Wayne State University University Law School has announced the creation of the Levin Center, named in honor of Carl M. Levin, Michigan’s longest-serving U.S. senator.
Through academic programming, training and scholarship, school officials said the center will equip lawyers, legislators and leaders with an understanding of how effective legislative oversight can lead to significant and meaningful changes in public policy and institutional behavior.
The center will initially focus on legislative process and the oversight authority and responsibility of the legislative branch to ensure that public and private institutions serve the public good.
“We are extremely proud to be launching the Levin Center at Wayne Law, said Wayne Law Dean Jocelyn Benson. “It will be a living tribute to Senator Levin’s ideals, integrity, leadership and commitment to public service.”
As Detroit’s public law school, Benson said Wayne Law “seeks to instill in our students a commitment to public service and high ethical standards.”
“Who better to learn that from than Senator Levin? We are extremely excited to welcome Senator Levin as a member of our Wayne Law community, and provide our students with the opportunity to learn from and follow in the footsteps of this living legend,” she said.
WSU Presidenht M. Roy Wilson said that when Levin retired from the Senate, “his colleagues called him ‘the best lawyer in the entire Senate,’ a ‘senator’s senator,’ and ‘Mr. Integrity.’”
“Senator Levin will be an inspiration to our students and faculty.”
Levin said his years in the Senate “have shown me the central role that oversight can play in promoting government, corporate and institutional responsibility and accountability.”
“I am honored to be a part of Wayne State University and its Law School, which are both doing so much to promote community service and public interest,” he said.
In addition to serving as chairman of the center, Levin will be joining the faculty at Wayne Law as the school’s Distinguished Legislator in Residence.
In that capacity, Levin will co-teach courses on various subjects, including tax law and policy and legislative process and oversight.
The first course will be offered next fall and will focus on the role of legislative oversight in addressing abusive federal income tax practices.
Eugene Driker, founding member and senior partner at the Detroit law firm of Barris, Sott, Denn, and Driker and former WSU Governor, will chair the center’s advisory board.
The board will include locally and nationally recognized leaders along with members of Wayne Law faculty and students.
It will provide counsel to Levin and the center staff on programmatic issues, collaborations and activities that will further the center’s focus on the legislative process and governmental oversight at the federal, state, local and international levels.
The board also will lead the creation of an endowment at the university funded by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations wishing to support the center's mission.
Driker said Levin, for five decades, “has personified what it means to be a committed public servant.
“By transmitting his wisdom and experience to others,” Driker said, “his influence on public policy will be felt for generations. This center will bring great distinction to Wayne State and to
Detroit, on whose behalf Senator Levin has worked tirelessly his entire life.”
The center will initially focus its activities in four primary areas:
• Workshops and training sessions for federal, state, local, tribal and international leaders and staff on how to best advance their oversight roles within their institutions.
• Academic coursework hosted at Wayne State University covering the legislative process, oversight, the role of taxation in individual and institutional behavior, and economic regulation.
• National forums and programming on a topics such as oversight of the CIA, tax loopholes and how they affect income inequality, corporate taxation reforms, regulating banks, and
government ethics.
• Conduct and publish research to advance the role of the federal, state, local and tribal governments in overseeing public and private institutions, particularly in the Midwest region of the country.
Levin spent 36 years in the Senate.
He served as chairman of the Committee on Armed Services.
Levin also chaired the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. His Enron investigation supported passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, strengthening U.S. financial reporting and accounting rules.
The Levin-led subcommittee produced the only bipartisan report on key causes of the financial crisis and held hearings that helped break the filibuster of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, eventually leading tofinancial market reforms.
Levin’s ties to the city of Detroit run deep. He and his wife, the former Barbara Halpern, a Wayne Law graduate, are lifelong residents of the city.
Prior to his Senate service, Levin was president of the Detroit City Council. He also served as the first general counsel of Michigan’s Civil Rights Commission, after which he was special assistant attorney general for the State of Michigan and chief appellate defender for the city of Detroit.
He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in political science from Swarthmore College.
Wayne State recognized Levin with an honorary degree in 2005.
In addition to serving as chairman of the center and Wayne Law’s Distinguished Legislator in Residence, Levin will act as senior counsel to Honigman, Miller, Schwartz and Cohn LLP.
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