Topic: Public Interest
86 results
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.
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.
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
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.
@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.
In Practice Summer 2025
Aisha Elmquist, ’07: Everyone Has the Right to a Seat at the Table
Throughout history, many Americans with disabilities have been denied fundamental rights like attending school, holding jobs, and choosing homes. However, for as long as these inequalities have persisted, advocates for disability rights have fought back—including Aisha Elmquist, ’07, who leads a state government program in Minnesota that is tasked with helping those with disabilities live their best lives.
@UMICHLAW Summer 2025
Student Project Draws on Professor Adams’s New Book to Highlight Integration Efforts in Detroit
As students in Professor Michelle Adams’s Race, Law and History class, Michelle Landry, ’24, and Victoria Pedri, a rising 3L, were so inspired by class readings on school desegregation that they launched a digital project to extend and share their learnings.
@UMICHLAW Winter 2024-2025
Edward S. Rogers, Trademark Law Pioneer and Michigan Law Alum, Gets New Attention from Professor Jessica Litman’s Book Chapter
Edward S. Rogers was a three-time Michigan Law alumnus and an adjunct faculty member, but his most lasting contribution to the law is authorship of the Lanham Act, the core US trademark law. Professor Jessica Litman is bringing new attention to Rogers’s story with a chapter in a book coming out this fall.
Features
Flawed Facial Recognition Technology Leads to Wrongful Arrest and Historic Settlement
The Law School’s Civil Rights Litigation Initiative worked on behalf of a Michigan man falsely arrested for a crime based on flawed facial recognition technology. A first-of-its-kind settlement achieves the nation’s strongest police department policies and practices constraining law enforcement’s use of the technology.