Michelle L. Richards
Michelle L. Richards
Professor of Law
Degrees
- J.D. University of Detroit Mercy School of Law ‘94
- B.A. Michigan State University ‘91
Biography
Professor Richards has been a member of the Detroit Mercy Law faculty since 2002 after spending more than 10 years in private practice as a civil defense litigator and appellate attorney. She was promoted to Professor of Law in 2024. Prior to joining Detroit Mercy Law’s faculty, she served as the Director of Regulatory Affairs for Comcast’s Midwest Division which involved the handling of regulatory and corporate transactional matters, as well litigation management for franchise areas in 10 different states. She also serves as Of Counsel to a firm in Livonia, Michigan providing support on various trial and appellate matters across the country.
Professor Richards is principally responsible for teaching Civil Procedure, Torts, Public Health Law and Applied Legal Theory and Analysis. She also developed a course in the law school's law firm program ("LFP") called Pre-Trial Litigation Skills, in which students explore basic litigation skills in a problem-based context and has worked with her colleagues to develop an innovative Advanced Appellate Advocacy course.
Her area of scholarship centers around public health law and the intersection of public health topics, torts, and civil procedure. Her 2020 article on public nuisance was cited by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in its landmark November 2021 opinion setting aside a $465M judgment against Johnson & Johnson arising out of the opioid crisis. In its opinion, the Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected the use of public nuisance as a theory of liability against the drug manufacturer, relying in part on the history set forth in her article. She has provided several interviews to multiple AP/Reuters reporters on the use of public nuisance as a theory of liability in the opioid litigation, the litigation filed against the meat packing companies and Amazon arising out of COVID transmission, the enforcement of Michigan’s abortion law in the litigation challenging the constitutionality of this law.
Professor Richards resides in Canton Township, Michigan with her husband and children where she enjoys golfing, classical ballet, yoga, and spending time with her family.
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Courses Taught
Advanced Advocacy (Law 6000)
ALTA (Law 1060)
Civil Procedure (Law 1150)
Pre-Trial Litigation LFP (Law 7259)
Torts (Law 1130)
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Selected Publications
Before the Memory Fades: Evaluating the Need for a National Quarantine Strategy as Part of a Modernized Public Health Response to the Next Pandemic, 34 HEALTH MATRIX 181 (2024)
Distinguished Commentary - Why Detroit Mercy Law Chose Criterion-Referenced Assessment Over Grading Curves, Raising the Bar – Evidence-Based Thinking About the Bar Exam, Volume 6, Issue 3, AcessLex.org (Summer 2023).
Relying on the Unreliable? COVID-19 Claims Can’t Proceed Without a Proper Standard of Care, Bill of Health – Blog Symposia of The Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law School (October 19, 2022)
Going Viral: Discouraging the Premature Use of Civil Liability Strategies as a Response to COVID-19, 19 U.N.H. Law. Rev. 69 (2021).
Pills, Public Nuisance, and Parens Patriae: Questioning the Procedural Posture of the Opioid Litigation, 54 Richmond L. Rev. 405 (January 2020).
12 Angry Men vs. The Agency: Why Preemption Should Resolve this Conflict in Drug Labeling Litigation, 100 Marq. L. Rev. 1309 (2017).
Elements of Good Legal Writing: The Topic Sentence, Detroit Legal News, 2013.
The Methodology of Persuasion: A Process-Based Approach to Persuasive Writing, 13 Legal Writing: J. Legal Writing Inst. 159 (2007) (co-authored with Cara Cunningham-Warren).
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Selected Presentations
Public Health Law and Covid-19. Where Did We Go Wrong? Panelist - Workshop on Health Law – SEALS (Summer 2021).
Discipline Building: Balance in the Age of Chaos, Discussion Group – Writing Connections Workshop – SEALS (Summer 2021).
Discipline Building: Scholarship and Status in the Legal Academy, Discussion Group – Writing Connections Workshop – SEALS (Summer 2021).
The Law of Contagion: How the Historical Role of the Legal System in Responding to Infectious Disease Can Guide an Effective Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law – Law Review Symposium – October 2020.
12 Angry Men vs. The Agency: Why Preemption Should Resolve this Conflict in Drug Labeling Litigation, New Scholars Program, Sponsored by Legal Writing Section, AALS 2017, San Francisco, California.
Beyond the Trophy: Creating a Successful Moot Court Program, LEGAL WRITING INSTITUTE-sponsored Moot Court Conference, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Fall, 2014 (co-presenter w/ Karen Henning).
How to Write for Law School, LWI Pre-Law Outreach National Committee - NAPLA 2014 Conference, Baltimore Law School, Baltimore, Maryland, June 2014.
Teaching the Writer to Do the Heavy Lifting: A Systematic Approach to Case Analysis, 2010 LEGAL WRITING INSTITUTE CONFERENCE, Poster Presentation.
Faculty – ICLE Deposition Skills Conference, Plymouth, Michigan, Spring, 2011