Law Quadrangle Notes - Summer 2008

Abstract

Features: Approaching the nation’s highest bench. 6 Jeffrey L. Fisher, ’97, has argued nine cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and has more scheduled for argument during the Court’s 2008-09 term—all before he reaches age 40. “He’s very good at keeping his ear to the ground and getting cases that might work,” Michigan Law Professor Richard D. Friedman says of Fisher, who co-teaches the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Stanford Law School. Project for new facilities gets underway. 10 A new academic building and a new Law School Commons will mark Michigan Law’s first major expansion of instruction facilities since completion of the William W. Cook Law Quadrangle in 1933. The expansion reflects Law School and U-M leaders’ detailed planning and Washington, D.C.-based Hartman-Cox Architects’ experience in linking new design with revered existing buildings. The transformation of private practice. 16 Freedom to advertise, competition and commercialization, technological advances, globalization, the goal of diversity, and a host of other factors have transformed the practice of law and forced law firms and practitioners to struggle to keep up. How has legal practice changed, and where may it be headed?