Wayne Law dean, 3 alumnae honored as Esteemed Women of Michigan

Jocelyn Benson, dean of Wayne State University Law School, and three Wayne Law alumnae - Judge Nanci Grant, Shirley Kaigler and Judge Wendy Potts - have been selected as four of 27 Esteemed Women of Michigan 2014.

The Esteemed Women of Michigan program recognizes women who have excelled in their professions, risen above intolerable circumstances, developed the means to help others or have become inspirational figures for the younger generation, according to the program.

The awards were presented Monday, Sept. 29, at the Royal Park Hotel in Rochester during a luncheon benefit for the nonprofit Dr. Gary Burnstein Community Health Clinic, the largest free health clinic in Oakland County.

Benson was named dean of the law school in June, after serving as interim dean since December 2012. An expert on civil rights law, education law and election law, Benson, 36, is the youngest woman ever to lead a U.S. law school and has garnered numerous honors for her work.

In 2010, her book, State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process, was published. It is the first major book on the role of the secretary of state in enforcing election and campaign finance laws. That same year, she was the Democratic candidate for Michigan's secretary of state.

Benson is founder and executive director of the nonpartisan Michigan Center for Election Law, which hosts projects that support transparency and integrity in elections. She also is founder and director of Military Spouses of Michigan. She earned her law degree from Harvard Law School.

Grant, Wayne Law class of 1989, was elected to the Oakland Circuit Court in 1996, and appointed chief judge in 2009. She is past presiding judge of the General Jurisdiction Division and past president of the Michigan Judges Association. She worked in private practice specializing in commercial litigation before joining the court.

She has earned many prior honors, including the Wayne State Alumni Association Headliner Award and Michigan Lawyers Weekly "Leader in the Law." She has been singled out by the Detroit Free Press for exemplary judicial attendance and selected by Crain's Detroit Business as one of the "40 under 40." She serves on numerous boards as a volunteer and also served as director of Wayne Law's honors program.

Kaigler, who earned her master of laws degree in taxation from Wayne Law in 1993, is a partner with Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, specializing in probate and trust administration, estate, tax, retirement and business succession planning, as well as elder law, health care proxy and special needs law issues. She is president of the D. Augustus Straker Bar Foundation. She earned her bachelor's degree from WSU and her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

She is the author of several books on elder law and estate planning and has been honored numerous times for her work, including being named as a Michigan Lawyers Weekly "Leader in the Law," as a "Michigan Super Lawyer" by that publication and to Best Lawyers in America.

Potts, Wayne Law Class of 1977, was appointed to Oakland County Circuit Court in 1997 and has been elected to the bench ever since. She served as chief judge pro tempore from 2002 to 2003 and chief judge from 2004 to 2009. She was a magistrate in 48th District Court from 1984 to 1995.

She has served through Michigan Supreme Court appointments on the high court's Model Civil Jury Instructions Committee and as trustee of the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society. In addition, Potts has served various volunteer posts, including as president of the Natural Resources Trust Fund, a member of the Governor's Task Force on Domestic Violence, co-chair of the State Bar of Michigan Children's Justice Committee and member of the Board of Child Abuse and Neglect Council of Oakland County.

Published: Thu, Oct 09, 2014

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