4 Michigan Law Clinical Fellows to begin teaching positions at law schools

By Lori Atherton
Michigan Law

Four clinical fellows completed the Michigan Law Clinical Fellows program in the 2017–2018 academic year and will move into clinical teaching positions at universities throughout the United States.

Michigan Law Clinical Fellowships are short-term positions (three years or less) that allow lawyers interested in becoming clinical law professors to gain teaching experience in their chosen field. Working closely with the faculty director in one of Michigan Law’s 18 legal clinics, clinical fellows teach and supervise student-attorneys enrolled in the clinic.

Crystal Grant, who joined the Law School’s Pediatric Advocacy Clinic as a clinical fellow in July 2017, will work as a supervising attorney/senior lecturing fellow in the Children’s Law Clinic at Duke University School of Law. Her Michigan Law supervisor, Debra Chopp, a clinical professor of law and director of the Pediatric Advocacy Clinic, said it was “wonderful” to work with Grant during the past year. “Her experience working on special education litigation was an enormous asset to the clinic,” Chopp said, “and she is a natural supervisor and teacher. I am going to miss her, but I know that the faculty position at Duke Children's Law Clinic is a perfect fit for her.”

The other clinical fellows moving on to new positions are:

Yulanda Curtis, who spent three years as a clinical fellow in Michigan Law’s Veterans Legal Clinic. She will direct the newly launched Veterans Legal Clinic at the University of Illinois.

Gautam Hans, who will direct the new First Amendment Clinic at Vanderbilt University Law School. He spent two years as a clinical fellow in Michigan Law’s Entrepreneurship Clinic.

Dustin Marlan, who was a clinical fellow in Michigan Law’s Community and Economic Development Clinic for two years. He will head the Community and Economic Development Clinic at the University of Massachusetts School of Law.