Download ITC is Launched - University of Michigan Law School

Contact: John Masson
(734) 647-7352, [email protected]
For immediate release
May 5, 2008
New international transactions clinic means business
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Students at Michigan Law will help shape international deals from
microfranchises to multinationals as part of a new International Transactions Clinic being established
at the Law School this fall.
The new clinic will be taught by Prof. Michael S. Barr, who also teaches international finance and
financial institution regulation; Business Law Faculty Fellow and longtime international transactional
lawyer Timothy L. Dickinson (a 1979 Michigan law graduate); and Deborah Burand, whom Dean Evan
Caminker recently wooed to Michigan Law, and who brings nearly 25 years’ experience in crossborder transactions and microfinance to the Law School, most recently from the Grameen Foundation.
As part of an international course of study, the clinic will play to one of the great strengths of the Law
School, which pioneered a requirement that students take a course in Transnational Law before
graduating. The ITC also recognizes the increasingly important role of globalization both in domestic
and international legal practice.
Like other clinics, the ITC will provide real-world experience for students working on real cases for real
clients, under the supervision of their professors. ITC clients might include microfinance providers
working in the developing world, socially responsible investors, or others interested in investing in
businesses operating at the base of the economic pyramid.
“This new clinic is a welcome addition that will bring high quality legal expertise to bear on the legal
needs of microfinance organizations,” said Elizabeth L. Littlefield, CEO of the World Bank’s CGAP, the
Consultative Group to Assist the Poor. “CGAP looks forward to partnering with the Clinic in the years
ahead.”
The clinic also plans to match micro with macro, because ITC clients are expected to include
multinational corporations and small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs seeking help with increasingly
large – and increasingly complex – cross-border transactions. As the business world shrinks and
becomes simultaneously more interdependent, the demand for top-notch business lawyers will
continue to grow. Michigan Law’s ITC will be a training ground for highly qualified international lawyers
who graduate already experienced at representing their clients’ interests in a world where national
frontiers are increasingly irrelevant – except in the context of the law.
The trailblazing new clinic, which students will be encouraged to attend for two terms, has already
drawn the interest of groups fighting poverty in the developing world. It also will keep the Law School
among institutions leading the way in the global economy, said Law School Dean Evan Caminker.
“This is an exciting opportunity to involve a new generation of bright legal minds in cross-border
transactions that will train our students for a lifetime of international business dealings, and that can
also make an enormous difference in the lives of people in the developing world," Caminker said.
“We’re fortunate to have three acknowledged leaders like Michael Barr, Tim Dickinson and Deb
Burand to guide students down this important and promising avenue of legal practice.”
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