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Full-Text Articles in Law
Lawyers As Social Engineers: How Lawyers Should Use Their Social Capital To Achieve Economic Justice, Dana Thompson
Lawyers As Social Engineers: How Lawyers Should Use Their Social Capital To Achieve Economic Justice, Dana Thompson
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
The Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review (MBELR) has always strived to provide a platform for legal scholars, professionals, and students to publish business-related legal scholarship. Yet, little legal business scholarship focusing on the Black business community exists, despite the extraordinary impact that Black communities have in the U.S. business landscape. In a year of revolutionary social change, we are excited to feature in this special issue the work of Professor Dana Thompson, a Michigan Law alumna, in an effort to remedy this gap. Professor Thompson’s career, professional values, and day-to-day work demonstrate genuine, commanding, and inspiring commitment to social …
Distant Voices Then And Now: The Impact Of Isolation On The Courtroom Narratives Of Slave Ship Captives And Asylum Seekers, Tara Patel
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Part I compares the nineteenth century cases of the Antelope and the Amistad to identify why they resulted in different outcomes despite having similar fact patterns. The Antelope concerned the fate of approximately 280 African captives discovered on a slave trade ship upon its interception by a U.S. revenue cutter. Since the slave trade in the United States was illegal at the time, the captives were transported to Savannah for trial through which their status—free or slave—would be determined. After a lengthy trial and appeals process in which Spain and Portugal laid claim to the captives, the Supreme Court determined …
Am I My Client? Revisited: The Role Of Race In Intra-Race Legal Representation, Julie D. Lawton
Am I My Client? Revisited: The Role Of Race In Intra-Race Legal Representation, Julie D. Lawton
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Article examines the challenges of intra-race legal representation for lawyers of color, law students of color, and those teaching law students of color by analyzing how the dynamics of the lawyer’s and client’s racial sameness impact legal representation. This Article brings together three strands of lawyering theory – the role of race in lawyering, critical race theory, and the role of the lawyer in intra-race legal representation. In doing so, this Article explores a number of provocative questions: Does being the same race as their clients make lawyers better legal representatives? Should lawyers of color embrace or resist race’s …
Retaining Color, Veronica Root
Retaining Color, Veronica Root
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
It is no secret that large law firms are struggling in their efforts to retain attorneys of color. This is despite two decades of aggressive tracking of demographic rates, mandates from clients to improve demographic diversity, and the implementation of a variety of diversity efforts within large law firms. In part, law firm retention efforts are stymied by the reality that elite, large law firms require some level of attrition to function properly under the predominant business model. This reality, however, does not explain why firms have so much difficulty retaining attorneys of color — in particular black and Hispanic …
The Transformative Potential Of Attorney Bilingualism, Jayesh M. Rathod
The Transformative Potential Of Attorney Bilingualism, Jayesh M. Rathod
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In contemporary U.S. law practice, attorney bilingualism is increasingly valued, primarily because it allows lawyers to work more efficiently and to pursue a broader range of professional opportunities. This purely functionalist conceptualization of attorney bilingualism, however, ignores the surprising ways in which multilingualism can enhance a lawyer's professional work and can strengthen and reshape relationships among actors in the U.S. legal milieu. Drawing upon research from psychology, linguistics, and other disciplines, this Article advances a theory of the transformative potential of attorney bilingualism. Looking first to the development of lawyers themselves, the Article posits that attorneys who operate bilingually may, …
The Right To Counsel For Indians Accused Of Crime: A Tribal And Congressional Imperative, Barbara L. Creel
The Right To Counsel For Indians Accused Of Crime: A Tribal And Congressional Imperative, Barbara L. Creel
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Native American Indians charged in tribal court criminal proceedings are not entitled to court appointed defense counsel. Under well-settled principles of tribal sovereignty, Indian tribes are not bound by Fifth Amendment due process guarantees or Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Instead, they are bound by the procedural protections established by Congress in the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968. Under the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA), Indian defendants have the right to counsel at their own expense. This Article excavates the historical background of the lack of counsel in the tribal court arena and exposes the myriad problems that it …
Federal Constraints On States’ Ability To License An Undocumented Immigrant To Practice Law , Adam Wright
Federal Constraints On States’ Ability To License An Undocumented Immigrant To Practice Law , Adam Wright
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
No court has decided whether an undocumented immigrant can be admitted to a state bar in a manner consistent with federal law. At the time of this writing, the issue is pending before the California Supreme Court. Federal law prohibits states from providing public benefits to undocumented immigrants. In its definition of a “public benefit,” 8 U.S.C. § 1621 includes any professional license “provided by an agency of a State . . . or by appropriated funds of a State . . . .” The law’s prohibitions, however, are not unqualified. The statute’s “savings clause” allows states to provide public …
Cascading Constitutional Deprivation: The Right To Appointed Counsel For Mandatorily Detained Immigrants Pending Removal Proceedings, Mark Noferi
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
Today, an immigrant green card holder mandatorily detained pending his removal proceedings, without bail and without counsel, due to a minor crime committed perhaps long ago, faces a dire fate. If he contests his case, he may remain incarcerated in substandard conditions for months or years. While incarcerated, he will likely be unable to acquire a lawyer, access family who might assist him, obtain key evidence, or contact witnesses. In these circumstances, he will nearly inevitably lose his deportation case and be banished abroad from work, family, and friends. The immigrant's one chance to escape these cascading events is the …
When Will Race No Longer Matter In Jury Selection?, Bidish Sarma
When Will Race No Longer Matter In Jury Selection?, Bidish Sarma
Michigan Law Review First Impressions
We are coming upon the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court's opinion in Batson v. Kentucky, which made clear that our Constitution does not permit prosecutors to remove prospective jurors from the jury pool because of their race. The legal question in Batson-when, if ever, can governmental race discrimination in jury selection be tolerated?-was easy. The lingering factual question, however-when will prosecutors cease to discriminate on the basis of race?-has proven far more difficult to answer. The evidence that district attorneys still exclude minorities because of their race is so compelling that it is tempting to assume that race will …
No Black Names On The Letterhead? Efficient Discrimination And The South African Legal Profession, Lisa R. Pruitt
No Black Names On The Letterhead? Efficient Discrimination And The South African Legal Profession, Lisa R. Pruitt
Michigan Journal of International Law
Although there have long been black lawyers in South Africa, during apartheid only a handful joined the ranks of the country's large commercial firms. Now, in the post-apartheid period, these firms are keenly aware of a range of economic and political incentives to hire black attorneys, and most are doing so at a record pace. Very few black attorneys, however, are enduring the path to partnership in these firms. Based on more than seventy-five interviews conducted in South Africa in 1999 and 2000, this Article both documents and critically examines the reasons for black attrition. While firms' incentives to integrate …
Lawyering For Social Change: What's A Lawyer To Do?, Kevin R. Johnson
Lawyering For Social Change: What's A Lawyer To Do?, Kevin R. Johnson
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This article analyzes two questions that are raised by Professor Yamamoto's provocative article. Part I argues that any significant transformation of the social structure of United States society is far more likely to occur through mass political movements than through litigation. Consequently, advocates of social change, especially those trained in law, should not expect too much reform from the courtrooms. They instead should consider how traditional legal action might complement and encourage-not replace-community activism and political involvement. Put simply, an exclusive focus on litigation will not accomplish fully the desired objective. Part II contends that attorneys' ethical duties to their …
Moving Ground, Breaking Traditions: Tasha's Chronicle, Angela I. Onwuachi-Willig
Moving Ground, Breaking Traditions: Tasha's Chronicle, Angela I. Onwuachi-Willig
Michigan Journal of Race and Law
This Note uses a fictional dialogue to analyze and engage issues concerning stereotypes, stigmas, and affirmative action. It also highlights the importance of role models for students of color and the disparate hiring practices of law firms and legal employers through the conversations and thoughts of its main character, Tasha Crenshaw.
Dream Makers: Black Judges On Justice, Julian Abele Cook Jr.
Dream Makers: Black Judges On Justice, Julian Abele Cook Jr.
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Linn Washington, Black Judges on Justice
Safeguarding Due Process In A Hostile Environment: Foreign Lawyers In South Africa, David S. Abramowitz
Safeguarding Due Process In A Hostile Environment: Foreign Lawyers In South Africa, David S. Abramowitz
Michigan Journal of International Law
Part I of this note briefly describes the effect of apartheid on human rights in South Africa. It then examines how liberal South African attorneys use procedural due process, as defined by the rule of law, to counter these effects. Part II discusses the methods used by foreign attorneys to support South African human rights lawyers. In particular, this section focuses on the activities of the International Commission of Jurists and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The note concludes that infusing fair process into the South African legal order is the most significant contribution foreign lawyers can …
Packer & Ehrlich: New Directions In Legal Education, Richard C. Maxwell
Packer & Ehrlich: New Directions In Legal Education, Richard C. Maxwell
Michigan Law Review
A Review of New Directions in Legal Education by Herbert L. Packer and Thomas Ehrlich
A New Role For The Black Law Graduate--A Reality Or An Illusion, Harry T. Edwards
A New Role For The Black Law Graduate--A Reality Or An Illusion, Harry T. Edwards
Michigan Law Review
It is not really surprising that so much attention has recently been given to the gross disparity in White v. Black participation in the legal profession. Indeed, the question of quality participation by Black lawyers is an irrelevant consideration until there is a real commitment to give Blacks equal access to the formerly all-white legal educational institutions. In examining the nature of this heretofore obvious (but only recently acknowledged) problem of Black underrepresentation within our society? (3) What must be done by the legal profession not only to alleviate the negative impact of such a shortage, but also to enhance …