MSU Law Faculty, Students to Participate in Creating Model Police Practices

Michigan State University College of Law is joining dozens of peer law schools from across the United States to form a Legal Education Police Practices Consortium through the Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association (ABA).

This five-year project will contribute to nationwide efforts to address legal issues in policing and public safety, including conduct, oversight and the evolving nature of police work. The Consortium will utilize the ABA’s extensive reach to connect respected academic experts in related fields. Leading academics like MSU Law Professors Catherine Grosso and Barbara O’Brien, whose work with the National Registry of Exonerations informs the national conversations around racial justice, will have the opportunity to collaborate with other experts at the Consortium’s fifty-two partner-schools.

Interim Dean Melanie B. Jacobs hopes that this powerful collaboration will result in progress. “For far too long, we have seen the devastating impact of inequitable police practices on minoritized communities,” she said. “I believe that now is the time to hold our law enforcers to higher standards, and I’m proud that MSU Law will be participating in the effort to bring about those changes.”

“The ABA has the ability to bring together diverse groups to address these problems and the duty to act to help bring racial equality to our criminal justice system,” ABA President Patricia Lee Refo said. “The consortium will engage law students and legal experts from around the country in studying and forming solutions to help improve policing practices in our communities.”

The Consortium will also provide ways for students to play a role in social justice work. MSU Law, as a partner-school, will develop opportunities for its law students to engage with the project. Law student participant assignments may include:

• Promoting existing ABA policies at the local, state and national levels.
• Developing new policy for potential consideration by the ABA House of Delegates.
• Engaging with police departments and local, state and national leaders on police practices.
• Conducting research to support scholarship related to consortium goals.
• Providing support to public commentary and advocacy (research for op-eds, blogs and articles).
• Developing model curricula for law schools related to consortium goals.