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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 Jan 2021

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 …


Advocating For Children With Disabilities In Child Protection Cases, Joshua B. Kay Aug 2019

Advocating For Children With Disabilities In Child Protection Cases, Joshua B. Kay

Articles

Children with disabilities are maltreated at a higher rate than other children and overrepresented in child protection matters, yet most social service caseworkers, judges, child advocates, and other professionals involved in these cases receive little to no training about evaluating and addressing their needs. Child protection case outcomes for children with disabilities tend to differ from those of nondisabled children, with more disabled children experiencing a termination of their parents' rights and fewer being reunified with their parents or placed with kin. They also tend to experience longer waits for adoption. Furthermore, the poor outcomes that plague youth who age …


Building Resilience In Foster Children: The Role Of The Child's Advocate, Frank E. Vandervort, James Henry, Mark A. Sloane Jan 2012

Building Resilience In Foster Children: The Role Of The Child's Advocate, Frank E. Vandervort, James Henry, Mark A. Sloane

Articles

This Article provides an introduction to, and brief overview of trauma, its impact upon foster children, and steps children's advocates" can take to lessen or ameliorate the impact of trauma upon their clients. This Article begins in Part 11 by defining relevant terms. Part III addresses the prevalence of trauma among children entering the child welfare system. Part IV considers the neurodevelopmental (i.e., the developing brain) impact of trauma on children and will explore how that trauma may manifest emotionally and behaviorally. With this foundation in place, Part V discusses the need for a comprehensive trauma assessment including a thorough …


Representing Parents In Child Welfare Cases, Vivek Sankaran Jan 2010

Representing Parents In Child Welfare Cases, Vivek Sankaran

Book Chapters

A parent's constitutional right to raise his or her child is one of the most venerated liberty interests safeguarded by the Constitution and the courts.2 The law presumes parents to be fit, and it establishes that they do not need to be model parents to retain custody of their children.3 If the state seeks to interfere with the parent-child relationship, the Constitution mandates that the state: (1) prove parental unfitness, a standard defined by state laws; and (2) follow certain procedures protecting the due process rights of parents. The constitutional framework for child welfare cases is premised on the belief …


Protecting A Parent's Right To Counsel In Child Welfare Cases, Vivek Sankaran Jan 2009

Protecting A Parent's Right To Counsel In Child Welfare Cases, Vivek Sankaran

Articles

A national consensus is emerging that zealous leagal representation for parents is crucial to ensure that the child welfare system produces just outcomes for children. Parents' lawyers protect important constitutional rights, prevent the unnecessary entry of children into foster care and guide parents through a complex system.


Navigating The Interstate Compact On The Placement Of Children: Advocacy Tips For Child Welfare Attorneys, Vivek Sankaran Jan 2008

Navigating The Interstate Compact On The Placement Of Children: Advocacy Tips For Child Welfare Attorneys, Vivek Sankaran

Articles

Legal advocates across the country confront hundreds of cases like Samira's each year. Many of those cases end with arms raised in frustration due to what appears to be a lack of options after the receiving state either fails to complete the home study or denies a placement. That frustration is understandabkle given the absence of language in the Compact outlining any process to compe states to complete home studies or to permit judicial review of placement denials. Yet, as advocates, we must move beyond this initial state of paralysis and develop creative ways to vindicate the rights of our …


Lawyering For Social Change: What's A Lawyer To Do?, Kevin R. Johnson Jan 1999

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 …


Give Them Back Their Lives: Recognizing Client Narrative In Case Theory, Binny Miller Dec 1994

Give Them Back Their Lives: Recognizing Client Narrative In Case Theory, Binny Miller

Michigan Law Review

This article is about case theory and its implications for incorporating client narratives in litigation. In seeking to understand the connections between voice, narrative, and case theory, I look not only to theory but to my experience as a clinical teacher and criminal defense attorney. I explore how the practice of lawyering can be reconstructed to embrace a greater role for clients in constructing case theories, both through the images of the client the lawyer presents in the case theory and through active client participation in developing and choosing the case theory. Although one aim of case theory is to …


Lawyers At The Prison Gates: Organizational Structure And Corrections Advocacy, Susan P. Sturm Oct 1993

Lawyers At The Prison Gates: Organizational Structure And Corrections Advocacy, Susan P. Sturm

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article attempts to fill the gaps in the discussion of public interest advocacy by exploring the roles of various legal organizations in providing representation to inmates challenging the conditions and practices in prisons, jails, and juvenile justice institutions. It is an outgrowth of a study conducted for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation on the extent and quality of representation in corrections litigation. It puts forward an organizational change model of public interest advocacy as the most promising strategy for legal representation in the corrections area. It then identifies the major organizational providers of representation, assesses where they fall on …


The Scholar As Advocate, Rebecca S. Eisenberg Jan 1993

The Scholar As Advocate, Rebecca S. Eisenberg

Articles

Academic freedom in this country has been so closely identified with faculty autonomy that the two terms are often used interchangeably, especially by faculty members who are resisting restraints on their freedom to do as they please. While there may be some dispute as to whether or how far academic freedom protects the autonomy of universities or of students, the autonomy of faculty members seems to lie close to the core of the traditional American conception of academic freedom. As elaborated by the American Association of University Professors, this conception of academic freedom calls for protecting individual faculty members from …


Lawyers And Children: Wisdom And Legitimacy In Family Policy, Carl E. Schneider Apr 1986

Lawyers And Children: Wisdom And Legitimacy In Family Policy, Carl E. Schneider

Michigan Law Review

A Review of In the Interest of Children: Advocacy, Law Reform, and Public Policy by Robert H. Mnookin, Robert A. Burt, David L. Chambers, Michael S. Wald, Stephen D. Sugarman, Franklin E. Zimring, and Rayman L. Solomon


Fairness In Teaching Advocacy, Charles W. Joiner Jan 1985

Fairness In Teaching Advocacy, Charles W. Joiner

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The questions I address are these: Is fairness related to advocacy? Is fairness a concept that law teachers should address in their teaching, in particular in courses involving advocacy? By "courses involving advocacy" I mean courses that teach both law and practice techniques involving the direct protection of the rights of clients, particularly in the courts-for example, civil and criminal procedure and evidence.


On Becoming A Lawyer: Some Challenges For The Future, Harry T. Edwards Oct 1979

On Becoming A Lawyer: Some Challenges For The Future, Harry T. Edwards

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This is probably the most difficult speech that I have ever had to make. I know this because I have agonized for weeks over it, pondering themes, writing and then discarding drafts, and occasionally rejecting the entire project as a fruitless endeavor. No doubt, some of you have experienced what I have been feeling when you have tried to put words to paper on a final exam, independent research project, or law review note. Nevertheless, my own reluctance to complete this task was baffling to me; after all, during the past decade, I have given well over fifty formal speeches …


Review Of Handbook Of Appellate Advocacy, By M. Josephson., Douglas A. Kahn Jan 1968

Review Of Handbook Of Appellate Advocacy, By M. Josephson., Douglas A. Kahn

Reviews

The practice of appellate advocacy may well be the most abused skill in the legal profession. The successful conduct of an appeal can preserve a client's favorable verdict or reverse his losses; and an appellate determination is often dispositive of the case. Yet, while most members of the bar recognize that trial litigation requires specialized training, too many attorneys regard appellate advocacy as commonplace and devote little or no effort to the study of the techniques of brief writing and oral argument. I have personally observed a sizeable number of cases which were lost on appeal, not because counsel failed …


Soonavala: Advocacy, Its Principles And Practice, Charles W. Joiner Jan 1954

Soonavala: Advocacy, Its Principles And Practice, Charles W. Joiner

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Advocacy, Its Principles and Practice. By R. K. Soonavala