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

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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.
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. 
Judge Haddad sitting at desk in front of windows

Spring 2015 Briefs

Human Trafficking Clinic Helping to Create New Clinic in Brazil

Michigan Law’s Human Trafficking Clinic is working with a university in Brazil to create a similar legal clinic there in which law students will represent people who have been forced into slave labor in South America’s largest country.

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David Schlanger, ’84

Spring 2015 Cover Story

The JD at the Helm of WebMD

David Schlanger, ’84, used his legal education as the springboard for a career in business. Here, we look at how he rose to the position of CEO of the company behind the most-visited health information website in the world.
Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) in primary care exist in geographic areas (green) and among population groups such as low-income people (purple). Tan areas of the map indicate high needs in the geographic region, while yellow is used in areas that are not primary-care HPSAs.

Spring 2015 Cover Story

Immigration Law and the Nation’s Physician Shortage

Lawyers are trying to help foreign-national physicians who trained in the United States stay in the country to treat medically underserved patients. The process is reportedly laborious and burdensome to employers and physicians alike. We look at this lesser-known facet of federal immigration law, one that is potentially vital to the nation’s health care needs.
CHC International Hospital in Cixi, China

Spring 2015 Cover Story

East Meets West: China Opens to Western Hospitals

Seth Yu, LLM ’08, is on the front lines of a massive change that is just beginning to occur in the Chinese health care system: the opening of hospitals in China, for Chinese citizens, by Western companies.