Topic: Public Interest
76 results
Briefs Spring 2015
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.
Briefs Spring 2015
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.
Cover Story Spring 2015
Doctor’s Orders: Call Your Lawyer
Medical-legal partnerships, such as the Pediatric Advocacy Clinic at Michigan Law, address the social conditions that affect the health and well-being of people and communities. Says Clinic Director Debra Chopp: “The idea is that the legal clinic becomes part of the medical team. We’re all working together to improve the health of the child.”
Cover Story Spring 2014
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.”
Cover Story Spring 2014
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.
@UMICHLAW Fall 2014
Prof. Mortenson Files Suit on Behalf of Same-Sex Couples
“First and foremost, it’s important that these clients—these particular human beings, who have relationships that span decades—not be subjected to a mandatory divorce by the state,” Professor Julian Davis Mortenson says. “The 16 people in our lawsuit have lost something precious and dear to them, and that’s outrageous.”
Features Fall 2014
Mary Frances Berry, ’70: A Trailblazer in the Fight to End Discrimination
Mary Frances Berry, ’70, served from 1980 until 2004 on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, including as chair. Later, she stood with Nelson Mandela to end apartheid in South Africa and was imprisoned for it. At the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, she looks back on her career, her accomplishments, and the long list of items still outstanding in the fight to end discrimination.
Cover Story Spring 2014
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.
Features Fall 2014
Bagenstos on Class-Not-Race
Throughout the civil rights era, strong voices have argued that policy interventions should focus on class or socioeconomic status, not race. At times, this position-taking has seemed merely tactical, opportunistic, or in bad faith. I am more interested in the people who clearly mean it.
Features Spring 2014
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.