Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly, a 1971 Wayne State University Law School alumna, will be recognized as a 2010 WSU Distinguished Alumni Award recipient at Wayne Law’s commencement ceremony on Monday, May 17.
Kelly will be presented with the award at the WSU Alumni Association Spring Awards Gala on May 4.
“We are proud to call Chief Justice Kelly an alumna of Wayne State University and its Law School,” said WSU President Jay Noren.
“Through her distinguished career, she has touched the lives of so many at this institution, in the state of Michigan and beyond.
“We are grateful for her continued commitment to and involvement with Wayne State University.”
Wayne Law previously announced that Legal Adviser to the United States Department of State and former Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh will serve as keynote speaker at the ceremony.
“We are honored that Chief Justice Kelly and Dean Koh will be a part of this important day,” said Wayne Law Dean Robert M. Ackerman. “They are prominent examples of lawyers who have made the most of their law degrees, and they will surely inspire and motivate our students, graduates and guests at the ceremony.”
The commencement ceremony will begin at 5 p.m. at Orchestra Hall in Detroit.
Kelly has served both the community and the state by contributing numerous professional, personal and civic achievements.
Before taking the bench, she was a courtroom attorney for 17 years in Michigan.
In 1988, she was elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals for a six-year term and re-elected in 1994. She was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court for an eight-year term in 1996, and re-elected in 2004 for an eight-year term, which expires January 1, 2013.
Kelly has been active in many national, state and local bar organizations and is a Fellow of the Michigan State Bar Foundation, which provides grants for civil legal aid to the poor and to improve the administration of justice in Michigan.
She is a past president of the Women’s Bar Association and the Women Lawyers’ Association of Michigan, she co-chaired the State Bar of Michigan’s Open Justice Commission and she is a past president and board member of the National Consortium for Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts.
She serves on Wayne Law’s Board of Visitors executive committee and was the Lifetime Achievement Award recipient at the Law School’s 2009 Treasure of Detroit Gala.
Harold Hongju Koh was confirmed by the Senate as Legal Adviser to the United States Department of State in 2009. Before joining the administration, Koh was dean of Yale Law School, where he continues, while on leave, as Martin R. Flug '55 Professor of International Law.
He began teaching at Yale Law School in 1985 and served from 2004 until 2009 as its 15th dean.
From 1998 to 2001, he served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and previously had served on the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Public International Law. Before joining Yale, he practiced law at Covington and Burling from 1982-83 and at the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice from 1983 to 1985.
Koh is author or co-author of eight books and more than 150 articles on international human rights, international business transactions, national security and foreign affairs law, international trade, international organizations, international law and political science, and procedure.
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