State Bar of Michigan

State Bar of Michigan
Type Legal Society
Headquarters Lansing, Michigan
Location
  • United States
Membership
44,504 in 2015[1]
Website http://www.michbar.org

The State Bar of Michigan is the governing body for lawyers in the State of Michigan. Membership is mandatory for attorneys who practice law in Michigan. The organization's mission is to aid in promoting improvements in the administration of justice and advancements in jurisprudence, improving relations between the legal profession and the public, and promoting the interests of the legal profession in Michigan.

History and organization

Under the authority of the Michigan Constitution Article 6, the Michigan Supreme Court established the State Bar of Michigan in 1935.[2] The organization is governed by the Michigan Supreme Court Rules concerning the State Bar of Michigan.[3]

A Board of Commissioners, number 31-33 members, governs the State Bar. The Bar's elected officers include a President, President-Elect, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. A 10-member Executive Committee composed of the officers, a Representative Assembly Chair and Vice-Chair, and three other commissioners chosen by the President manage the affairs of the Bar between board meetings. Standing committees of the Board provide oversight to the operations of the Bar in strategic planning, finance, public policy, member services and other matters. A 150-member Representative Assembly is the final policy making body of the State Bar. In 2014, the Bar had more than 43,000 members.[4]

State Bar programs and membership services

The State Bar provides a wide variety of programs and member services benefiting both the public interest and the members of the Bar. Among them:

The Institute of Continuing Legal Education is the continuing legal education arm of the State Bar of Michigan. It began after a request by the State Bar's Board of Commissioners in 1959 and opened in 1960 with the cooperation of the law schools of the University of Michigan Law School and Wayne State University Law School.[5] It is based in Ann Arbor close to the University of Michigan Law School.

The sponsors of ICLE are the State Bar of Michigan, the University of Michigan Law School, Wayne State University Law School, the University of Detroit Mercy College of Law, the Michigan State University College of Law, and Thomas M. Cooley Law School.

ICLE operates through:

The organization has commemorated many "Michigan Legal Milestones."[6] Those include:

  1. Ossian Sweet Trial, which was presided over by Frank Murphy and defended by Clarence Darrow.
  2. Baseball's Reserve Clause
  3. Thomas M. Cooley Law Office
  4. Theodore Roosevelt-Newett libel trial at the Marquette County, Michigan Courthouse. Roosevelt won the verdict, but was awarded a dime.
  5. Justice William A. Fletcher—the first chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.
  6. Sojourner Truth, African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist
  7. Augustus Woodward—first chief justice of the Michigan territorial court.
  8. Public Access to Public Water
  9. Ten Hours or No Sawdust—Michigan's largest labor strike of the 19th century.
  10. 1961-62 Michigan Constitutional Convention
  11. Eva Belles' Vote—an early victory for women's suffrage won in Flint, Michigan.
  12. One Person, One Vote
  13. Improving Justice—the idea for the American Judicature Society created in Manistee, Michigan.
  14. The King's Grant—a celebrated cases of the 19th century involving a dispute over land granted by French King Louis XV in 1750.
  15. The Uninvited Ear—Judge Damon Keith's decision in a 1971 case upheld the right of Americans to be free from unreasonable government intrusion.
  16. Laughing Whitefish—an 1889 decision by the Michigan Supreme Court recognizing the legal validity of Native American tribal laws and customs.
  17. Protecting the Impaired—a Michigan Supreme Court decision overturing as unconstitutional an act of the Michigan legislature providing for forced sterilization of the mentally impaired. Compare Buck vs. Bell.
  18. Rose of Aberlone—the classic contracts case involving Hiram Walker & Sons, Rose the cow, and the principle of rescission based on mutual mistake.
  19. Emelia Schaub—Michigan's first woman elected prosecutor, the first woman in the United States to successfully defend a murder trial, and a protector of "the rights and tribal existence of native Americans in northwest Michigan."
  20. 1948 decision in Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co.—Supreme Court Associate Justice Frank Murphy important decision interpreting the Fair Labor Standards Act.
  21. Pond's Defense—Michigan Supreme Court Justice James Campbell authored an important decision about self-defense and defense of others in 1860 in Pond v. People.
  22. Ending Jim Crow—Keith's Theatre in Grand Rapids discriminated against patrons based on their race, but that practice was found to violate Michigan's Constitution by the Michigan Supreme Court.
  23. Conveying Michigan
  24. Frank Murphy's Dissent in Korematsu vs. United States.
  25. Striking Racial Covenants—the United States Supreme Court rejected racial restrictive covenants in deeds that would have prevented Orsel and Minnie McGhee and their family from living where they chose in Detroit.
  26. Milo Radulovich and the Fall of McCarthyism—in 1953, two Michigan attorneys, the Hon. Kenneth N. Sanborn and Charles C. Lockwood assisted Milo Radulovich, a resident of Dexter, Michigan, in his fight against the United States Air Force.
  27. Committee of One—Judge Henry Hart of Midland, led a "one-man campaign" for the uniform placement of yellow "No Passing Zone" signs on the left side of Michigan Roads.
  28. Pioneer, Advocate, Woman—Mary Coleman, first female Michigan Supreme Court Justice and Chief Justice, who made a lasting impact on Michigan’s judicial system.
  29. President Gerald R. Ford—38th President of the United States was a Michigan lawyer practicing in Grand Rapids.
  30. Freedom Road—In Dowagiac, Michigan residents of Cass County rallied to protect runaway slaves in the Kentucky Raid of 1847.
  31. Otis Milton Smith (1922-1994) was an outstanding leader, lawyer, and dedicated public servant who overcame poverty and prejudice. He served as chair of the Michigan Public Service Commission, justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, regent of the University of Michigan, and a vice president and general counsel of the General Motors Corporation.
  32. Prentiss Marsh Brown, a St. Ignace lawyer, is best remembered as the "father of the Mackinac Bridge." He was appointed chair of the Mackinac Bridge Authority.
  33. Poletown & Eminent Domain
  34. From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry
  35. Elk, Oil, & the Environment
  36. Milliken v. Bradley
  37. Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act
  38. Berrien County Courthouse
  39. The Great Ferris Fire

References

  1. ↑ "State Bar of Michigan Annual Financial Report (2015)". State Bar of Michigan. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
  2. ↑ History of the State Bar of Michigan
  3. ↑ "Rules Concerning the State Bar of Michigan" (PDF). Michigan Supreme Court. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
  4. ↑ "State Bar of Michigan: Member Directory". www.michbar.orp. State Bar of Michigan. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
  5. ↑ History of ICLE, ICLE.org, accessed 7 January 2011
  6. ↑ Michigan Legal Milestones.
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