A newly announced grant from the University of Michigan will enable the Law School’s MDefenders program to create a new center for training and inspiring public defenders and for strengthening US indigent defense systems.
An additional grant will provide support to a program in which the Law School partners with Legal Services of South Central Michigan and Michigan Medicine to integrate legal professionals into health care settings.
The grants come from the University’s Strategic Initiative Fund (SIF), which accelerates ideas with the potential to create lasting, transformational change across the campus community and society. The Law School programs are among 37 proposals selected for funding this year through a rigorous, multistage review process.
“The projects funded by these grants from the Strategic Initiative Fund will build on work that really impacts people’s lives,” said Neel U. Sukhatme, the David A. Breach Dean of Law and professor of law. “Interdisciplinary partnerships like this are critical to addressing society’s challenges. I’m thankful for the university’s support, and I’m proud of our faculty’s involvement in such innovative, forward-thinking efforts.”
MDefenders Center for Public Defense
The MDefenders Center for Public Defense (MCPD) will be a national hub at Michigan Law dedicated to training the next generation of public defenders, strengthening public defense systems nationwide, and expanding equitable access to justice.
The new center will integrate simulation-based training, trauma-informed advocacy education, alumni mentorship, data-driven litigation resources, and national policy engagement.
Building on the success of the Law School’s one-of-a-kind MDefenders program, the new center will serve as a national training platform for zealous, client-centered public defense advocacy; convene scholars, lawyers, and policymakers to improve and advance public defender systems; and equip other law schools to replicate Michigan’s model.
“I sought this grant because Michigan Law has a unique opportunity to build on its tradition of preparing exceptional, client-centered public defenders and become a national leader in strengthening public defense,” said Eve Primus, ’01, MDefenders director and the Yale Kamisar Collegiate Professor of Law.
MDefenders began as a faculty-sponsored student organization in 2014. It later expanded to include an on-campus interviewing and career services arm and an alumni network. Then Primus added a curricular component and, most recently, a data partnership, Data for Defenders, which serves as a repository for briefs, motions, transcripts, and other tools aimed to support public defenders nationwide.
“It’s exciting to be able to expand the training and support that we provide to students and alumni through MDefenders, while creating resources, partnerships, and programs that support defenders and strengthen public defense systems nationwide.”
The new center will also expand curricular offerings to include more simulation-based courses modeled on the school’s successful Public Defender Training Institute and to teach more students how to incorporate social science and trauma-informed advocacy into their future practice. An interdisciplinary partnership with U-M’s School of Social Work will prepare students to address client trauma, manage secondary trauma, and sustain long-term public service careers.
Medical-Legal Partnership
Ypsilanti Health Center-Legal Services of South Central Michigan Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) will expand an existing partnership that integrates legal professionals into health care settings to address social and legal issues that negatively impact patient health.
Debra Chopp, associate dean for experiential education and director of the Law School’s Pediatric Advocacy Clinic, leads the Law School’s partnership with Michigan Medicine on this project. She was involved in helping the Ypsilanti Health Center—a Michigan Medicine health clinic serving a high proportion of medicaid-eligible patients—establish their medical-legal partnership to serve the patient population of that clinic.
“The Law School’s medical-legal partnership, the Pediatric Advocacy Clinic, provides amazing support and representation for low-income families on legal issues connected to child health. But the need in the community for free legal assistance—especially on matters connected to housing, education, and Medicaid—is so much larger than the Pediatric Advocacy Clinic can meet,” Chopp said.
The new grant will expand the Ypsilanti Health Center MLP and incorporate a research component. Chopp’s role is to advise the medical partners and the lawyers, to train health care providers on legal issues, and to participate in the research design and implementation.
“By generating data on patient wellbeing and health care cost savings, this project will contribute empirical evidence required to shift national health policy and save money for healthcare systems,” Chopp said.
The expansion will also increase legal staffing, case capacity, geographic reach, interdisciplinary collaboration, and research infrastructure—strengthening systems-level advocacy informed by recurring legal and social barriers identified through patient care. Funding will allow the MLP to serve more families, reduce wait times, expand beyond Washtenaw County into Legal Services of South Central Michigan’s 13-county service area and Metro Detroit, and address complex legal issues more effectively.
More about the SIF
The SIF will provide $1 billion in funding over 10 years to turn ideas into action. The inaugural SIF call for proposals received 450 proposals from across U-M’s three campuses and Michigan Medicine.
More than 200 volunteer reviewers contributed to the evaluation process, using established criteria focused on impact, innovation, sustainability, and institutional/societal value.
The funded projects reflect all five Look to Michigan Vision impact areas and include representation from 18 schools and colleges and 12 additional U-M units. The majority of funded proposals reflect cross-disciplinary and cross-unit collaboration, bringing together expertise from multiple schools, colleges, campuses, and operational units to address complex societal challenges.