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Michigan Law Review Names Their First African-American Editor

Summary: The Michigan Law Review named their new editor, who will also be the Law Review’s first African-American editor.

The University of Michigan Law Review announced their new editor-in-chief. The full-time position of the student-run review publication will be held by Megan Brown. The 25-year-old from Atlanta and Detroit will be the first African-American to run the review and she is likely the first triplet that has been the review’s editor.

There are around 100 students working for the Law Review. They put out publications eight times a year. Brown’s role is to edit and oversee the final product before being published. According to the Detroit Free Press, Megan said of her big career plans, “I want to be in places where people look around and say there’s not enough black people there.”

Executive production editor Helen Marie Berg said, “It’s having a full-time job on top of your studies. There’s a lot of work and a lot of responsibility. Megan is a great person and a pleasure to be around. We have professors and students writing great pieces and we get a chance to read them.”

Brown earned a bachelor’s degree in 2015 from the University of Michigan in neuroscience. After graduating from the University of Michigan, she worked as a cashier at a plant nursery before starting law school. She currently participates in the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse, a website that collects civil rights cases documents and summarizes them. She is also a “member of the Black Law Student Association, chair of the 1L Oral Advocacy Competition, and a member of the Michigan Law Headnotes A Cappella group,” according to the Detroit Free Press.

Upon finishing her first year of law school, Brown was a first-year Diversity Scholar at Latham & Watkins.  Her experiences have prepared her for this position. She said, “All the things that go into this have been going on since August. You have to be diligent from the beginning. There are executive board interviews and the editorial board. It was long and arduous for me. It was a fun challenge. When you put it on top of school it becomes a little difficult to make your time. In a three- or four-credit class you’re expected to do about 10 hours of work outside of class. Every minute you spend away from your studies (in law school) is another minute that another student is spending, which could result in a lesser grade for you.”

Brown plans to become a patent attorney after graduation from law school. She explained, “I wanted to be a doctor, and then pretty quickly decided that I didn’t want to be a doctor, but I like science.”

Do you think it is too much for a law student to take on a full-time editorial position? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.

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Photo: wikipedia.org

Amanda Griffin: