Although he is among the newest additions to the Law School, Albert Pak has made a significant impact in his short yet accomplished career—through his service to the legal profession and a number of communities.
Recently the Young Lawyers Division (YLD) of the American Bar Association (ABA) honored Pak, a clinical assistant professor of law, as a 2025 ABA On the Rise – Top 40 Young Lawyers awardee. Recipients are chosen based on their leadership, innovation, and upholding of their duty to the law.
Pak—who also won the Outstanding Young Lawyer Award from the Nonprofit Organizations Committee of the ABA Business Law Section in 2023—will receive his latest award at the 2025 ABA YLD Annual Meeting in Toronto in early August.
Clinical work at Michigan Law
As a teacher in Michigan Law’s Community Enterprise Clinic (CEC), Pak works with student-attorneys to provide transactional legal services to nonprofit and community-based organizations, social enterprises, and neighborhood-based small businesses.
Several organizations in and around Detroit, as well as other disinvested cities throughout Michigan, turn to the CEC for legal assistance. The student-attorneys in the clinic assist them with everything from entity formation to corporate governance support, drafting bylaws and articles of incorporation, helping them negotiate leases, and more.
Pak, who joined the Michigan Law faculty last year, said another essential component of the clinic’s work—and one he has especially concentrated on—is preparing law students to become excellent attorneys.
“A big part of our clinic focuses not just on giving students transactional tools but teaching them the history of where they’re working,” he said. “It’s about challenging them to think critically about what economic and racial justice looks like through the work that we do as attorneys. We aim to be a resource for the community so our clients can pursue their missions, making their communities stronger and more resilient.”
Building a career as a young lawyer
While he’s relatively new to teaching, Pak has been involved in academia since the beginning of his career. After earning his undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, he helped launch 12 Plus, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that provides post-secondary pathway assistance to high school students.
“I worked with 12 Plus between college and graduate school, and during that time, I was in local high schools helping students prepare for their professional or academic journeys beyond 12th grade,” said Pak. “There is so much energy, hope, and potential that exists in classrooms.”
He returned to Penn for law school and found that his favorite class was the Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic.
“That clinic was very similar to the CEC, and it was the first time I experienced the magic that comes with lawyering; I was able to translate everything that I was learning in the classroom to real life,” said Pak. “I hope to ignite that spark in my students as well.”
In 2018, Pak graduated from law school and earned his master’s degree from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. Not long after, he was selected for a Skadden Fellowship in Detroit and worked for two years with Michigan Community Resources. Then, in 2021, Pak joined Bodman PLC in Ann Arbor, counseling nonprofit and other tax-exempt organizations and investors on a range of legal, operational, and financial issues.
When Pak first arrived in Michigan, he was longing for a sense of community. “I looked around the city and didn’t see many people who looked like me, and even fewer in the legal profession.”
That’s when he discovered the Michigan Asian Pacific American Bar Association (MAPABA), which enabled him to connect with Asian Pacific American attorneys throughout the state. This is Pak’s third year on the MAPABA board. He first served as treasurer from 2022 to 2023 and then served as vice president from 2023 to 2024. This year, he serves as the president.
The throughline
Pak said he feels the most fulfillment when the work he does has a direct impact on the communities that need it the most. “That has always been the throughline for me; having a connection between my work and improving the community around me.”
When he learned he had been selected for the On the Rise – Top 40 Young Lawyers Award, it allowed him to reflect on his career.
“I realized that every opportunity I’ve had was made possible because someone helped me along the way,” he said. “I’m thankful to all the people who have been in my corner at every stage of my career development.”
He continued, “I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention Dana Thompson [clinical professor of law and director of the CEC]. She is a trailblazer in this field and has been a servant to [the city of Detroit] and so many clients over the years. It is a pleasure and an honor to learn from her and to work together to advance the clinic’s important mission.”
