Bridget Mary McCormack is a professor at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She also serves as Michigan Law School's associate dean of clinical affairs. She is the founder and co-director of the Michigan Innocence Clinic, the first exclusively non-DNA innocence clinic in the country.[1] In 2010, she was awarded the Justice For All Award for that work. Additionally, the Washtenaw County Bar Association presented McCormack the Patriot Award for work upholding American constitutional values in 2011.
A courtroom veteran, McCormack teaches criminal law and legal ethics. As the associate dean responsible for overseeing all of the law school’s clinical programs, she also launched and worked in a pediatric advocacy law clinic focusing on children with health problems, and a domestic violence clinic. Her academic work focuses on practical experience in legal education.[1]
Contents |
McCormack majored in political science and philosophy at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut graduating in 1988 with highest honors. She was a Root-Tilden Scholar at New York University School of Law, where she earned her JD in 1991 and won the Ann Petluck Poses prize for advocacy.
McCormack started her legal career in New York, first as trial counsel at the Legal Aid Society and then at the Office of the Appellate Defender. She taught at Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut as a Robert M. Cover Fellow from 1997-98. She joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Law School in 1998, and has served as its associate dean of clinical affairs since 2003.
When recommending her for the associate dean position to the University Board of Regents, Michigan Law School Dean Jeffrey S. Lehman wrote: “Professor McCormack is an extraordinarily gifted teacher who has earned the admiration and respect of students and colleagues alike. She has a subtle and powerful mind, an astonishing work ethic, and an infectious commitment to her craft.”[2]
As an experienced litigator in federal and state courts at all levels, McCormack is well aware of the challenges facing the judicial system. Though rare, DNA-based exonerations have shown that wrongful convictions sometimes happen. On the premise that the legal system fails whenever the guilty go free or the innocent are imprisoned, McCormack co-founded the Michigan Innocence Clinic in 2008 to address the difficult issue of wrongful convictions in cases where there is no DNA evidence.[3]
As of January 1, 2011, the Michigan Innocence Clinic has exonerated four innocent people who were wrongfully convicted in non-DNA cases: DeShawn Reed, Marvin Reed,[4] Dwayne Provience[5] and Julie Baumer.[6]
McCormack is an authority on constitutional law, criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence, and legal ethics, and has published articles on those subjects. McCormack also serves on the Association of American Law Schools Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure. In 2008, she testified before the Detroit City Council about its investigation of the city attorney's role in the case involving former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.[1]
McCormack's father is a former United States Marine and retired small business owner, and her mother is a clinical social worker. She is married to University of Michigan Law School professor Steven Croley, currently on leave serving as a special assistant to the president on President Barack Obama's Domestic Policy Counsel. The couple has four children. Her sister, Mary McCormack is an actress, best known for her lead role in the current series “In Plain Sight” on the USA Network. Her brother, Will McCormack, is an actor and screenwriter.