Spring 2015

@UMICHLAW

A Yearbook Etched in Wood

By Amy Spooner

Senior canes were a campus tradition from the mid-1800s to World War II.
Senior canes were a campus tradition from the mid-1800s to World War II.

Before Facebook, LinkedIn, and the Michiganensian yearbook, soon-to-be Michigan graduates carved their signatures on canes to forever remember each other. Senior canes were a campus tradition from the mid-1800s to World War II. A display at the Law Library now showcases some Michigan Law students’ canes, including one from 1877 that bears the signature of Clarence Darrow. It was donated to the Law School by the great-nephew of Darrow’s classmate, Frank Durban, class of 1879. Other canes had been possessions of William W. Cook.

Library staff painstakingly identified signatures on each cane and researched the inscribers as well as the canes’ owners.  What they found were students whose careers were as diverse  as today’s classes—Durban, general counsel for the Baltimore  & Ohio Railroad; George De Rue Meikeljohn, class of 1880, President McKinley’s assistant secretary of war; and Bessie Eaglesfield, class of 1878, the first female attorney in Indiana  and one of Lake Michigan’s first female steamship captains

More From This Issue

Exterior View of the Law Quadrangle

Spring 2015 Cover Story

Health and the Law: Trends, Challenges, and the Future

We asked alumni who work in health-related legal fields about what is happening in their specialties, the challenges they face, and what we can expect in the future. They shared their thoughts about trends related to pharmaceuticals, mass torts, reimbursements, big data, and the implications of the Affordable Care Act.
Exterior view of the Law School's inner courtyard

Spring 2015 Briefs

Students and Alumni Unite to Guarantee Summer Funding for All 1Ls

Gifts from the Himan Brown Charitable Trust and from Lisa and Chris Jeffries, ’74—with a startup gift from the Law School Student Senate and ongoing fundraising through Student Funded Fellowships—will support 1Ls taking unpaid or low-paying summer internships in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors, making it the most inclusive program at any top law school. 
Justice Ginsburg Visits Campus

Spring 2015 Briefs

Justice Ginsburg Visits Campus

Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg participated in an engaging and spirited 90-minute conversation at U-M’s Hill Auditorium on February 6, during which she spoke about milestones in her own life, as well as key moments in the legal history of the past several decades.