The Michigan State University College of Law (Michigan State Law or MSU Law) is the

law school A law school (also known as a law centre/center, college of law, or faculty of law) is an institution, professional school, or department of a college or university specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for b ...

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

, a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...

East Lansing, Michigan East Lansing is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. Most of the city lies within Ingham County, although a small portion extends north into Clinton County. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 47,741. The city is located immediate ...

. Established in 1891 as the Detroit College of Law, it was the first law school in the

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

area and the second in the state of

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. In October 2018, the college began a process to fully integrate into Michigan State University, changing from a private to a public law school. The integration with Michigan State University was finalized on August 17, 2020. The college is nationally ranked tied for No.108 by '' U.S. News & World Report'' out of 196

ABA ABA may refer to: Aviation * AB Aerotransport, former Scandinavian airline * IATA airport code for Abakan International Airport in Republic of Khakassia, Russia Businesses and organizations Broadcasting * Alabama Broadcasters Association, Uni ...

approved schools. In the 2024, Washington & Lee School of Law ranking of law reviews, the ''

Michigan State Law Review The ''Michigan State Law Review'' is an American law review published by students at Michigan State University College of Law. In the 2024, Washington & Lee School of Law ranking of law reviews, the ''Michigan State Law Review'' was ranked 56th ...

'' was ranked 59th among “flagship” print American law journals with a score of 18.11 out of 100 and, per W&L Law, the journal is ranked 68th among all student-edited, print, English law journals, For the class entering in 2023, the school had a 39.37% acceptance rate, 35.37% of those accepted enrolled, and entering students had a median

LSAT The Law School Admission Test (LSAT ) is a standardized test administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) for prospective law school candidates. It is designed to assess reading comprehension and logical reasoning. The test is ...

score of 159 and a median undergraduate

GPA Grading in education is the application of standardized measurements to evaluate different levels of student achievement in a course. Grades can be expressed as letters (usually A to F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), percentages, or as num ...

of 3.55. For the 2023 graduating class, 69.59% of graduates obtained full-time, long-term bar-passage-required employment (''i.e.,'' employment as attorneys), and 13.92% were not employed part- or full-time in any capacity, within 10 months after graduation. Notable alumni include current Governor of Michigan

Gretchen Whitmer Gretchen Esther Whitmer (; born August 23, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the 49th governor of Michigan since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she served in the Michigan House of R ...

, current Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Elizabeth T. Clement, former Michigan Supreme Court Justice and former mayor of Detroit

Dennis Archer Dennis Wayne Archer (born January 1, 1942) is an American lawyer, jurist and former politician from Michigan. A Democrat, Archer served as Justice on the Michigan Supreme Court and as mayor of Detroit. He later served as president of the Americ ...

, former Michigan Supreme Court Justice and former United States federal judge George Clifton Edwards Jr., former Michigan gubernatorial candidate

Geoffrey Fieger Geoffrey Fieger is an American attorney based in Southfield, Michigan. Fieger is the founder of the law firm Fieger Law, and is an occasional legal commentator for NBC and MSNBC. His practice focuses on personal injury, civil rights litigation ...

, former Michigan Senate majority leader and former U.S. Representative Mike Bishop, and former mayor of East Lansing

Mark Meadows Mark Randall Meadows (born July 28, 1959) is an American politician who served as the 29th White House chief of staff from 2020 to 2021 under the Trump administration. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the U.S. representat ...

History

Detroit College of Law

Detroit College of Law opened in 1891 with 69 students and was incorporated in 1893. Among the first class of students to graduate were a future circuit judge and an ambassador. It was the oldest continuously operating independent law school in the United States until it was assimilated by MSU in 1995. The college was affiliated with the Detroit

Young Men's Christian Association YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

(

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

). In 1937, the school broke ground and relocated to a new building at 130 East Elizabeth Street in Detroit, where it stayed until 1997. The Building was designed by architect

George DeWitt Mason George DeWitt Mason (July 4, 1856 – June 3, 1948) was an American architect who practiced in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, in the latter part of the 19th and early decades of the 20th centuries. George Mason was born in Syracuse, New York, the s ...

. It had been located at the former

Detroit College of Medicine The Wayne State University School of Medicine (WSUSOM) is the medical school of Wayne State University, a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It enrolls more than 1,500 students in undergraduate medical education, master's degree, P ...

building on St. Antoine Street from 1892 to 1913; and the Detroit "

" building from 1913 to 1924; the ground on which the building stood was under a 99-year lease from the YMCA. The last location of the Detroit College of Law in

Downtown Detroit Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a Neighborhoods in Detroit, residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, "downtown" tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 (Michigan high ...

is commemorated by a plaque at

Comerica Park Comerica Park is a baseball stadium located in Downtown Detroit. It has been the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers since 2000, when the team left Tiger Stadium (Detroit), Tiger Stadium. History Construction Founded in 1894, t ...

, the home stadium of the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

baseball team, which now occupies the site.

Affiliation with Michigan State University

The college became affiliated with

in 1995. It relocated to East Lansing in 1997, when its 99-year lease with the Detroit

expired, and the original building was demolished to make way for

. The newly located college was called "Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University". In April 2004, the school changed its name to the MSU College of Law, becoming more closely aligned academically with MSU. MSU Law is currently fully integrated as a constituent college of the university: academically, financially, and structurally. Joan Howarth began her deanship at Michigan State University College of Law on July 1, 2008 and was the first female dean in MSU Law's 117-year history. Beforehand, she was a professor at the

William S. Boyd School of Law The William S. Boyd School of Law is the law school of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and the only law school in Nevada. It is named after William S. Boyd, a Nevada attorney and co-founder of Boyd Gaming Corporation who provided the ...

at the

University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the ...

, since 2001. She retired at the end of the 2015-16 school year. Lawrence Ponoroff became the Dean in the fall of 2016, and he served in that role until the end of December 2019. On October 26, 2018, MSU's board of directors voted to fully integrate the College of Law into the University, thereby completing its transition from a private, independent institution to a public law school. The full integration was undertaken in order to facilitate collaboration between the law school and other divisions of MSU. Melanie B. Jacobs, professor of law, was then appointed as the law college's interim dean, beginning in January 2020 and under her tenure, the integration of the College of Law into the University was completed on August 17, 2020. On June 1, 2021, Linda Sheryl Greene became Dean and MSU Foundation Professor of Law, and was the Inaugural Dean of the College of Law. Dean Greene (a leading scholar in sports law) was previously the Evjue-Bascom Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dean Greene stepped down as dean in January 2024, since which Michael Sant'Ambrogio has served as interim dean.

Admissions

For the class entering in 2023, MSU Law accepted 39.37% of applicants, with 35.37% of those accepted enrolling. The average enrollee had a 159

score and 3.55 undergraduate

Academic programs

MSU Law also houses the Center for Law, Technology & Innovation (CLTI), formerly named the ReInvent Law Program, and LegalRnD; the Indigenous Law & Policy Center (ILPC); the Geoffrey N. Fieger Trial Practice Institute (TPI); and The Indigenous Law Program.

Academic journals and publications

Law journals at the law school are nationally ranked and include: * ''

'', the school's flagship journal, ranked 99th among American law school journals with a score of 14.55 out of 100 as ranked by Washington and Lee University School of Law in 2022. * ''Michigan State International Law Review'' * ''Animal and Natural Resource Law Review'' Additionally, the school also publishes ''Spartan Lawyer'', the law college's bi-annual magazine. Formerly, the school published the '' Journal of Business & Securities Law''.

Bar examination passage

In 2022, the overall bar examination passage rate for the law school’s first-time examination takers was 77.46%. The Ultimate Bar Pass Rate, which the ABA defines as the passage rate for graduates who sat for bar examinations within two years of graduating, was 88.26% for the class of 2020.

Employment

For the 2023 graduating class, 69.59% of graduates obtained full-time, long-term bar-passage-required employment (i.e., employment as attorneys), and 8.76% were employed in full-time JD advantage positions, within 10 months after graduation. Attorney positions were in various size law firms, most being in 1-10 attorney firms, 5.15% of graduates obtained local or state judicial clerkships, 1.55% obtained a federal clerkship, 27.84% of members of the class were otherwise employed in public interest, government, higher education, or business, and 13.92% were not employed part- or full-time in any capacity, within 10 months after graduation.

Notable faculty

Current

Rosemarie Aquilina Rosemarie Elizabeth Aquilina (born April 25, 1958) is an American judge. She is a judge of the 30th circuit court in Ingham County, Michigan. Previously, Aquilina was the 55th District Court Judge, where she served as both a Sobriety Court Judg ...

, adjunct professor, circuit court judge in Michigan who sentenced Larry Nassar in the

USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal The USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal relates to the sexual abuse of hundreds of gymnasts—primarily Minor (law), minors—over two decades in the United States, starting in the 1990s. It is considered the largest sexual abuse scandal in sports ...

involving Michigan State. * Brian C. Kalt, legal scholar and writer who is known for his research of the constitution, the presidency, and juries. *

Jim Chen Jim Chen is an American legal scholar known for his expertise in constitutional law. He holds the Justin Smith Morrill Chair in Law at Michigan State University College of Law. From 2007 to 2012, he served as the dean of the University of Louis ...

, one of four Asian-Americans who has been a dean at an American law school (

University of Louisville School of Law The University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, commonly referred to as The University of Louisville School of Law or the Brandeis School of Law, is the law school of the University of Louisville. Established in 1846, it is the ol ...

). *

Robert P. Young Jr. Robert P. Young Jr. (born June 13, 1951) is a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. Young was first appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1999, elected in 2000 and 2002, and again won reelection in 2010 for a term ending in 2019. Jus ...

, adjunct professor, former Justice of the

Michigan Supreme Court The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is Michigan's court of last resort and consists of seven justices. The Court is located in the Michigan Hall of Justice at 925 Ottawa Street in Lansing, the s ...

Former

* Elizabeth Price Foley, legal theorist and current Professor of Law at

Florida International University College of Law The Florida International University College of Law is the law school of Florida International University, located in Miami, Florida in the United States. The law school is accredited by the American Bar Association, and is the only public law sc ...

. * Donald Laverdure, former director of the American Indian Law Program at MSU Law and oversaw the

Bureau of Indian Affairs The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), also known as Indian Affairs (IA), is a United States List of United States federal agencies, federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, Department of the Interior. It is responsible for im ...

and

Bureau of Indian Education The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior under the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs that directs and manages education functions. Formerly known as the Office of Indian Education Programs ...

under the

presidency of Barack Obama Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. Obama, a Democrat from Illinois, took office following his victory over Republican nomine ...

. *

David McKeague David William McKeague (born November 5, 1946) is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Education and career McKeague received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michig ...

, Senior United States Circuit Judge of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District of K ...

. * Richard D. McLellan, Chairman of the Michigan Law Revision Commission and private practice attorney. * Stacy Erwin Oakes, member of the

Michigan House of Representatives The Michigan House of Representatives is the lower house of the Michigan Legislature. There are 110 members, each of whom is elected from constituencies having approximately 77,000 to 91,000 residents, based on population figures from the 2020 ...

and Minority Whip representing Michigan's 95th District. * Lawrence Ponoroff, former Dean of James E. Rogers College of Law,

Tulane Law School The Tulane University School of Law is the law school of Tulane University. It is located on Tulane's Uptown campus in New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1847, it is the 12th oldest law school in the United States. Campus The law school ...

, and MSU Law. * Mark Totten, former

United States attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

for the Western District of Michigan. * Bradford Stone, commercial law maven and theorist,

Stetson University College of Law The Stetson University College of Law (branded as Stetson Law) is the law school of Stetson University. The law school occupies a historic 1920s resort hotel, the Rolyat Hotel, designed by Richard Kiehnel. The College of Law is accredited by the ...

Charles A. Dana Professor of Law Emeritus, author of several editions of ''Uniform Commercial Code in a Nutshell'' and coauthor of ''Commercial Transactions Under the

Uniform Commercial Code The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), first published in 1952, is one of a number of uniform acts that have been established as law with the goal of harmonizing the laws of sales and other commercial transactions across the United States through U ...

''. The college’s Bradford Stone Faculty chair is named in his honor. * Melissa L. Tatum, research professor and former director of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at James E. Rogers College of Law.

Notable alumni

Judges

, former Justice of the

and former mayor of

* Elizabeth T. Clement, Justice of the

since 2017, and current chief justice *

George Crockett III Judge George William Crockett III served on the Detroit Recorder's Court (later the Wayne County Circuit Court) from 1976 until 2003. He was known for presiding over the 1993 Malice Green case, and for his father, George Crockett Jr., an influe ...

, Judge of the

Recorder's Court (Detroit) The Recorder's Court, in Detroit, Michigan, was a state court of limited jurisdiction which had, for most of its history, exclusive jurisdiction over traffic and ordinance matters, and over all felony cases committed in the City of Detroit. Its j ...

(renamed the Wayne County Circuit Court) from 1977 to 2003 * Former Justice Alton Thomas Davis, Michigan Supreme Court, 2010 appointed by Jennifer M. Granholm * George Clifton Edwards Jr. (deceased), former Judge of the

Bernard A. Friedman Bernard Alvin Friedman (born September 23, 1943) is a Senior status, senior United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Education and career Born in Detroit, ...

, Senior status Judge of the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (in case citations, E.D. Mich.) is the United States district court, federal district court with jurisdiction over the eastern half of the Lower Peninsula of the State of M ...

* Diane Marie Hathaway, former Justice of the

Ira W. Jayne Ira Waite Jayne (1882-1961) was elected to the Wayne County, Michigan Circuit Court bench in 1915 and served as Chief Judge for 27 years of his 37 years working for the court. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1905 and from the De ...

(deceased), former chief judge, Wayne County

Circuit Court Circuit courts are court systems in several common law jurisdictions. It may refer to: * Courts that literally sit 'on circuit', i.e., judges move around a region or country to different towns or cities where they will hear cases; * Courts that s ...

for 27 years *

Richard Fred Suhrheinrich Richard Fred Suhrheinrich (born August 15, 1936) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit serving in Lansing, Michigan He had been a United States district judge of the United States D ...

, Senior status Judge of the

Politicians

* Mike Bishop,

Michigan Senate The Michigan Senate is the upper house of the Michigan Legislature. Along with the Michigan House of Representatives, it composes the state legislature, which has powers, roles and duties defined by Article IV of the Michigan Constitution, ado ...

majority leader from 2002 to 2010 and U.S. Representative for

Michigan's 8th congressional district Michigan's 8th congressional district is a United States congressional district in Central Michigan. The district was first created in 1873, after redistricting following the 1870 census. From 2003 to 2013, it consisted of all of Clinton, Ing ...

from 2015 to 2018 * Christopher D. Dingell,

state senator A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. History There are typically fewer state senators than there ...

and judge *

, attorney and former Michigan gubernatorial candidate *

Orville L. Hubbard Orville Liscum Hubbard (April 2, 1903 – December 16, 1982) was an American politician who served as the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, from 1942 to 1978. Hubbard was an effective administrator who served 15 consecutive terms while being national ...

, former mayor of

Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Dearborn borders Detroit to the south and west, roughly west of downtown Detroit. In the 2020 United States ...

Kwame Kilpatrick Kwame Malik Kilpatrick (born June 8, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the 72nd mayor of Detroit from 2002 to 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented the 9th district in the Michigan House of Repre ...

, former mayor of Detroit, Michigan *

, former mayor of East Lansing a former member of the Michigan House of Representatives *

Steve Pestka Steven Pestka (born October 5, 1951) is an American politician, attorney and businessman. Pestka served as a member of the Michigan House of Representatives, judge, and a Kent County commissioner. He was the Democratic Party nominee for the Uni ...

, former member of the Michigan House of Representatives, judge, and a

Kent County, Michigan Kent County is located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census, the county had a population of 657,974, making it the fourth most populous county in Michigan, and the largest outside of the Metro Detroit, ...

commissioner *

Brian Sims Brian Kendall Sims (born September 16, 1978) is an American politician, activist and attorney. A Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, he was a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 182nd district from 2013 until 2022. ...

, Democratic representative for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, 182nd District *

, 49th

Governor of Michigan The governor of Michigan is the head of government of the U.S. state of Michigan. The current governor is Gretchen Whitmer, a member of the Democratic Party, who was inaugurated on January 1, 2019, as the state's 49th governor. She was re-ele ...

Public figures

Ivan Boesky Ivan Frederick Boesky (; March 6, 1937 – May 20, 2024) was a convicted criminal and an American stock trader who was infamous for his prominent role in an insider trading scandal in the mid-1980s. After getting caught he became a government ...

, former American stock trader infamous for his prominent role in an insider trading scandal that occurred in the United States during the mid-1980s resulting in his conviction including a record $100 million fine. *

Ella Bully-Cummings Ella M. Bully-Cummings (born 1958) is an American police officer who served as the chief of the Detroit Police Department from 2003 to 2008. Early life and education Bully-Cummings was born in Japan, the second-oldest of eight children of an A ...

, chief of police of Detroit, Michigan, from 2003 to 2008 *

John Z. DeLorean John Zachary DeLorean ( ; January 6, 1925 – March 19, 2005) was an American engineer, inventor, and executive in the U.S. automobile industry. He is widely known as founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, as well as for his work at General Motor ...

, automobile engineer and executive; attended, but did not graduate * Lowell W. Perry, former government official, businessman, broadcaster, and the first African-American assistant coach in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

W. Clement Stone William Clement Stone (May 4, 1902 – September 3, 2002) was an American businessman, philanthropist and New Thought self-help book author. Biography Stone was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 4, 1902. His father died in 1905 leaving his famil ...

, businessman, philanthropist and

New Thought The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a new religious movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy ...

self-help book author; did not graduate

Notes

References

External links

Official website

ABA Disclosures
{{authority control Michigan State University Michigan State University campus Law schools in Michigan Education in Lansing, Michigan Universities and colleges established in 1891 1891 establishments in Michigan Universities and colleges in Ingham County, Michigan