Bridget Mary McCormack honored by Cooley Law Review with 2012 Distinguished Brief Award
July of 2012: Bridget Mary McCormack, Dean of Clinical Affairs at the University of Michigan Law School and a candidate for the Michigan Supreme Court in November, received a Distinguished Brief Award from the Thomas M. Cooley Law Review Wednesday evening in Lansing. The awards are presented annually in recognition of the most scholarly briefs filed before the Michigan Supreme Court.
McCormack, who regularly practices before the Michigan Supreme Court, was recognized for the brief filed in People v. Likine, which argued the Court should reaffirm that involuntary omissions may not be criminalized and that there must be an opportunity for a defendant to present evidence that an act was involuntary.
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Bridget Mary McCormack
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As Dean of Clinical Affairs at the University of Michigan Law School, McCormack is responsible for developing the school’s practical education curriculum that gives law students “hands-on” experience helping clients in a courtroom as they did in the Likine case. Under her leadership, the program has expanded to include clinics dedicated to children's health, low-income taxpayers, the wrongfully accused, and business entrepreneurs.
McCormack graduated with highest honors from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and New York University Law School, where she studied on a scholarship and won the school's top prize for clinical work. She started her career at The Legal Aid Society, where she worked side-by-side with people who needed someone to guide them through a complicated legal system, before taking a teaching fellowship at the Yale Law School. She was appointed professor at the University of Michigan in 1998.
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