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.
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.
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. 

Related Reading

Students playing tug-of-war in a pond

Spring 2015 Features

The Memory of Detroit—and Beyond

Alumnus Clarence M. Burton traveled the globe to acquire historical documents. His collection—including some 500,000 books and 250,000 images—spans 400 years of North American history and is regarded as one of the best in the nation. On May 21, the Detroit Public Library will commemorate its 150th anniversary and the 100th anniversary of the Burton Historical Collection.
Two of Jibu's local entrepreneurs holding a container of water with Jibu logo

Spring 2015 @UMICHLAW

International Transactions Clinic Helps Jibu Test Waters of Franchise in Africa

When a Jibu franchise opens in Uganda or Rwanda—and provides a new community with access to clean, affordable drinking water—traces of that success are felt 7,500 miles away in the Law School’s International Transactions Clinic (ITC). 
Michigan Law family plays in the Quadrangle

Spring 2015 Impact

Family Ties