MSU Law Professor Argues Before Federal Court of Appeals

Professor Lumen Mulligan Applies Teaching in Federal Court to Pro Bono Case

EAST LANSING, MI – Michigan State University College of Law Assistant Professor Lumen Mulligan is scheduled to argue before the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals today. Professor Mulligan, who teaches Federal Courts at the Law College, will be advocating the reversal of a state court criminal conviction in McCary v. Lewis.

This is a habeas corpus case, a topic Professor Mulligan covers in his Federal Courts class and has the opportunity to practice his teachings before the Federal Court. In McCary v. Lewis, Professor Mulligan argues that his client was denied a fair trial by the prosecutors’ inappropriate reliance upon religion, instead of the laws of Tennessee, in order to convict the defendant.

“As a professor, I can employ this case to help my students in understanding habeas corpus more thoroughly,” Professor Mulligan states. “Further, as a lawyer, I believe strongly in procedural due process, which was denied to my client in this case. This casehas given me the opportunity to practice what I teach my students, in addition to advocating for my client.”

Professor Mulligan is joined on the briefs by John Frost and Rodger Eckelberry, both of Baker Hostetler LLP, all of whom are working on the case pro bono.

MSU College of Law was in founded in 1891 and is a private institution of higher learning devoted exclusively to professional education in law. The Law College is one of only a few private law schools to be affiliated with a research university, enabling it to provide a comprehensive interdisciplinary legal education program. Classes offered in its state-of-the-art facilities provide students the benefits of a Big Ten campus while maintaining the small school culture. Its 2006 graduates achieved a 93 percent bar examination passage rate nationwide and the Law College’s Intellectual Property and Communications Law Program falls in the nation’s top-20 according to U.S. News & World Report. The Law College is one of the oldest continuously operating independent law colleges in the nation. For more information about the Law College, visit www.law.msu.edu .

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