Section: Features
86 results
Features Fall 2016
Akilah Green, ’06: From the Conference Room to the Writers’ Room
A lawyer walks into a bar and tells the bartender, “I’m moving to L.A. to be a comedy writer…”. It’s not the setup for yet another lawyer joke. It’s Akilah Green’s career path, which has pointed toward Hollywood for decades.
Features
Schneider on the Failure of Mandated Disclosure
Mandated disclosure is a Lorelei, luring lawmakers onto the rocks of regulatory failure. Mandated disclosure is alluring because it addresses a real problem, the problem of a world in which non-specialists must make choices requiring specialist knowledge. Its solution is charmingly simple: If people face unfamiliar and complex decisions, give them information until the decision is familiar and comprehensible.
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Alumnus Clarence M. Burton traveled the globe to acquire historical documents.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.
Features Fall 2015
Broadway in China, and China on Broadway
Fifteen years ago, Robert Nederlander Jr., ’89, began exploring opportunities to take Broadway shows to China—something that had never been done at that time. Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment, of which he is president and CEO, would go on to fulfill that promise by becoming the first foreign entity allowed to form a joint venture and operate in the Chinese performing arts industry.
Features Fall 2014
Good Fortune: An Angel Investor Helps Entrepreneurs Soar
“An entrepreneur can’t do everything themselves, so they need a team around them,” says Geoff Entress, ’98, a Seattle-based investor who has backed more than 125 companies in the last 15 years. Today, the Pittsburgh native is a venture partner with Voyager Capital, sits on the boards of 11 companies, and is what’s called an angel investor—that is, someone who provides personal capital to businesses trying to get off the ground.
Features Fall 2014
Lawyer-turned-entrepreneur Starts Luxe Loungewear Line
Jamie Loeks Duffield, ’12, wanted to be “on the other side of the table.” So she left her associate position at the Miami law firm Shutts and Bowen in July 2013 and returned to Michigan to start Duffield Lane, a loungewear/resort wear line that can be worn at home, out to dinner, or at the beach.
Features Fall 2014
Civil Rights, Women’s Rights
The original Civil Rights Act language did not include orotections based on sex. Martha Griffiths, ’40, had something to say about that.
Features Fall 2014
A Page in Michigan Law History: Printing Course Packs, One Mimeograph at a Time
While the Computer Age has produced countless companies whose origins can be traced to their founders’ dorm rooms, college-age ingenuity didn’t begin with Facebook, Google, or Microsoft. For Ann Arbor-based book printer and manufacturer Edwards Brothers Malloy, it started with the mimeograph.
Features Fall 2014
Startup Central
If you want to be an entrepreneur, understand that you’ll have to be part of a team if you’re going to be successful. This, according to Geoff Entress, ’98, a Seattle-based investor who has backed more than
125 companies in the past 15 years.
More advice from Entress: Be comfortable with risk. Be visionary. Don’t be a jerk. And go to law school.
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.