Joan L. Larsen, a University of Michigan law professor with experience with the U.S. Supreme Court and Justice Department, was appointed Wednesday to the Michigan Supreme Court by Gov. Rick Snyder.
Snyder announced the appointment of Larsen, currently special counsel and adjunct professor at the University of Michigan Law School, at a Lansing news conference.
He called Larsen “a superb attorney who brings experience from the highest levels of government, private practice and academia to the state’s highest court.”
“She is highly regarded by her peers and is a nationally recognized constitutional scholar,” Snyder said. “I’m confident she’ll be an invaluable addition to the Michigan Supreme Court.”
For more than a decade, Larsen has taught at the University of Michigan where she won the L. Hart Wright Award for excellence in teaching. She has written extensively on the Constitution, international law, the judicial system, and separation of powers.
The new justice is a former deputy assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Justice Department and law clerk for both U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia and U.S. Court of Appeals D.C. Circuit Judge David B. Sentelle.
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Robert P. Young called the appoinment “a perfect fit with a court that is second to none in its commitment to the rule of law and legal scholarship.”
“Joan Larsen is an accomplished, nationally recognized legal scholar, successful teacher, and keen legal thinker,” Young said. “My colleagues and I welcome her to a collegial court that is ready to work with her in building on our successful record of making Michigan’s judiciary a model for the nation.”
Larsen succeeds former Justice Mary Beth Kelly and will have to stand for election in November of 2016 to fulfill the remainder of Kelly’s term, which runs through the end of 2018.
Kelley announced in August she was stepping down, effective Oct. 1, to join the Detroit law firm of ?Bodman PLC. She was elected to an eight-year term on the high court in 2010.
Larsen, of Scio Township, said she has “practiced law, taught the law and enforced the law.”
“Public service has always been my calling,” she said. “I look forward to serving the people of Michigan by faithfully interpreting the constitution and laws of our great state.”
Larsen graduated first in her class from Northwestern University School of Law where she won numerous awards for legal scholarship. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa in 1990.
She is also an experienced lawyer who served in the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley & Austin.
A news release issued by the court said Larsen she was joining “a court that has focused on implementing grass roots reforms to improve the efficiency of Michigan courts and maintain the highest level of service to the public. “
The court said these reforms include:
• Performance measures that “help trial courts set benchmarks and improve outcomes.” For example, participants in mental health and sobriety courts are three times less likely to reoffend, avoiding costly incarceration and making communities safer.
• Implementing technology such as videoconferencing which is now deployed in more than 400 courtrooms, saving taxpayers nearly $6 million over the past two years.
• Re-engineering court processes and rightsizing the judiciary by trimming 26 judgeships, saving more than $8.2 million since 2011.
Larsen is married to Adam Pritchard and the couple has two children, Elizabeth “Liza,” age 15, and Benjamin “Ben”, age 10.
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