Faculty Blogs

Faculty Blogs

UDM Faculty Blogs.

  • David Koelsch
    David Koelsch
    David C. Koelsch is an Associate Professor and Director of the Immigration Law C
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  • Julia Belian
    Julia Belian
    Associate Professor Julia Belian, although less than a century old herself, find
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  • Langvardt, Kyle
    Langvardt, Kyle
    Professor Langvardt joined the UDM faculty in Fall 2012. Before UDM Law, he was
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Faculty Blogs David Koelsch

Blog Entry 15

Posted by David Koelsch
David Koelsch
David C. Koelsch is an Associate Professor and Director of the Immigration Law C
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 20 October 2011 in Faculty Blogs
Winning is not everything and sometimes we learn more from losing than winning.  That's all fine and good but winning still beats losing and some wins are sweeter than others.  A client of the Immigration Law Clinic recently experienced a particularly sweet victory:  not only does the decision mean that our client will not have to return to a country where she was tortured but it also gives her access to a life full of opportunitie...
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Faculty Blogs David Koelsch

Blog Entry 14

Posted by David Koelsch
David Koelsch
David C. Koelsch is an Associate Professor and Director of the Immigration Law C
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 20 October 2011 in Faculty Blogs
Sometimes we get more from our clients than they get from us.  One of things my students and I get from working with many of our clients is a greater sense of humility and compassion and a desire to not be so self-focused.  Law students, lawyers and even law professors (shocking, I know!) have larger than normal egos and law school, in particular, can be an exercise in alternating self-aggrandizement and self-debasement.  Students ...
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Faculty Blogs David Koelsch

Blog Entry 14

Posted by David Koelsch
David Koelsch
David C. Koelsch is an Associate Professor and Director of the Immigration Law C
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 20 October 2011 in Faculty Blogs
The best moments as a law professor are, in my opinion, unscripted.  They happen when a law student finally feels comfortable enough with the litigation process, the law and the witness to deviate from the carefully planned questions and litigation strategy to do what needs to be done to win a case.  One such moment happened last week in Immigration Court.  Over the past seven weeks, the student had rehearsed the direct examin...
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Faculty Blogs David Koelsch

Blog Entry 13

Posted by David Koelsch
David Koelsch
David C. Koelsch is an Associate Professor and Director of the Immigration Law C
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 20 October 2011 in Faculty Blogs
Maybe a good way to get a glimpse into the life of UDM students enrolled in the Immigration Law Clinic is to look back at the week just past and present a “week in the life” sort of rundown of our work. Some of the highlights from the past week include: Prepped client from Senegal for two hours for her trial next week.  She has not seen her daughters for nearly two years and broke down several times during the mock trial.  We had to ha...
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Faculty Blogs David Koelsch

Blog Entry 12

Posted by David Koelsch
David Koelsch
David C. Koelsch is an Associate Professor and Director of the Immigration Law C
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 20 October 2011 in Faculty Blogs
Whew!  The fall semester has just come to a close and the students and I had a chance to reflect back on what we accomplished.  Here are the stats: we conducted 11 trials before the U.S. Immigration Court, 4 interviews before the Asylum Office in Chicago, 14 interviews at Homeland Security in Detroit, prepared 42 petitions for relief, met with 128 potential clients, and wrote six appellate briefs.  That is a lot of work for eight s...
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Faculty Blogs David Koelsch

Blog Entry 11

Posted by David Koelsch
David Koelsch
David C. Koelsch is an Associate Professor and Director of the Immigration Law C
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 20 October 2011 in Faculty Blogs
The summer semester recently ended and the students and I can breathe a (brief) sigh of relief.  The summer semester compresses a 14-week semester into seven weeks and it is, to say the least, intense.  The students this summer were an amazing collection of rising 3Ls and one student in her final semester of law school.  Some of them had taken Immigration Law from me and thought they knew what to expect going into the summer term a...
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Faculty Blogs David Koelsch

Blog Entry 10

Posted by David Koelsch
David Koelsch
David C. Koelsch is an Associate Professor and Director of the Immigration Law C
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 20 October 2011 in Faculty Blogs
Sometimes we gain more from our clients than they gain from us.  As each semester closes, I encourage my students to think back about the lives they have touched these past few months – and how their lives have been touched by their clients.  The relationship between my students and our clients is professional and all facets of the attorney-client ethical rules govern that relationship.  But, as in all human interactions, some peop...
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Faculty Blogs David Koelsch

Blog Entry 9

Posted by David Koelsch
David Koelsch
David C. Koelsch is an Associate Professor and Director of the Immigration Law C
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 20 October 2011 in Faculty Blogs
One of the great things about UDM Law School is the array of events going on every day at the school.  The flyers and posters nearly covering the doors and hallways are evidence of an engaged student body on any number of issues. OK, so MY issue is Immigration Law and this week the Immigration Law Student Association hosted Tahani Afaneh, the general counsel at U.S. Customs and Border Protection for an informal lunch gathering with their mem...
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Faculty Blogs David Koelsch

Blog Entry 8

Posted by David Koelsch
David Koelsch
David C. Koelsch is an Associate Professor and Director of the Immigration Law C
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 20 October 2011 in Faculty Blogs
The best way to learn all there is to know about a particular topic is to teach and to live it.  This week, students in the Immigration Law Clinic prepared for and conducted a training session at the Chaldean Federation of America to help the staff at the CFA understand immigration law and procedures.  The students explained the nuances of filing an Alien Relative Petition, an Application for Adjustment of Status and an Application for ...
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Faculty Blogs David Koelsch

Blog Entry 7

Posted by David Koelsch
David Koelsch
David C. Koelsch is an Associate Professor and Director of the Immigration Law C
User is currently offline
on Thursday, 20 October 2011 in Faculty Blogs
Every area of law practice probably has it's one moment of shining glory.  The transaction is closed, the bridge is built, the defendant is found guilty or innocent.  For Immigration Law, the best moment is when an immigrant for whom you have worked for many years becomes a U.S. Citizen.Just yesterday, a longstanding client of the Immigration Law Clinic became a U.S. Citizen at a ceremony at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Detroit. S...
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