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In Memoriam Spring 2014
Professor Luke Cooperrider, ’48
Professor Emeritus Luke K. Cooperrider, ’48, died December 25, 2013, at the age of 95. He was born in rural Ohio and earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard before serving in the Signal Corps during World War II. Cooperrider met his wife, Ginny, who preceded him in death in 2007, when he was stationed in Hawaii.
In Memoriam Spring 2014
The Hon. William McClain
The Law School lost its oldest African American alumnus on February 4, 2014, when the Hon. William McClain, ’37, HLLD ’02, died in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was 101.
In Memoriam Spring 2014
Professor Joseph Sax
Joseph Sax, a pioneer of environmental law, died March 9, 2014, at the age of 78. He was a professor of law at Michigan from 1966 to 1986. Although he later joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, he said of Michigan, “It is the place where I grew and prospered professionally, and it shall always be my intellectual home.”
Cover Story
Detroit-based VC Firm Creates Irresistible Opportunity
When Jake Cohen, ’13, heard about a venture capital firm that would invest in early-stage technology companies based in Detroit, he couldn't pass it up. “This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Impact
Michael Levitt, ’83: Invest in What You Know
Michael Levitt, ’83, has been successful in finance largely because he follows a simple adage: Invest in what you know. The advice also guides him as a volunteer for and donor to the University of Michigan. Levitt serves on the University’s Investment Advisory Committee and is the alumni trustee for the Law School’s Cook Trust.
Cover Story
Detroit Law Firms are Doing Well—and Look to Play a Role in the City’s Turnaround
What is it like for a major law firm to do business in Detroit right now? For many who live outside the city and even the state, the perception might be that Detroit is a “dead” city and that few big-firm clients are Detroit-based companies and organizations. That isn’t the case, say Michigan Law alumni David Foltyn, ’80, Michael McGee, ’82, and Richard Rassel, ’66.
Impact
Bill Goodspeed, ’83: Building Something Enduring with ZEAL
Bill Goodspeed, ’83, built his career on the belief that you can do business and do good. He’s eager to help Michigan Law students understand the same. Goodspeed recently documented a $250,000 bequest to the Law School—$125,000 for clinics that serve indigent populations and $125,000 for the Zell Entrepreneurship and Law (ZEAL) Program.
Briefs
African American Alumni Reconnect, Reflect
The excitement was palpable as alumni returned to Ann Arbor for the inaugural Michigan Law African American Alumni Reunion, March 21–23, 2014.
Impact
Nicole Allen, ’08: “A Powerful Network”
“Michigan has given me incredible professional opportunities and keeps me connected to my family and classmates,” says Nicole Allen, ’08, an associate at Jenner & Block in Chicago. “Since Michigan attracts smart, well-rounded people doing different, interesting things, it’s a powerful network.”
Briefs Spring 2014
Prof. Judith Levy Confirmed as Federal Judge
Judith E. Levy, ’96, a Michigan Law faculty member, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on March 12 to serve as a federal judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. She was sworn in by Chief Judge Gerald Rosen during a ceremony in Detroit held March 18.
Cover Story
Detroit’s Real Challenge Isn’t the Bankruptcy
When Detroit became the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy, it was a bad thing—unless you have the unique worldview of a bankruptcy lawyer, in which case it was marvelous news, worthy of celebration.
Briefs
Radin, McCormack Elected to ALI
The American Law Institute (ALI) elected a new group of members in the fall that included Margaret Jane Radin, the Henry King Ransom Professor of Law at Michigan, and Bridget Mary McCormack, a lecturer at Michigan Law and a justice of the state Supreme Court.
Features
Imprisoned, Exonerated — and Now an “Unsecured Creditor”
Dwayne Provience spent almost a decade in prison before the Michigan Innocence Clinic at the U-M Law School won his exoneration in 2010. He filed a civil lawsuit against the city, and a settlement panel proposed a payment of $5 million. Now he's on a list of Detroit’s unsecured creditors.
Briefs
Michigan Innocence Clinic Client Exonerated From Arson Conviction
Victor Caminata, the Michigan Innocence Clinic client whose arson case was featured in the fall 2013 issue of the Law Quadrangle, was exonerated in January.
Cover Story
Mayor Frank Murphy, ’12, Saves Detroit from Financial Ruin
In 1930, a graduate of the Law School—Frank Murphy, Class of 1912—was chosen to deal with a fiscal disaster in Detroit nearly as dire as today’s.
Briefs
Human Trafficking Clinic Wins $500,000 Grant from DOJ
The Law School’s Human Trafficking Clinic (HTC) has been awarded a $500,000, three-year grant from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to fund a partnership between the clinic and domestic violence and sexual assault services.
Cover Story Spring 2014
The Big Three: Michigan Law Alumni Aim to Lead Detroit Out of Bankruptcy
Three Michigan Law alumni— Gov. Rick Snyder, ’82, Mayor Mike Duggan, ’83, and emergency manager Kevyn Orr, ’83—aim to lead Detroit out of history’s largest municipal bankruptcy. And they've made no secret of their ambitious plans for the beleaguered city.
Cover Story
Detroit 2.0
Detroit is a gutted city, a cautionary tale, a tapestry of ruin. Or Detroit is the comeback kid, a wise investment, a city that will return to greatness. What happens next in the country’s onetime industrial capital is a story that cannot yet be written; no crystal ball can accurately predict the future of the largest U.S. city ever to seek bankruptcy protection.
Cover Story
Prosecution and Prevention
U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade, ’91, began her tenure with a would-be underwear-bomber trying to blow up a plane over her district a day after she was confirmed by the Senate. Then, office’s successful prosecution of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick made headlines around the world. But there’s much more to her work than enforcement and prosecution.
Cover Story Spring 2014
Steven Rhodes, ’73: Guitar-playing Bankruptcy Judge Tuned in to the People
“There is no requirement that a bankruptcy judge has to listen to individuals who are represented by (lawyers),” says former bankruptcy Judge Ray Reynolds Graves, who worked with Judge Steven Rhodes for 17 years. “Steve put that to one side and had the retirees come into court and address him personally. Listening to people who could be adversely affected by having their pensions cut—that tells you something about the man’s sensitivities.”
Cover Story
Katy Locker, ’02: Boosting Quality of Life in Detroit
Katy Locker, ’02, likes being part of the conversation about making a difference in her community. And she gets to do just that as the Detroit program director for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which provides grants for ideas that promote quality journalism and media innovation, engage communities, and foster the arts.
Cover Story
JDs in the D: Michigan Law Students Discover Detroit’s Appeal
Changing people’s perceptions of Detroit is part of the mission of JDs in the D, a volunteer group of law students. Through visits to the city, events at the Law School, and partnerships with Detroit-based organizations, JDs in the D shows law students that there are good reasons to consider living and working in Detroit after graduation.
Features
Detroit Center for Family Advocacy: Keeping Families Together
The Detroit Center for Family Advocacy (CFA), founded by Vivek Sankaran, ’01, a clinical professor of law in the Law School’s Child Advocacy Law Clinic, works like this: An attorney from the center partners with a social worker and family advocate to remove legal barriers and safety risks that otherwise might cause a child to be put in the foster care system.
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Future Law Professors Workshop Helps Legal Academics Find their Footing
The Future Law Professors Workshop, now in its third year, allows attendees to meet up with Michigan Law faculty and fellow alumni who are interested in teaching. “The Future Law Professors Workshop provided an invaluable opportunity to reconnect,” says Amna Akbar, ’04.
Cover Story
Dan Varner, ’94: Fostering Excellence in Education
Formerly a program officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and CEO at Think Detroit PAL, Dan Varner, ’94, is the CEO of Excellent Schools Detroit, a coalition of education, government, community, and philanthropic leaders and organizations whose goal is to ensure an “excellent education for every child.”
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Sankaran Challenges Michigan’s One-Parent Doctrine
Since his arrival in 2005, Professor Vivek S. Sankaran, ’01, has been working to change Michigan's one-parent doctrine. It states that the court gets jurisdiction over a child based on the finding that one parent is unfit. “My initial reaction was that this is insane, this idea that you can take children away from both parents based solely on findings against one,” he says.
Cover Story
Felicia Andrews, ’04: Helping Youth Succeed Through Team 313
A self-described “impact person,” Felicia Andrews, ’04, reassessed her career goals and decided that the changes she was making at the macro level in South Africa through her work with the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development could be applied at the micro level in Detroit.
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MacKinnon Wins Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award
This year, the Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) Section on Women in Legal Education recognized Professor Catharine A. MacKinnon with the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award. MacKinnon, the Elizabeth A. Long Professor of Law at U-M and the long-term James Barr Ames Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard, is only the second woman to receive the honor, after Supreme Court Associate Justice Ginsburg herself.
Cover Story
Reviving Detroit at its Roots with Urban Agriculture
Surrounded by a sea of crumbling concrete, the lush green landscape of the market garden on Plum Street sits as an oasis in a city forged of steel and cement. For many, it is merely one example of efforts to revitalize Detroit. For Nicholas Leonard, it is the very essence of the urban agricultural model that has inspired his professional career.
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Journal of the Civil War Era to Preserve Emancipation Scholarship
The Law School exhibit commemorating the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation—and challenging its myths—may have come and gone, but the conversation it inspired is continuing with the publication of the project’s scholarly contributions in The Journal of the Civil War Era, Vol. 3, No. 4.
Cover Story
Hatching New Businesses in Detroit
Nick Gorga, ’02, is helping “to put a small thumbprint on the next chapter of Detroit.” After working in Chicago for six years as an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP, Gorga returned to Detroit in 2008 to help combat what he viewed as a “brain drain” in the region.
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Professor Nicole Appleberry, ’94: Tax Issues and Domestic Violence Survivors
As the director of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC), Professor Nicole Appleberry, ’94, sees firsthand how tax issues affect domestic violence survivors. “Domestic violence is about power and control,” Appleberry says, “and when a woman leaves a domestic violence relationship, she is particularly vulnerable, especially from a financial standpoint.”
Cover Story
Glenn Oliver, ’87: Tapping Innovation for Water Utilities
Most of us turn on faucets or lawn sprinklers with no thought as to how the water got there. Glenn Oliver, ’87, wants to make sure it arrives in the most cost-effective, efficient way possible. In 2006, Oliver launched H2bid, a Detroit-based online exchange connecting water utilities with vendors.
Impact
David Patterson, ’74: Leaving the Door Open
For some, law school can represent turmoil and uncertainty. For David Patterson, ’74, all of that was behind him by the time he finally set foot in the Quad. Patterson earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1968; the very next day, he had to report for his draft physical back home in Ohio.