Renee Newman Knake
Associate Professor of Law
Co-Founder & Co-Director of ReInvent Law
Co-Founder & Co-Director of 21st Century Law Practice Summer Program in London
Co-Director of the Kelley Institute of Ethics and the Legal Profession
Law College Building
648 N. Shaw Lane Rm 461
East Lansing, MI 48824-1300
517-432-6882
rk@law.msu.edu
Degrees
J.D. 1999, University of Chicago Law School; B.A. 1996, North Park College, summa cum laude
Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
Bar Admissions
Michigan, Illinois (inactive), Virginia (associate)
Courses
21st Century Law Practice, Entrepreneurial Lawyering, Federal Jurisdiction, Foundations of Law, Lawyers & Ethics, Professional Responsibility, Topics in Professional Responsibility: The First Amendment and Regulation of Lawyers' Speech
Biography
Professor Knake (pronounced "kah-NAH-kee") joined the Law College Faculty in 2006. She received her J.D. from The University of Chicago Law School.
Professor Knake's scholarly interests include intersections between the First Amendment and the law of lawyering, innovation in the delivery of legal services, deregulation of the profession in the United Kingdom, and the portrayal of lawyers in literature and media. Most recently she has turned her energies to consider ways that law, technology, and social media can democratize the delivery of legal services and enhance the practice of law.
She frequently speaks nationally and internationally about her research, and she has published numerous articles related to these topics, including Democratizing the Delivery of Legal Services, 73 Ohio State Law Journal, forthcoming 2012; Attorney Advice and the First Amendment, 68 Washington & Lee Law Review 639 (2011); and The Supreme Court's Increased Attention to the Law of Lawyering: Mere Coincidence or Something More? 59 American University Law Review 1499 (2010).
Professor Knake's teaching and scholarship on the legal profession are inspired by her years of law practice. Before her academic career, she worked as an associate at Mayer, Brown in Chicago, Illinois, and Hunton & Williams in Richmond, Virginia, where she specialized in commercial litigation, telecommunications, and labor/employment law. She also served as Assistant City Attorney for Charlottesville, Virginia. She is admitted to practice in Michigan, Virginia (associate), and Illinois (inactive).
Professor Knake is a regular contributor to the Legal Ethics Forum, a blog repeatedly recognized by the American Bar Association Journal as one of the top 100-law-related blogs in the nation. She also serves as an academic mentor for LawWithoutWalls.
Her publications can be accessed on SSRN.