MLaw professor honored as 'Outstanding Young Lawyer'

By Lori Atherton
U-M Law

Imran Syed, an assistant clinical professor of law in the Michigan Innocence Clinic, received the 2016 Regeana Myrick Outstanding Young Lawyer Award from the State Bar  of Michigan Young Lawyers Section.

The award recognizes a young lawyer with a commitment to public service and service to the bar, as well as exceptional leadership. Syed received the award June 4 at the 9th Annual SBM Young Lawyers Section Summit in Novi.

Syed was nominated for the award by his colleague David Moran, director of the Michigan Innocence Clinic, and Bridget Mary McCormack, former co-director of the clinic and now a justice on the Michigan Supreme Court.
“It means a lot that my mentors and former professors nominated me,” Syed said. “The award is a reflection of the work we do in the clinic and of all those who trained me at the University of Michigan.”

Syed, who graduated from U-M with a degree in political science before attending Michigan Law, worked as a student attorney in the Innocence Clinic for two years while in law school.

Upon graduation, he served as a clinical fellow and staff attorney in the clinic for three years. He supervises Innocence Clinic students investigating and litigating a wide variety of cases, including several of the clinic's forensic science-based cases.

Syed also has coauthored articles discussing the litigation strategies needed to address wrongful convictions based on scientific evidence that is valid when used, but later comes to be repudiated.

He also has spoken and written about a variety of topics related to wrongful convictions, such as compensation for exonerees, the fallacies of eyewitness testimony, and the need for reform in Michigan's system of public defense.

In 2014, Syed wrote and produced a documentary film, The Price of Providence, about one of the Innocence Clinic’s wrongful conviction cases.