Ann Sherman

Adjunct Professor
Law College Building
648 N. Shaw Lane Rm 368
East Lansing, MI 48824-1300
annmsherman@yahoo.com

  • Biography

    Ann M. Sherman is Deputy Solicitor General for the Michigan Department of Attorney General. She files briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Michigan appellate courts; delivers appellate arguments before the Sixth Circuit and Michigan appellate courts; and reviews briefs and participates in moot courts for the Department’s 200+ attorneys. Prior to her role as Deputy Solicitor General, she was a litigator in the Department’s Public Employment, Elections, and Tort Division In 2016 she was awarded the Department’s Civil Litigator of the Year award and has twice won the Department’s annual appellate advocacy award, as well as numerous desk awards for success in important cases involving the State. This is Professor Sherman’s sixth year as an elected member of the State Bar of Michigan Appellate Council, and she regularly interviews appellate judges for the Council’s publication; this year she will serve as Council Secretary. She is also a member of the Michigan Supreme Court Advocates Guild and a State Bar Foundation Fellow.

    A 2004 graduate of MSU College of Law, Professor Sherman was a member of the King Scholars Program, the Geoffrey Fieger Trial Practice Institute, the Moot Court Editorial Board, and Michigan State Law Review. Upon graduating, she clerked for the Honorable Richard Suhrheinrich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Professor Sherman teaches Pretrial I and II in the Trial Practice Institute.

    Before she entered the field of law, Professor Sherman had an impressive career as a flutist, performing with the Symphonic Orchestra of Guadalajara (Mexico), the Belles Arts Opera Orchestra (Mexico City), the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, and teaching at the Institúto Cultural Cabanas University of the Arts (Mexico), Lansing Community College, and Michigan State University. She holds two master’s degrees in music—one in music theory pedagogy and one in flute performance and literature.

  • Degrees

    J.D. 2004, summa cum laude, Michigan State University College of Law M.M. 1982, Northwestern University; M.M. 1981, summa cum laude, University of South Florida; B.F.A. 1980, summa cum laude, University of South Florida

  • Courses

    Trial Practice Institute-Pretrial II
    (Formerly DCL 513) Must be in the Trial Practice Institute program. Pretrial II focuses on the fundamental approaches of persuasion, elements of advocacy and methods of effective presentation. The class is divided into four teams of four people which are then assigned depositions of witnesses in a problem with fact, lay and expert witnesses. At the conclusion of the deposition phase of the problem, motions in limine are prepared and argued by each team. Additionally, a facilitative mediation brief is prepared by all teams and argued. At the conclusion of the class, opening statements are prepared and presented by each one of the teams. The students will be prepared at the end of the course for the elements of the Trial I course that will commence in the second year of the program. Must be in the Trial Practice Institute program. Because certain non-TPI courses duplicate the content of this course, students may not also receive academic credit for the following courses: Applied Evidence, Civil Trial Advocacy I, Civil Trial Advocacy II, Client Counseling and Interviewing, Criminal Trial Advocacy I - Pre-Trial, Criminal Trial Advocacy II - Trial II.

    Trial Practice Institute: Pre-Trial I
    (Formerly DCL 506) Must be in the Trial Practice Institute program. Because certain non-TPI courses duplicate the content of this course, students may not also receive academic credit for the following courses: Applied Evidence, Civil Trial Advocacy I, Civil Trial Advocacy II, Client Counseling and Interviewing, Criminal Trial Advocacy I - Pre-Trial, Criminal Trial Advocacy II - Trial II.

  • Bar Admission(s)

    Michigan, Illinois (retired status)