Section: Features
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Features Spring/Summer 2023
Behind the Bench at the Supreme Court
For 20 years, Jeffrey Minear’s dealings at the Supreme Court followed a familiar pattern. As a litigator in the Office of the Solicitor General, he would prepare a brief, present argument, and await the ruling—a process he repeated more than 50 times. That all changed in 2006, when a new mandate became his daily task at the Court: perform such duties as may be assigned by the chief justice.


Features Spring/Summer 2023
Jeff Titus Celebrates Life (on the) Outside
Titus, a Michigan Innocence Clinic client, was exonerated and released from prison in February. He was convicted in 2002 of killing two deer hunters in a state game area in the southeast corner of Kalamazoo County, Michigan.


Features
The Business of College Sports
Name, image, likeness (NIL)—three words that have created enormous changes for student-athletes and collegiate sports. We spoke with two Michigan Law alumni—one historically in favor and one against compensation for athletes—who have engaged on this topic over the past several years in friendly debate with each other.


Features Spring/Summer 2023
Slavery’s Legacy in Architecture and Law
Slavery and the Built Environment, a Problem Solving Initiative class taught by Luis C.deBaca, ’93, examined the historical narrative of monuments in the US, including those with racist legacies. Students in the fall 2022 semester examined the history of Sylvester Manor to better understand how land use and regulation of supply chains have been shaped by slavery and its legacies.


Features Fall 2022
A Legacy of Bigoted Deeds in Ann Arbor
The Hannah neighborhood near downtown Ann Arbor is relatively small, and its lawn signs reflect the progressive politics of residents. But that welcoming impression took a hit when neighbors started to learn last year that the deeds to their homes contain racist covenants once used for decades to exclude non-whites. The common reaction? Shock.


Features Fall 2022
Three Former Students Become Their Law Professor’s Lawyers
There is an old adage about doctors being the worst patients. So does that mean law professors are the worst clients? Absolutely not, say three former students of one Michigan Law professor, who now serve as her lawyers in various capacities.


Features Fall 2022
Justin Amash, ’05: An Independent Voice in a Partisan Time
The driving force behind the political views of Justin Amash, ’05, is his strict adherence to the Constitution. The former member of the US House of Representatives says that fervor was born at Michigan Law.


Features Fall 2022
In-house on Campus
As the University of Michigan’s vice president and general counsel, Tim Lynch has seen it all in his nine-plus years on the job—well, except for admiralty law cases.


Features Fall 2022
Problem Solving Course Untangles a Web of Tribal Sovereignty and Policing
Earlier this year, students in Michigan Law’s Problem Solving Initiative course Policing by Indian Tribes had the opportunity to take a deep dive into the legal challenges that complicate law enforcement in Native American communities. In doing so, they found that there are rarely simple answers to the questions that arise.


Features
David Breach, ’94: From Bottled Juice to High Finance
“As a young kid, I’d always said I wanted to be a lawyer because I thought, ‘Lawyers are people who talk a lot, and they make a lot of money.’ I had learned how to be good at talking, but I wasn’t making a lot of money.”