Issue: Spring 2014
35 results
Cover Story Spring 2014
Detroit’s Real Challenge Isn’t the Bankruptcy
When Detroit became the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy, it was a bad thing—unless you have the unique worldview of a bankruptcy lawyer, in which case it was marvelous news, worthy of celebration.
Cover Story
Detroit Law Firms are Doing Well—and Look to Play a Role in the City’s Turnaround
What is it like for a major law firm to do business in Detroit right now? For many who live outside the city and even the state, the perception might be that Detroit is a “dead” city and that few big-firm clients are Detroit-based companies and organizations. That isn’t the case, say Michigan Law alumni David Foltyn, ’80, Michael McGee, ’82, and Richard Rassel, ’66.
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Journal of the Civil War Era to Preserve Emancipation Scholarship
The Law School exhibit commemorating the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation—and challenging its myths—may have come and gone, but the conversation it inspired is continuing with the publication of the project’s scholarly contributions in The Journal of the Civil War Era, Vol. 3, No. 4.
Cover Story
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
Detroit 2.0
Detroit is a gutted city, a cautionary tale, a tapestry of ruin. Or Detroit is the comeback kid, a wise investment, a city that will return to greatness. What happens next in the country’s onetime industrial capital is a story that cannot yet be written; no crystal ball can accurately predict the future of the largest U.S. city ever to seek bankruptcy protection.
Features
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.
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Professor Nicole Appleberry, ’94: Tax Issues and Domestic Violence Survivors
As the director of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC), Professor Nicole Appleberry, ’94, sees firsthand how tax issues affect domestic violence survivors. “Domestic violence is about power and control,” Appleberry says, “and when a woman leaves a domestic violence relationship, she is particularly vulnerable, especially from a financial standpoint.”
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.
Cover Story Spring 2014
Steven Rhodes, ’73: Guitar-playing Bankruptcy Judge Tuned in to the People
“There is no requirement that a bankruptcy judge has to listen to individuals who are represented by (lawyers),” says former bankruptcy Judge Ray Reynolds Graves, who worked with Judge Steven Rhodes for 17 years. “Steve put that to one side and had the retirees come into court and address him personally. Listening to people who could be adversely affected by having their pensions cut—that tells you something about the man’s sensitivities.”
Cover Story
Mayor Frank Murphy, ’12, Saves Detroit from Financial Ruin
In 1930, a graduate of the Law School—Frank Murphy, Class of 1912—was chosen to deal with a fiscal disaster in Detroit nearly as dire as today’s.