Anne Choike (left) is pictured with her friend at the finish line of the Detroit Half-Marathon in 2018.
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Photo courtesy of Anne Choike
By Sheila Pursglove
Legal News
Anne Choike joined the faculty of Michigan State University College of Law this fall as director of the Equitable Entrepreneurship & Innovation Law Clinic, and as an associate clinical professor of law.
“As the unique name of my clinic suggests, the clinic offers a distinctive approach that provides outstanding transactional legal services for underserved entrepreneurs, innovators and makers while advancing equity — among clients and communities, in the marketplace, in the legal system and within the legal profession itself,” she said.
Choike looks forward to building upon her prior work in many ways.
“I’m excited to do more intellectual property work in my clinic, in addition to business law — both of which are strengths at MSU Law and at MSU generally, with its outstanding entrepreneurship programs,” she said. “I’m excited to continue my work in Detroit while also expanding to other parts of the state. In particular MSU Law has an unparalleled strengths in indigenous law and I’m curious to explore how the clinic can serve underserved native entrepreneurs, innovators and makers.
Choike said she looked forward to spending time with her MSU Law colleagues — “all of whom seem so fun and smart — at tailgates or just weekday lunches.
“And I’m very excited to be on such a beautiful lush green campus.”
Choike got her first taste of the legal field in childhood, when her father, a probation officer, introduced her to judges at court.
“I would come home and sentence my stuffed animals,” she said with a smile. “Later, it was my experiences working in the environmental engineering department at two different plants at General Motors that led me to law.
“I worked with regulations and permits frequently and heard GM’s then-VP of Environment and Energy speak about company sustainability policies at a meeting. I was inspired by her work so I asked her how she got where she is, and she said she was a lawyer. The rest is history!”
Previously the director of the Business and Community Law Clinic and an assistant clinical professor at Wayne Law School, Choike enjoys teaching and guiding law students.
“I love supporting students in developing their unique professional identities,” she said. “I also like helping them sharpen their analytical skills and realize they can do so without losing themselves, their well-being, or the interests that led them to pursue a career in law.”
Choike launched her academic trajectory with an undergraduate degree in earth and atmospheric science, drawing from a passion sparked in childhood when her father took her to national and state parks, instilling in her a deep appreciation for nature.
This motivated her to pursue an environmental engineering major at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences — but she ultimately switched to earth sciences after a transformative field semester in Hawaii offered through that department in Cornell’s College of Arts & Sciences.
“I realized that, unlike in the Ag School, in the College of Arts & Sciences I could study the natural world while also taking the liberal arts classes I loved like modern philosophy, Russian literature, Polish language, and urban planning,” Choike said. “I’m a land grant aggie at heart though, and that’s part of what drew me to MSU for sure!”
Choike earned both her J.D. and a master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. Her interest in the latter subject was piqued by spending time with her father in Detroit where he had attended college and spent much of his youth.
“Seeing the assets as well as the challenges of Detroit — as well as the sprawl of its suburbs — really impacted me and made me curious to learn more,” she said. “Later, when I was studying in Hawaii, I was exposed to native Hawaiian land management approaches. These helped me to appreciate that the way land and development is managed has an enormous impact on community sustainability and equity.
“When I got back to Ithaca, I wanted to learn more and took several urban planning classes there, and discovered I enjoy design and planning generally.”
Choike now practices and researches in the area of organizational law.
“I enjoy analyzing how organizational law works and also how it can be used to promote justice and socially responsible enterprise,” she said. “To this end, I recently completed a project — 'Feminist Judgments: Corporate Law Rewritten,’ scheduled to be published by Cambridge University Press in November 2022 — using feminist theory and methods to analyze corporate law. I’m fortunate to have opportunities to put this a project in action in my clinic practice.”
Choike’s mother worked at General Motors and took her to the nation’s the first ever Take Your Daughter to Work Day in the 1990s.
“I’m sure her ambition and influence contributed to my interests in feminism. She also supported my aptitude for math and science, which also contributed to my interest in environmental engineering,” Choike said.
Her mother is from Poland, and Choike found it meaningful to spend time learning about her heritage while conducting research and attending a summer program at Jagiellonian University in 2005.
“Jagiellonian University and Kraków are gorgeous, as is the surrounding countryside,” she said. “I enjoyed learning Polish, checking out Kraków’s jazz clubs, and, of course, eating Polish food.”
Originally from St. Clair Shores, Choike now makes her home in Ann Arbor with her husband, Gabriel Rauterberg, 2-1/2-year-old Petra and 9-month-old Thomas.
In addition to spending time with her family, Choike loves to play lawn, arcade, or board games very competitively; and listen to jazz and live music.
She also is passionate about running and ran Division I cross country and indoor track in undergrad at Cornell until her sophomore year.
“Cross country gave me the opportunity to spend lots of time in nature, and with other strong girls and women with whom I built lifelong friendships,” she said.
Choike also finds time to give back to the community. Caring deeply about accessibility and diversity, she serves with various organizations advancing both values, including the Directorship on Diversity of the State Bar of Michigan's Business Law Section, and the board of directors of Allied Media Projects, a Detroit-based organization that cultivates media for liberation.
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