Course Catalog

Water Wars: Law and Advocacy to Save the Great Lakes
The University of Michigan sits in the midst of the most abundant source of surface fresh water in the world and some of the most fascinating legal and policy disputes that will determine its future. The Great Lakes contain 20% of the surface fresh water of the entire planet, and 90% of that of the United States. They not only serve as sources of drinking water and recreation for 40 million people, but also as the economic engine for the region.
Today, the lakes have reached a tipping point. Centuries of use (and abuse) and the increased demand for water from an increasingly thirsty world have created immense and potentially irreversible ecological changes and historic legal conflicts and policy opportunities to accompany them.
In this class, we will learn and experience national, state, and international natural resource law and advocacy through the lens of this unique region. The public trust doctrine, water law, the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws, and even maritime law are all being simultaneously litigated and rewritten in this period of seismic shifts in Great Lakes policy. The class will cover these and other topics through lectures by and discussions with the leaders in the Great Lakes region who right now are remaking Great Lakes law and policy.

• Type: Upper Class

This graded course is intended to give a few students who have excelled in any clinical law course the chance to spend another semester doing casework for that clinic. Students will work under faculty supervision on more complicated cases and will shoulder more of the responsibility for those cases. The course gives students a broader range of lawyering experience at a higher level of sophistication than is possible the first time through. Students are enrolled by invitation only, after having expressed interest to one of the clinical faculty or administrators. Faculty and invited students determine the number of credits to be awarded.

• Type: Clinic

Public advocates — advocates on matters of concern to the public at large — often face big, important issues with few resources against almost overwhelming odds. We find ourselves battling large businesses, governments, or entire industries to stop a polluting mine, to restart a community’s access to clean drinking water, or to restore voting rights. Yet in many cases, we somehow find a way to win. How is that possible? That is the question we will explore in this class. We will look at a series of case studies of successful and unsuccessful public advocacy campaigns that employed a wide variety of advocacy tools: media, organizing, lobbying, and litigation. The case studies will be drawn from civil rights, worker rights, democracy protection, and environmental campaigns. Students also will develop their own case studies and share them with the class. In the process, we will cover quite a bit of public interest law; every case will be grounded in statutes and common law, and many of them include significant litigation. As a class, we will explore why certain advocacy campaigns worked, why others didn’t, who benefited from the victories and who suffered from the losses. As the semester progresses, we will develop rules and guidelines for good advocacy and a list of questions for good advocates to consider. The workload for the class this year will be commensurate with a 2-credit course.

• Type: Seminar

The CEC is one of the law school’s transactional legal clinics and prepares students for corporate and transactional practice in all sectors, including the private and nonprofit sectors. The CEC’s mission is to promote economic, racial, and social justice and community and economic development in Detroit and other disinvested urban areas of the region. The clinic supports vibrant, diverse, and sustainable communities by providing transactional legal assistance to neighborhood-based small businesses, nonprofit organizations, community-based organizations, and social enterprises. Student attorneys interact with clients, normally represent multiple clients, and assume primary responsibility for all matters affecting their clients under close faculty supervision.
The CEC works with both start-up and established clients primarily in these areas:
* Entity formation, structuring, and governance
* Drafting, negotiating, and reviewing contracts and other agreements
* Tax
* Intellectual property
* Regulatory compliance
* Real estate and land use
* Employment
* Risk management
Student attorneys gain practical lawyering experience in the CEC. Student attorneys interview and counsel clients; develop and plan client strategy; draft legal documents, memos, and correspondence; manage relationships with clients, counterparties, co-counsel, and colleagues; identify legal issues, research them, and evaluate different alternatives; negotiate agreements; and implement client decisions. Student attorneys assess their own work and receive detailed feedback from CEC faculty in weekly meetings. The weekly seminar is a time for discussion of lawyering and client issues, including issues facing under-resourced communities in the Detroit metropolitan area and nationally, and the role race and racism have played in creating and continuing the adverse conditions in these communities and the processes of community and economic development in these urban areas.
The CEC prepares students for careers in corporate, government, or public interest practice. There are no formal prerequisites. Knowledge of business law, including the substantive law of enterprise organizations, tax, nonprofit, land use, intellectual property and employment is not necessary, but may be helpful.
Students receive seven credits for the Clinic: three for the seminar and four for the client work. Each component is graded separately. The CEC meets the New York Pro Bono requirement.
The Clinic seminar fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.

• Type: Clinic

This is a clinical course in which each student is assigned to help represent an indigent defendant in the appeal of his or her felony conviction, under the supervision of attorneys from Michigan’s State Appellate Defender Office. The focus of the course is on the completion of an effectively written appellate brief on behalf of the client, to be filed in state or federal court. The goal of the course is to develop the student’s understanding and skill in all phases of appellate advocacy. The student will review the trial transcripts and lower court records, interview the client in prison (with the instructor), develop a strategy for appeal, conduct legal research, and help draft the client’s brief on appeal. Feedback is provided by frequent individual meetings with the instructors, as well as oral argument before a panel of attorneys experienced in criminal law. The course gives the student the opportunity to work on a real case with real consequences for the client. While most directly relevant to those interested in criminal law, its lessons in appellate advocacy should be of general interest. Class size is limited to 12 students to assure individual attention to each student.
The Clinic is a 4 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement. Students must enroll in the 3 credit clinic and the 1 credit field component, taken concurrently. The 3 credit clinic and 1 credit field component are mandatory graded and ineligible for letter grade conversion to pass (“P”) election.
The Clinic fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.
For students who matriculated in or after May 2016, the Clinic can either fulfill the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, fulfill the upper-level writing requirement, or the credits can count toward the Experiential Learning requirement — it cannot be used to fulfill more than one of these three particular requirements.

• Type: Clinic

This is a clinical course in which each student is assigned to help represent an indigent defendant in the appeal of his or her felony conviction, under the supervision of attorneys from Michigan’s State Appellate Defender Office. The focus of the course is on the completion of an effecitvely written appellate brief on behalf of the client, to be filed in state or federal court. The goal of the course is to develop the student’s understanding and skill in all phases of appellate advocacy. The student will review the trial transcripts and lower court records, interview the client in prison (with the instructor), develop a strategy for appeal, conduct legal research, and help draft the client’s brief on appeal. Feedback is provided by frequent individual meetings with the instructors, as well as oral argument before a panel of attorneys experienced in criminal law. The course gives the student the opportunity to work on a real case with real consequences for the client. While most directly relevant to those interested in criminal law, its lessons in appellate advocacy should be of general interest. Class size is limited to 12 students to assure individual attention to each student.
The Clinic is a 4 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement. Students must enroll in the 3 credit clinic and the 1 credit field component, taken concurrently. The 3 credit clinic and 1 credit field component are mandatory graded and ineligible for letter grade conversion to pass (“P”) election.
The Clinic fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.
For students who matriculated in or after May 2016, the Clinic can either fulfill the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, fulfill the upper-level writing requirement, or the credits can count toward the Experiential Learning requirement — it cannot be used to fulfill more than one of these three particular requirements.

• Type: Clinic

This course examines the application of legal principles as a limitation on the definition of crime; the theories underlying criminal law; and the problems of the imposition and execution of sentences. Also examined are various specific areas of substantive criminal law, including: (1) general principles applicable to all crimes, e.g., mistake, causation, legal insanity, intoxication, and rules of justification and excuse; (2) accountability for the acts of others; and (3) attempt and conspiracy.

• Type: First Year Required

The Zell Entrepreneurship Clinic (ZEC) supports the University’s burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem by representing student-led entrepreneurial ventures as well as local startups and small businesses. Student attorneys in the ZEC encounter real-world transactional lawyering experiences with a focus on developing a business-oriented, client-centered mindset.
The ZEC offers transactional and counseling legal services to startups and established small companies in the following areas:
* Selecting and forming a legal entity and structuring ownership and capital
* Counseling on and prosecuting intellectual property matters (e.g., copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret)
* Drafting and negotiating contracts
* Advising on employment matters
* Assisting on corporate fundraising and finance issues
Students in the ZEC typically represent multiple clients and assume primary responsibility for all client matters under the close supervision of ZEC faculty. Student attorneys plan client matters; interview and counsel clients; draft various legal agreements, documents, correspondence and memos; prosecute patent and trademark applications; and identify and research legal issues to help their clients implement their decisions. Student attorneys also take turns offering community office hours where they provide legal information to local entrepreneurs. Furthermore, student attorneys are exposed to the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem through attendance of local events as a class. During the weekly seminar sessions, students discuss lawyering skills and values, ethical issues, client issues and some substantive law. Student attorneys review and reflect on their work and receive detailed feedback from ZEC faculty during weekly supervision meetings.
There are no prerequisites for taking the ZEC. Because much of the client work will be in corporate, tax, intellectual property, employment, and other business areas, students will likely find prior course work in those areas helpful.

• Type: Clinic

Human trafficking encompasses all forms of forced labor and it occurs around the world. Migrants are significantly more vulnerable to forced labor. The Human Trafficking and Immigration Clinic (HTC) works to combat human trafficking by: (1) providing direct representation to survivors of forced labor; and (2) developing disruptive, systemic solutions to reduce vulnerability to exploitation, specifically in the area of assisting responsible business entities in reducing the risk of forced labor in their operations.
Law students enrolled in the HTC will engage in a combination of individual representation, compliance, and systemic reform work. The direct representation work of HTC is best described as a poverty law practice on behalf of survivors of human trafficking and their families. The clients are predominantly immigrants and thus the practice is almost exclusively in the area of immigration but we also assist clients with post adjudication criminal relief, access to public benefits, and victim-witness advocacy. The reform work of HTC focuses on understanding current and prospective human rights due diligence-aligned legislation and developing tools for use by companies (and organizations that advocate for responsible business conduct) to comply with these regulations.
Overall, students in the HTC will learn and practice collaboration, problem solving, fact investigation, legal analysis, counseling, and advocacy skills. Students are responsible, under supervision, for all of the cases and projects within the HTC. The HTC is a 7 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement.

• Type: Clinic

Human trafficking encompasses all forms of forced labor and it occurs around the world. Migrants are significantly more vulnerable to forced labor. The Human Trafficking and Immigration Clinic (HTC) works to combat human trafficking by: (1) providing direct representation to survivors of forced labor; and (2) developing disruptive, systemic solutions to reduce vulnerability to exploitation, specifically in the area of assisting responsible business entities in reducing the risk of forced labor in their operations.
Law students enrolled in the HTC will engage in a combination of individual representation, compliance, and systemic reform work. The direct representation work of HTC is best described as a poverty law practice on behalf of survivors of human trafficking and their families. The clients are predominantly immigrants and thus the practice is almost exclusively in the area of immigration but we also assist clients with post adjudication criminal relief, access to public benefits, and victim-witness advocacy. The reform work of HTC focuses on understanding current and prospective human rights due diligence-aligned legislation and developing tools for use by companies (and organizations that advocate for responsible business conduct) to comply with these regulations.
Overall, students in the HTC will learn and practice collaboration, problem solving, fact investigation, legal analysis, counseling, and advocacy skills. Students are responsible, under supervision, for all of the cases and projects within the HTC. The HTC is a 7 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement.

• Type: Clinic

Students in the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic (LITC) represent individuals with federal and state tax controversies through administrative advocacy and litigation in the United States Tax Court. Students can expect to gain exposure to a broad range of tax problems, both substantive and procedural, that will be valuable when working with clients of any income level in the future. Students also work with community organizations to provide information about tax issues and taxpayer rights and responsibilities to individuals who speak English as a second language.
The LITC is a 7 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement. Students must enroll in the 4 credit clinic and the 3 credit seminar, taken concurrently. The 4 credit clinic and 3 credit seminar are mandatory graded and ineligible for letter grade conversion to pass (“P”) election.
The Clinic fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.
The Clinic fulfills the Statutory or Regulatory Course Distribution Requirement for graduation applicable to JD students who matriculated in May 2016 and thereafter.

• Type: Clinic

Founded in 2009, the Michigan Innocence Clinic was the first innocence clinic in the country to focus exclusively on non-DNA cases. In the MIC’s sixteen-year history, it has achieved victories in 45 cases on behalf of clients who had been wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit.
Students registered in the MIC investigate and litigate cases on behalf of incarcerated people who are actually innocent of the crimes for which they have been convicted. Students work on all aspects of the cases, including researching claims of innocence and the law pertaining to them, investigating new evidence, writing and editing court briefs and motions, and participating in courtroom activities when there are hearings scheduled in their cases.
The clinic also features a seminar component, where students explore in class the legal and policy issues underlying wrongful convictions and engage in practical skills exercises such as mock direct/cross exams and oral arguments. There are no exams or papers; students are graded on their preparedness and contribution to class, various in-class exercises, the progress they make in their cases, and the quality of their case-related work product. Students are required to complete six office hours per week in the clinic’s office, in addition to class time and the usual outside-of-class time spent doing seminar readings and case-related tasks.
The MIC’s docket spans both state and federal courts and is quite diverse and novel. No two cases are the same, and non-DNA innocence litigation continues to be a fascinating challenge within the field of criminal litigation. Students work with supervising attorneys to craft legal strategies and explore evidentiary and procedural avenues for obtaining relief, many of which have been expanded in recent years due to the work of the MIC and other such organizations.
Students interested in criminal law/procedure, appellate practice, brief writing, public interest work, innocence litigation, or courtroom advocacy would be especially suitable for the MIC. That said, there is also plenty in the clinic that would interest those who don’t plan to pursue a litigation career. There are no specific prerequisites (outside of the regular first-year courses), and no prior specialized knowledge of criminal defense or innocence litigation is required or expected.
* Clinic spans fall and winter semesters of one academic year. Students may register during winter of 1L or 2L year for enrollment during 2L or 3L year, respectively.

• Type: Clinic

Founded in 2009, the Michigan Innocence Clinic was the first innocence clinic in the country to focus exclusively on non-DNA cases. In the MIC’s sixteen-year history, it has achieved victories in 45 cases on behalf of clients who had been wrongfully convicted of crimes they did not commit.
Students registered in the MIC investigate and litigate cases on behalf of incarcerated people who are actually innocent of the crimes for which they have been convicted. Students work on all aspects of the cases, including researching claims of innocence and the law pertaining to them, investigating new evidence, writing and editing court briefs and motions, and participating in courtroom activities when there are hearings scheduled in their cases.
The clinic also features a seminar component, where students explore in class the legal and policy issues underlying wrongful convictions and engage in practical skills exercises such as mock direct/cross exams and oral arguments. There are no exams or papers; students are graded on their preparedness and contribution to class, various in-class exercises, the progress they make in their cases, and the quality of their case-related work product. Students are required to complete six office hours per week in the clinic’s office, in addition to class time and the usual outside-of-class time spent doing seminar readings and case-related tasks.
The MIC’s docket spans both state and federal courts and is quite diverse and novel. No two cases are the same, and non-DNA innocence litigation continues to be a fascinating challenge within the field of criminal litigation. Students work with supervising attorneys to craft legal strategies and explore evidentiary and procedural avenues for obtaining relief, many of which have been expanded in recent years due to the work of the MIC and other such organizations.
Students interested in criminal law/procedure, appellate practice, brief writing, public interest work, innocence litigation, or courtroom advocacy would be especially suitable for the MIC. That said, there is also plenty in the clinic that would interest those who don’t plan to pursue a litigation career. There are no specific prerequisites (outside of the regular first-year courses), and no prior specialized knowledge of criminal defense or innocence litigation is required or expected.
* Clinic spans fall and winter semesters of one academic year. Students may register during winter of 1L or 2L year for enrollment during 2L or 3L year, respectively.

• Type: Clinic

One of the first medical-legal partnerships to be based in a law school setting, Pediatric Advocacy Clinic (PAC) students become part of an interdisciplinary team working to improve child health by providing legal assistance to low-income families on issues related to child health. Casework includes advocacy around special education, school discipline, domestic violence and family law, Medicaid and other public benefits, and housing conditions. PAC students take “first chair” responsibility for their cases and are involved in all aspects of a case. They learn a range of advocacy skills, from preventive legal advocacy (focusing on identifying issues at an early stage and on developing creative, multidisciplinary approaches to addressing them) to traditional litigation skills in both administrative and trial court settings. Students in the seminar learn substantive law and core lawyering skills and engage in reflection and simulations designed to solidify these skills. The PAC is 7 credits (4 for the seminar and 3 for the clinic) and all credits are graded. The PAC meets the New York Pro Bono requirement.
The Clinic seminar fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.

• Type: Clinic

Learn to litigate while serving those who have served our country in the Veterans Legal Clinic. VLC students first chair their cases, engaging in all aspects of litigation, including:
* interviewing clients
* drafting pleadings
* writing and arguing motions
* negotiating with opposing attorneys
* handling evidentiary hearings and trials.
The VLC is a general civil litigation clinic in which students regularly get into court to represent veterans in all kinds of civil litigation matters, including:
* contract disputes
* family law
* landlord-tenant cases
* consumer actions
* civil rights cases.
Students are taught by seasoned litigators who meet frequently with students to discuss strategy and who give detailed feedback on written work and all other aspects of representation. Yet students are given significant autonomy and empowered to make strategic decisions in their cases. At the end of the semester, students will be prepared to handle any kind of litigation case and will understand how to successfully manage a case from intake to resolution.
Students also participate in the VLC seminar, which teaches students the skills they need to provide top-notch representation to their veteran clients. Seminar sessions focus on skills like interviewing, negotiation, discovery, motion practice, evidence, and trial skills. Students also act as the attorneys in an in-class mock trial of a current or past VLC case. Students participate in case rounds, during which they work with each other to solve problems in their cases, and throughout the semester students in the VLC seminar are asked to reflect on their and their classmates’ work, the role they play as attorneys in their clients’ lives and society generally, and their ethical and moral obligations. Students will leave the VLC seminar as competent, confident, and reflective legal advocates.

• Type: Clinic

Learn to litigate while serving those who have served our country in the Veterans Legal Clinic. VLC students first chair their cases, engaging in all aspects of litigation, including:
* interviewing clients
* drafting pleadings
* writing and arguing motions
* negotiating with opposing attorneys
* handling evidentiary hearings and trials.
The VLC is a general civil litigation clinic in which students regularly get into court to represent veterans in all kinds of civil litigation matters, including:
* contract disputes
* family law
* landlord-tenant cases
* consumer actions
* civil rights cases.
Students are taught by seasoned litigators who meet frequently with students to discuss strategy and who give detailed feedback on written work and all other aspects of representation. Yet students are given significant autonomy and empowered to make strategic decisions in their cases. At the end of the semester, students will be prepared to handle any kind of litigation case and will understand how to successfully manage a case from intake to resolution.
Students also participate in the VLC seminar, which teaches students the skills they need to provide top-notch representation to their veteran clients. Seminar sessions focus on skills like interviewing, negotiation, discovery, motion practice, evidence, and trial skills. Students also act as the attorneys in an in-class mock trial of a current or past VLC case. Students participate in case rounds, during which they work with each other to solve problems in their cases, and throughout the semester students in the VLC seminar are asked to reflect on their and their classmates’ work, the role they play as attorneys in their clients’ lives and society generally, and their ethical and moral obligations. Students will leave the VLC seminar as competent, confident, and reflective legal advocates.

• Type: Clinic

The Zell Entrepreneurship Clinic (ZEC) supports the University’s burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem by representing student-led entrepreneurial ventures as well as local startups and small businesses. Student attorneys in the ZEC encounter real-world transactional lawyering experiences with a focus on developing a business-oriented, client-centered mindset.
The ZEC offers transactional and counseling legal services to startups and established small companies in the following areas:
* Selecting and forming a legal entity and structuring ownership and capital
* Counseling on and prosecuting intellectual property matters (e.g., copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret)
* Drafting and negotiating contracts
* Advising on employment matters
* Assisting on corporate fundraising and finance issues
Students in the ZEC typically represent multiple clients and assume primary responsibility for all client matters under the close supervision of ZEC faculty. Student attorneys plan client matters; interview and counsel clients; draft various legal agreements, documents, correspondence and memos; prosecute patent and trademark applications; and identify and research legal issues to help their clients implement their decisions. Student attorneys also take turns offering community office hours where they provide legal information to local entrepreneurs. Furthermore, student attorneys are exposed to the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem through attendance of local events as a class. During the weekly seminar sessions, students discuss lawyering skills and values, ethical issues, client issues and some substantive law. Student attorneys review and reflect on their work and receive detailed feedback from ZEC faculty during weekly supervision meetings.
There are no prerequisites for taking the ZEC. Because much of the client work will be in corporate, tax, intellectual property, employment, and other business areas, students will likely find prior course work in those areas helpful.

• Type: Clinic