of Michigan Law graduates. Lewis, a partner at Covington & Burling LLP in Los Angeles, recently made a $100,000 gift to the Wade Hampton McCree Jr. Scholarship Fund. The fund was established in 2006 by a gift from a 1971 Michigan Law graduate who had clerked for Lewis’s grandfather.
Impact
Gillian C. Steinhauer, ’76: Success in All Seasons of Life
Gillian C. Steinhauer, ’76, has developed a knack for finding her footing wherever she lands. Now, in retirement, she balances her personal travel and duties as a grandmother with her involvement at Michigan Law. Gillian recently amended a gift she made to the Law School in 2016, more than doubling the original amount.
@UMICHLAW Winter 2025
Q&A: Bagley and Klass on Abundance
The concept of “abundance” has gained considerable traction in academic and policy circles. Michigan Law Professors Nicholas Bagley and Alexandra Klass are both active in the abundance movement, and they sat down recently to discuss the topic.
Features
Meet Dean Neel U. Sukhatme
On July 1, the Law School welcomed its 19th dean, Neel U. Sukhatme—the first fully external dean in Michigan Law’s 166-year history. Sukhatme is an interdisciplinary empirical scholar whose research focuses on crime, intellectual property, voting rights, and AI and the law, among other areas. He joined the Law School from Georgetown University Law Center, where in addition to his faculty titles, he served as associate dean for research and academic programs and co-directed the Georgetown Law and Economics Workshop series.
Features
“To Veronica, With Love, Ben”
In 2022, Eddie Mears, ’16, discovered a box of his late grandmother’s belongings in Flint, Michigan, that included a faded photograph of a young Chinese man standing beside her in front of the former Alpha Lambda Chinese fraternity in Ann Arbor. Mears’s quest to learn more took him on a multiyear, trans-Pacific sleuthing expedition.
Features
Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, LLM ’98, a Former Shepherd Who Now Shepherds Ghana’s Legal System
Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, LLM ’98, grew up in a small town on the savannah grasslands of northeast Ghana. As a shepherd in his youth, he did not consider formal education an option until an unexpected encounter led him to enter school at 11 years old. In the years since, Ayine has risen to the highest levels of the Ghanaian government, first as a member of parliament and now as attorney general and minister for justice.
Briefs
All-in-One Reunion Welcomes Alumni Home
In September, alumni who graduated in class years ending in 0 and 5 and emeritus alumni who graduated more than 50 years ago returned to Ann Arbor to celebrate Reunion. It marked the first time in decades that the Law School hosted a single Reunion weekend, which offered an opportunity for attendees to build cross-generational connections.
In Memoriam
Ann Fagan Ginger, ’47
Ann Fagan Ginger, ’47, died on August 20 at her home in Berkeley, California, just weeks after celebrating her 100th birthday.
