Anyone who met Brian Davis and Katy McNeil in 2021 would have assumed they led a charmed life. Both had graduated from Michigan Law in 2014 and were climbing their respective career ladders. But behind the scenes, Davis was beginning to experience unsettling health problems.

Henley and Zellars first met as members of the Black Law Students Association at Michigan Law, and the alumnae recently opened a new boutique law firm with offices in Detroit and Washington, DC.

Read about philanthropy at Michigan Law. 

Mattie Peterson Compton, ’75, grew up in a family that strongly believed in the value of education, and she never questioned whether she would attend college—it was expected of her. 

Bill Rainey dreamed of being a lawyer as early as junior high, which led him to become the first person in his family to graduate from college and the first person in his high school to attend an Ivy League institution. 

From a young age, Pernick has had a propensity for mathematics and science, which would pave the way for his future in computers and medicine. He recently set up a scholarship to support students interested in the intersection of law and medicine.

Ernest Newborn, ’83, has spent his career building on the legacy of his grandfather, who, against the odds as a Black man, rose from mail clerk to chief legal officer at a steel company in the mid-1900s.

For Michelle Gluck, ’83, choosing which academic path she’d follow was better left in the hands of fate. Torn between medicine and law, she decided to let test results determine her next steps.