Fall 2015

Briefs

News in Brief: Fall 2015

The race for Paris: book cover

“You don’t find courage, it finds you.”

Quote from a character in the novel The Race for Paris by New York Times-bestselling author Meg Waite Clayton, ’84, about two female journalists during World War II who join forces with a military photographer and race toward Paris to record its liberation from the Nazis

 

Nine

Michigan Law graduates on the LGBT Bar’s Best Lawyers Under 40 list during the past two years. The law school with the next-highest representation on the list was Yale, with five.

“Honoring a Forgotten Hero: Prof. Kamisar Awarded Medals for Korean War Service”

Most-visited online spring 2015 Law Quadrangle article, with more than 1,400 hits. The story also was shared widely on social media.

 

“It’s no secret that my dad is my hero and always has been, for many reasons. … I’ve spent the last few years working in education and juvenile justice, and now what I look forward to, other than the father-daughter time, is our dialogue about justice; I have new questions I can ask him and ways to understand and engage with his analysis and critiques of the system.”

3L Jessica Gingold

655.5

Hours of pro bono service completed by Joseph Flynn, a December 2014 graduate, during his law school career. More than 10,000 hours of pro bono work were completed by graduating 3Ls and LLMs.

Christopher Taylor speaking with a group of people.
Christopher Taylor, ’97, speaking with a group of people.

Townie-in-Chief

Christopher Taylor, ’97, a partner at Hooper Hathaway PC, was elected mayor of Ann Arbor in November 2014 after three terms on the City Council. He is a three-quarter-time lawyer (corporate/commercial) and a half-time mayor—and, yes, the math means he occasionally is overextended. A 25-year resident of Ann Arbor, he has four degrees from U-M, including a BMA in vocal performance. He and his wife live in the Burns Park neighborhood with their two school-age children.

On a recent day, he hurried from Hooper Hathaway to grab a coffee downtown, led a work session at City Hall, and talked with constituents and colleagues. On another day, he officiated the wedding of Urban Jupena and Steven Levicki. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage, Taylor now officiates weddings for free.

100%

Bar Passage Rate for Michigan Law graduates who sat for the February bar in Michigan, New York, and Illinois

Titles of articles from recent issues of some of Michigan Law’s student-run journals

  • Piercing the Veil: The Limits of Brain Death as a Legal Fiction
  • Formulary Apportionment in the U.S. International Tax System: Putting Lipstick on a Pig?
  • Title IX and Social Media: Going Beyond the Law
  • The Declining Utility of “Hate Crime”
  • Dilution at the Patent and Trademark Office
  • TMI? Why the Optimal Architecture of Disclosure Remains TBD

500,000+

Downloads from the Michigan Law Scholarship Repository in its first two years (June 2013–June 2015)

“This year, moments after the Headnotes gave him seven singing Valentines in a row, I ran into Professor Mortenson in the hallway. He told me, ‘You have no idea how embarrassing that was, but I love what you guys do for the community here. Keep it up.’ The fact that I got to sing loudly at a [former] Supreme Court clerk for 10 minutes in the middle of his lecture and later have him thank me for it is a great reminder of why I love Michigan Law and Julian Mortenson.”

3L Mark McLoughlin, about Professor Julian Davis Mortenson, winner of the 2015 L. Hart Wright Award for Teaching Excellence

More From This Issue

Image for: So You Want to Work in Entertainment Law?

Fall 2015 Cover Story

So You Want to Work in Entertainment Law?

As nearly anyone who works in entertainment law will tell you, there is no such thing as "entertainment law." Or, rather, many legal fields comprise entertainment law, and a diverse skillset is needed to achieve success. 
A woman with a Michigan hat and a turtleneck stands arm-in-arm with a man in a blazer.

Fall 2015 Impact

John Nickoll, ’60: Darrow Scholarship Endowment

John Nickoll, ’60, and his wife, Patty, of Los Angeles, have made a $1 million gift to the Law School to endow a Darrow Scholarship—which is given to a very select group of Michigan Law’s most accomplished admitted students and can cover as much as full tuition plus a stipend. 
China on Broadway group photo

Fall 2015 Features

Broadway in China, and China on Broadway

Fifteen years ago, Robert Nederlander Jr., ’89, began exploring opportunities to take Broadway shows to China—something that had never been done at that time. Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, of which he is president and CEO, would go on to fulfill that promise by becoming the first foreign entity allowed to form a joint venture and operate in the Chinese performing arts industry.

Related Reading

Geeti Faramarzi, LLM ’13

Fall 2015 Class Note

Geeti Faramarzi, LLM ’13: Assisting with Australian Inquest into 2014 Lindt Café Siege

Long before American television viewers awoke to reports of a suspected terrorist attack in Australia, Geeti Faramarzi, LLM ’13, was watching the chaotic scene unfold live outside her Sydney office. “I was told that an armed robbery was taking place next door at the Lindt Café,” recalls Faramarzi, a solicitor at the Office of the State Coroner of New South Wales (NSW). 
Russell Smith

Fall 2015 Class Note

Russell Smith, ’86: Ensuring There Are Plenty of Fish in the Sea

Russell Smith’s clients are slimy. Really. They number in the billions, don’t communicate, and move constantly. He willingly allows many to get the death penalty. Smith, ’86, is deputy assistant secretary for international fisheries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 
Bakst, ’97: Advocating for Work/Family Balance

Fall 2015 Class Note

Dina Leshetz Bakst, ’97: Advocating for Work-Family Balance

When the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) was reintroduced with bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate in June, it was a personal victory for Dina Leshetz Bakst, ’97. Bakst helped to draft the legislation, which provides stronger legal protections for pregnant women in the workplace.