Dean Richard Bierschbach was named one of the 2023 Notable Leaders in Higher Education by Crain’s Detroit Business.

Wayne Law School’s national ranking has risen to 55th in seven years under Bierschbach’s deanship. “Richard Bierschbach stands out as the most impactful dean in over 50 years,” said Wayne State Law Professor Alan Schenk. “He energized his staff, the faculty and students to achieve the very ambitious goals he set when he arrived.”

**Originally posted in Crain’s Detroit Business. August 18, 2023

The start of a new academic year finds Wayne Law at one of the strongest and most dynamic moments in our history. As we have for nearly a century, we continue to serve the community and provide an affordable, top-flight legal education to students from all walks of life. Over the last several years, we’ve developed inclusive educational programs not only for law students, but also for students at the undergraduate, high school, and elementary school levels. From new degrees and initiatives, to learning communities, to camps and clubs, we are teaching all ages of students about the law long before the 1L year. See page 18 and 30 to learn more.

We’re particularly pleased to have partnered with JD Advising this year in light of the dramatic changes to the Michigan Bar Examination. On page 14, you can learn about the sea change in the bar exam and our response to it, preparing our students with a complimentary and personalized bar prep program to set them up for success.

Our faculty continue to lead, making major waves with their research, professional activities, and teaching. Their influential scholarship spans areas from tribal sovereignty, to labor organization, to health disparities; they hold prestigious posts in their fields; and their impact has inspired grass-roots fundraising campaigns. Read more starting on pages 26, 36 and 38.

Programs and leaders like these are why Wayne Law is a best value law school that is consistently growing in the ranks—to a historic high of No. 55 this year in U.S. News and World Report. I am proud of how far we’ve come together.

Sincerely,

Richard A. Bierschbach
Dean and John W. Reed Professor of Law

Contents

Thirty-eight Wayne Law students participated in the Taft Transactional Law Competition in November 2023. This innovative, live-round competition is part of a one-credit course created and supervised by Wayne Law Professor Eric Zacks. The competition helps students develop drafting, negotiating, and counseling skills, with two-member teams representing a buyer and seller involved in a complex acquisition.

This year’s winners were:

• First Place Negotiations (seller’s counsel)
  Lena Vushaj and Lydia Dunn
• First Place Negotiations (buyer’s counsel)
  Erli Metko and Christian Sarafa
• First Place Drafting (seller’s counsel)
  Alyssa Bellini and Kyle Johnson
• First Place Drafting (buyer’s counsel)
  Kellan Lee, Chelsea Smith, and Pandora Pando

Wayne Law Expungement Fair changes lives

ayne Law’s commitment to community and teamwork was on full display at an expungement fair in November.

Through a collaboration with Wayne Law, the State Attorney General’s Office, the Miller Johnson law firm, Safe & Just Michigan, the Wayne State University School of Social Work, and the Michigan State Police, more than 250 eligible people received free legal and wrap-around social services. Led by Gilbert Family Foundation Fellow Elizabeth Stapleton, the fair determined each person’s eligibility for expungement. For those who qualified, volunteer attorneys assisted in beginning the expungement process.

The Michigan State Police provided fingerprinting services, application fees were covered for some of the participants, and a portion of the project was funded by the Michigan State Bar Foundation.

Welcome!

Professor expands cultural access

rowing up in a musical family, Wayne Law Professor Stephen Calkins, enjoyed playing trumpet in a band with his eight siblings back home in Buffalo, New York. “People have loved music in my family for a long time,” said Calkins, whose passion for music rivals his fondness for the students at Wayne State’s Law School.

Now, the law professor is beating a drum to provide cultural opportunities to his students through the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s (DSO) Soundcard Student Membership program.

Thanks in part to Calkins’ five-year funding commitment, first-year law students can now attend performances by one of the world’s greatest orchestras simply by registering for card membership. More than 100 current law students and advisors have taken advantage of the program this year—normally a $25 annual fee—which provides access to most DSO performances and other programming at Orchestra Hall.

Growing future legal professionals, long before the 1L year

obs in legal occupations are projected to grow faster than all occupations from 2022 to 2032, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. More than 90,000 positions will be available on average annually due to employment growth and the need to replace employees who permanently leave their roles. Top jobs in the field include lawyers, judges, arbitrators, mediators, court reporters and legal assistants.

Wayne State University Law School is eager to meet this demand.

“We have been developing programs and opportunities for students to experience firsthand what is available to them in the field of law,” said Wayne Law Dean and John W. Reed Professor of Law Richard Bierschbach.

From summer camps for high schoolers and pre-law programs for undergraduates to new law-related degrees and concentrations and initiatives focused on law student support services, Wayne Law is empowering a diverse student body through programs that cultivate inclusion, offer broad perspectives and provide a range of skills.

Wayne Law Alumni raise $1.5M in honor of beloved professor

his year marked a milestone at Wayne Law, as alumni and friends gathered to celebrate a remarkable fundraising effort in honor of Alan Schenk, a longstanding professor at Wayne State University Law School, which established the Alan S. Schenk Chair in Taxation.

Leading this effort to recognize Schenk’s significant contributions to their legal education and the field of tax law were three Wayne Law alumni: John Grant, ’79, John Collins, ’76, and Joe Angileri, ’84. Over two and a half years, they spearheaded the fundraising campaign, raising an impressive $1.5 million.

Wayne Law Dean and John W. Reed Professor of Law Richard Bierschbach expressed his gratitude, stating, “Professor Schenk is an esteemed faculty member, and we are thrilled to celebrate this accomplishment. The generosity of our alumni and their admiration for Professor Alan Schenk led to this substantial gift.”

Schenk, who has taught tax law at Wayne Law for 57 years, is renowned for his engaging teaching style and dedication to his students. Bierschbach remarked, “His current students are just as enthusiastic to learn from him today as his students were 50 years ago. He is well-respected and adored here.”

Wayne Law’s Office of Development and Alumni Affairs praised the commitment of the alumni. “Soliciting gifts from former classmates and fellow alumni shows the power of peers and the value of connectedness that Wayne Law provides to our students and graduates,” said Senior Director of Philanthropy Rob MacGregor.

Tierney
Hoffman

Michelle
Taylor

Wayne Law awarded PLEDGE Fellowship to gain insight into best serving underrepresented students

team from Wayne Law had its research proposal selected for the 2023–24 Professionals in Legal Education Developing Greater Equity (PLEDGE) Initiative. The nationwide program, launched in 2022, helps foster diverse, equitable, and inclusive learning environments within law schools.

Each team is composed of two Fellows drawn from experienced law school administrators, faculty members, or other similarly situated professionals. Wayne Law’s team received $25,000 to design a program to create, administer, and assess student success programs.

Assistant Director of Scholarship Program and Assessment Michelle Taylor, Ph.D., and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Tierney Hoffman, will study cohort learning and its impact on the academic success and socio-emotional experience of the law school’s first-year Damon J. Keith scholars. Taylor and Hoffman’s Fellowship team is one of three chosen for PLEDGE by a panel of academics, researchers, professors, and two nonprofits: the Southern Education Foundation and the AccessLex Institute, an organization dedicated to the betterment of legal education and critical issues facing education.

ayne Law has been quietly ascending the ranks of the nation’s best law schools by prioritizing strategic growth with a mission-based impact in the heart of Detroit. Thanks in part to a $30 million capital outlay grant from the State of Michigan, the law school will soon have the facilities to match its ever-improving legal education.

“This level of financial commitment from the State of Michigan is a testament to the law school’s growth, trajectory and impact,” said Wayne State University President Kimberly Andrews Espy, Ph.D.

Plans for the modern facility envision purpose-built spaces that can easily adapt with the times and accommodate a rapidly growing student body as the law school continues developing and expanding its educational and community programs.

Distinguished leader

ayne Law Professor Charles “Chip” Brower has been named senior vice chair of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA), a leading professional organization in international arbitration in the Americas and globally. In June 2024, Brower ascended as the 12th Chair of the ITA, succeeding a line of distinguished leaders. Brower’s appointment marks only the third time an academic has held this position since the ITA’s establishment in 1986.

Brower is a prolific author and editor, with numerous publications covering international law and dispute resolution. His work on international commercial and investment treaty arbitration is widely cited by courts in the United States and Canada, reflecting his significant impact on the field. Bierschbach highlighted Brower’s influence on both international arbitration and the law school community.

In addition to his new role at the ITA, Brower holds positions as a director of the Atlanta International Arbitration Society, editor for NAFTA developments at KluwerArbitration.com, and former co-editor-in-chief of World Arbitration & Mediation Review. He is also an elected member of the American Law Institute and has held various academic positions, including as a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Lauterpacht Centre for International Law and visiting professor at American University Washington College of Law. Before joining Wayne Law in 2012, Brower served as the Croft Professor of International Law at the University of Mississippi for 14 years. In recognition of his outstanding service to his field and the profession, Wayne State University named Professor Brower a Distinguished Service Professor beginning with the 2024-25 academic year.

For more on Chip Brower, visit law.wayne.edu/faculty/bios.

Diverse faculty: leading legal minds

• Power and Pay Secrecy, 99 Ind. L. J. 43 (2024) (with Jake Rosenfeld and Patrick Denice).
• Liminal Labor Law, 110 Cal. L. Rev. 1855 (2022).
• Alt-Labor Law: Symposium Introduction, 95 Chi.-Kent. L. Rev. 3 (2020) (with César Rosado Marzán).
• Short Strikes, 95 Chi.-Kent. L. Rev. 67 (2020) (symposium).

Rasul Raheem ’84 is now chief general counsel and head of compliance at the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD). In this role, he oversees regulatory compliance, litigation, and government affairs, while also managing a team of professionals. Previously, Raheem worked as a senior counsel at Dykema law firm in Detroit, bringing more than 30 years of experience in legal roles for major financial institutions such as Bank of America, LaSalle Bank Corporation and Michigan National Bank. He holds a juris doctorate and master’s in corporate and finance law from Wayne State University Law School.

Matthew Abel ’85 has recently completed his second term on the State Bar of Michigan’s Cannabis Law Section Council and has served several terms on the State Bar of Michigan’s Representative Assembly. He currently serves on the State Bar of Michigan’s Public Outreach & Education Committee and is a life member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the NORML Legal Committee and the International Cannabis Bar Association, where he was a founding board member. Abel worked to help pass the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act in 2008 and was a member of the drafting committee and board of MILEGALIZE, which created and passed the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act (MRTMA) in 2016. Abel founded the now five-partner Cannabis Counsel law firm which has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Rivertown Law Firm.