Law Quadrangle

Features Winter 2025

Michigan Law Mini-seminar Considers AI Doomerism and Technology Risk

Assistant Professor Salomé Viljoen’s mini-seminar, Does AI Pose an Existential Threat to Humanity?, opened with discussion about what AI technologists and philosophers call the alignment problem: Will AI develop in a way that conflicts with the continued existence of humanity?

Features Winter 2025

New Research from Michigan Law Professors Supports Real-World Value of AI for Lawyers

Most past empirical research has concluded that generative AI tools don’t offer much value in real-world lawyering. However, a new study by Professors J.J. Prescott, Patrick Barry, and their colleagues suggests that AI can help with particular legal tasks—in terms of speed, clarity, and, in some cases, accuracy and legal reasoning.

Patrick Barry teaches a class at Michigan Law.

Features Winter 2025

Professor Patrick Barry Wants His Students to Become “Conspicuously Good” at AI

When he teaches about artificial intelligence and the legal profession, Professor Patrick Barry’s goal is for his students to become the go-to person in their office, their industry, or their network when someone needs help with an AI-related issue or wants to learn more about the latest AI innovation.

Features Winter 2024-2025

Empirical Legal Research Becoming More Popular Among Faculty in Effort to Address Real-world Issues

Recent years have seen a new development in the legal academy: the rise of empirical, data-driven, and collaborative research. Scholars, including a number of Michigan Law faculty members, often hope to use such work to study the real-time effects of the law on people and institutions.

Stunning image of the iconic Law School arches leading the way into the prestigious Law Quad, a breathtaking beauty that captures the essence of legal scholarship and tradition.

Briefs

News in Brief: Winter 2022

In-person classes and activities resume | Professor Richard Primus testifies on DC statehood | "Hell raising before finals” | and more...

@UMICHLAW Spring/Summer 2018

Lawsuit Brings Changes to Michigan’s Sex Offender Registration Law

Six people who filed a lawsuit against the State of Michigan, challenging the constitutionality of its Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA), have been removed from the public sex offender registry after a final order in their case, Does v. Snyder, was issued in January.

Cover Story Fall 2017

The Tech [R]evolution in Law

The first thing we do, let’s replace all the lawyers with computers. While even a modern-day Shakespeare might think such a paraphrase is science fiction, the legal profession is grappling with whether or not it could be true someday. Technology is changing our society in immeasurable ways, and the practice of law is no exception.

Cover Story Fall 2017

Have Your Day in Court Without Being in Court

A day in court is never a day at the beach. But for those who have trouble juggling work and family responsibilities in order to appear in court, or lack a way even to get there, something as minor as a traffic ticket can become a seemingly ceaseless stressor.

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.