Strategic Plan

Continue to Enhance Our National Distinction and Recognition in Legal Research

Building on the foundation of our existing strengths, we will use a participatory process to identify important areas in which to scale up our research—such as health law and policy, race and law, AI ethics and data policy, election law, environmental law, and business and corporate law. In this manner, we will select a clear set of research areas in which MSU Law will achieve distinctiveness and national recognition.

1. Undertake a process that engages faculty, staff, and selected MSU and external stakeholders to identify, inventory, and clearly articulate our defining areas of legal research

   Throughout this process:

   1. Identify emerging areas of research where we can quickly increase our visibility based on the work of current faculty or through new collaborations among them. Include consideration of research on effective legal pedagogies.
   2. Identify relevant expertise, resources, and interests among the other MSU colleges and schools for potential collaborations that will strengthen these defining areas.
   3. Regularly review our areas of existing research strength and adapt them to address societal changes, shifts in the legal landscape, and MSU Law’s growing research expertise.
2. Provide expanded and sustained support for our areas of research distinction

   Potential actions include:

   1. Attract and retain expert faculty in these areas, using cluster hires and other approaches to build and sustain critical mass.
   2. Cultivate excellence in scholarship by providing multiple channels for research funding, summer stipends, and enhanced research administration support for the pursuit of large grants.
   3. Recognize and promote important faculty scholarship and achievements, and support faculty in pursuing honorifics, membership in national academies, and other designators of scholarly strength.
3. Leverage the Law College’s now-complete integration into MSU to pursue interdisciplinary research with other colleges of the University

   Potential actions include:

   1. Identify legal questions and societal issues that would be best addressed through multidisciplinary exploration; determine potential MSU collaborators for such work; and work with them and the central University to reduce barriers to such collaborations.
   2. Expand promotion and tenure criteria to recognize and value collaborative research.