Wayne Law News

Wayne Law Assistant Professor Kirsten Carlson has been awarded a $250,000 grant for the university from the National Science Foundation.

To protect the free speech rights of the poor, Wayne Law's Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Clinic filed a federal lawsuit Feb. 27 asserting that Waterford Township’s ordinance banning all begging is unconstitutional. It's the first lawsuit filed by the clinic, which is a joint project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and Wayne Law.

Responding to a growing market of foreign lawyers seeking advanced degrees in U.S. law, Wayne Law is launching a new master of laws degree this fall under the direction of Associate Professor Paul Dubinsky, director of graduate studies at Wayne Law. ​

Two organizations at Wayne Law will present a symposium about mental illness Friday, March 21. The Journal of Law in Society, in partnership with the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights, will present its 2014 symposium, “Forgotten from the Start: The Law’s Failing of the Urban Mentally Ill.”

Six Wayne Law alumni have been named among the top circuit court judges in the metropolitan area by DBusiness magazine in its January/February edition.

Wayne Law's Zachary Zurek is the only student from Michigan and one of only nine in the nation to win a summer law internship with the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Two constitutional law professors will face off Thursday, March 27, at Wayne Law to debate “Originalism v. Living Constitutionalism.”

More than 100 Wayne Law students were recognized Thursday, Feb. 27, at an Honors Convocation for achievements, awards and scholarships they earned.

Wayne Law hosted a Scholarship Luncheon on Friday, Feb. 28, at the university’s McGregor Memorial Conference Center for scholarship donors and recipients.

Dean Jocelyn Benson moderated a discussion about sports and entertainment law Thursday, Feb. 27. Participating were, clockwise from left, Gregory Reed, ’78; Howard Hertz, ‘76; and Jason Hillman, ’01.​

Two Troy High School students interviewed Distinguished Professor Robert Sedler for a documentary film on a precedent-setting Supreme Court case from 1969.

Melvin “Butch” Hollowell, corporation counsel for the city of Detroit, and Portia Roberson, ’93, director of the city’s Civil Rights and Justice Division, spoke Thursday, Feb. 13, for the Good Governance Lecture Series at Wayne Law. Their topic was “Municipal Law and Civil Rights: Spotlight on Detroit Government.”

Wayne Law’s Program for Entrepreneurship and Business Law and TechTown Detroit sponsored the Closing Reception for Detroit Entrepreneur Week 2014 on Thursday, Feb. 13. The event was in the Law School’s Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights.

Chief Judge Gerald E. Rosen delivered the annual I. Goodman Cohen Lecture in Trial Advocacy.

Judge Avern Cohn, left, and Mark Fancher of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan spoke Friday, Feb. 21, to Associate Professor Noah Hall’s Regulation of Vice course. They are pictured with Dean Jocelyn Benson.

Students in Professor Peter Henning’s Criminal Pretrial Advocacy course Friday, Feb. 21, appeared at 44th District Court in Royal Oak to conduct evidentiary hearings related to motions to suppress evidence filed in cases. Judge Derek Meinecke, ’00, presided at the hearings and provided advice to the students to help develop their skills in conducting direct and cross examinations of witnesses.

A Wayne Law scholarship fundraiser golf outing is being planned for Monday, June 2, at the Country Club of Detroit in Grosse Pointe Farms.

Upcoming Events

March 5 - Reproductive Rights Discussion Panel

March 18 - Avoiding Common Areas of Malpractice in Tax & Estate Planning

March 19 - Canine Advocacy: Dogs Assisting Child Witnesses in Court

March 21 - Journal of Law in Society Annual Symposium

March 27 - Originalism v. Living Constitutionalism: The Debate

March 27 - ‘Meet the Judges’ Networking Reception

March 29 - State Bar of Michigan Criminal Law Section's Traveling Roadshow

April 1 - Indigent Defense and Civil Right to Council: Update on National Efforts and the Michigan Landscape

April 7 - Detroit Bankruptcy and Beyond: Organizing for Change in Distressed Cities

April 8 - Detroit Bankruptcy and Beyond: Organizing for Change in Distressed Cities

More Events

Alumni Accomplishments

Wayne Budd, '67, was named as an independent member of the Board of Directors for PBF Energy Inc. Budd has more than 40 years of legal experience in the public and private sectors. Since 2004, he has been a senior counsel of Goodwin Procter LLP. Budd also serves as a director at McKesson Corp. and for the American Automobile Association of Southern New England.  

Alex Domenicucci, '98, was added as a shareholder at Maddin Hauser Wartell Roth & Heller PC. Domenicucci joins the firm from the Detroit office of Ernst & Young and previously was a partner at Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP. He is secretary of the Michigan State Bar Taxation Section.

Eugene Driker, '61, was named as Detroit Antitrust Litigation Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers. He is a founding member of Barris Sott Denn & Driker PLLC and recently was appointed as a special mediator in the city of Detroit bankruptcy. He is a member of the Wayne State University Board of Governors.

Thomas Eineman, '85, was appointed to the bench of the Fifth Judicial Circuit Court in Florida. He has been a sole practitioner since 1990. For the past 20 years, Eineman has volunteered as a judge in the Hernando County Teen Court program.

Thomas Hatch, '91, managing director of Northfield Capital Partners, advised Meidu Holding Co. Ltd. in the $535 million acquisition of Woodbine Acquisition Corp. from Woodbine Holdings LLC on Dec. 4. This represented the first acquisition of a 100 percent working interest in oil assets in the United States by a Chinese venture.

Brandy Mathie, '00, joined Kerr Russell and Weber PLC. She practices in the area of real estate.

John Selesko, '68, joined Butzel Long in the firm's Bloomfield Hills office. He concentrates his practice in estate planning, in the design and implementation of profit sharing, 401(k) pension plans, other employee benefit arrangements and tax planning.

Robert Zack, '67, joined Butzel Long in the firm's Bloomfield Hills office. He concentrates his practice in business matters with an emphasis on commercial litigation, family law and probate litigation.


More Alumni Accomplishments

Student Accomplishments

Nicholas Jones contributed to an important overview of new and far-reaching changes in Mexican anti-trust law as an intern at law firm Barrera Sequeiros y Torres Landa SC in Mexico City. Jones, a second-year Wayne Law student, helped two attorneys from the firm with a chapter in IIAI China Institute of International Antitrust and Investment published recently by LexisNexis. Jones is thanked in a footnote by the chapter's authors on the first page of the chapter, "The 2013 New Competition Regime in Mexico: Fixing Competition Problems in the Constitution."

Steve Knox was selected as editor-in-chief for The Journal of Law in Society's 2014-15 Executive Board, All second-year students, the rest of the new board members are Managing Editor Erica Shell, Reviewing Editor Kathleen Garbacz, Symposium Director Najah Safiedine, Public Relations/Business Editor Nadine Yousif, Senior Note Editor Kim Grzic, Executive Article Editor Melissa Klieman and Executive Article Editor Jillian Peterson.


More Student Accomplishments

Faculty Accomplishments

Jocelyn Benson was a panelist during the community forum "50 Years of Civil Rights: How Far Have We Come?" hosted by the Oakland County Chapter of the National Congress of Black Women in recognition of Black History Month. The event was at the Southfield Pavilion and was held to highlight the need for members of the African-American community to stay engaged in voting and political activities, to discuss voter disenfranchisement and to promote early and equitable voter regisration.

Lance Gable is serving as one of five guest editors for a special issue by Global Health Governance on a proposed Framework Convention on Global Health to come out in December. The proposal would create a new international framework, grounded in the international human right to health, that would support health at the national and global levels.

Peter Hammer spoke about recent developments in the treatment of marriage equality at the annual Board of Managers meeting and Judges' Dinner of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers in West Bloomfield.

Brad Roth is spending the winter 2014 semester on research leave at the University of California at Berkeley as a visiting scholar in the Center for the Study of Law and Society. In Feburary, he gave a public lecture at Arizona State University Law School's Center for Law and Global Affairs on the topic of his 2011 Oxford University Press book, Sovereign Equality and Moral Disagreeement. He also presented the University of Houston-Victoria Provost's Lecture on Feb. 12. He spoke about tactics used by the United States to fight the global war on terrorism during the past 12 years and questions raised about the nation's violations of international law. Roth's lecture was titled "Torture, Indefinite Detention and Targeted Killings: How the War on Terrorism Violates International Law."

Alan Schenk recently advised the Canadian national government on tax reform issues and continues to serve as technical advisor and legislative drafter for the International Monetary Fund, most recently in The Bahamas and St. Lucia.


More Faculty Accomplishments

Professors in the News

Laura Bartell continues to be widely sought as an expert on Detroit's bankruptcy proceedings. She was quoted in February in an Associated Press report published in The New York Times, San Jose Mercury News and other newspapers, Detroit readying blueprint for bankruptcy exit, in a report on the Yahoo Finance website, City of Detroit files bankruptcy exit plan, and in a Fortune magazine report on CNN Money, Detroit proposes a lose-lose bankruptcy plan. She also was interviewed for a report on WDET radio, among other radio stations, and was quoted in articles in The Detroit News, Detroit Free Press, Yahoo News and other media outlets.

Peter Henning was quoted in a Bloomberg News report, Mortgage-Deal Spoils Divide State Winners From Losers.

Christopher Lund was one of 11 law professors who sent a letter to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer warning that SB1062 - the bill would have amended Arizona's Religious Freedom Restoration Act - had been "egregiously misrepresented by many of its critics." He is named in an article about the letter in a report by the Christian Post, Critics of Arizona Bill Are 'Trying to Deceive You,' Liberal and Conservative Law Professors Tell Gov. Brewer, and was interviewed for an Associated Press article published in Yahoo News, the San Jose Mercury News, NPR and elsewhere about the bill. The story was titled Arizona bill raises complicated legal questions. He also was quoted by The Wall Street Journal (and elsewhere) when the bill was vetoed. The journal article is Arizona Veto Resonates in Other State Fights.


More Professors in the News