The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law has named a newly endowed professorship for Professor Michael Millemann. The Michael Millemann Professor in Consumer Law will teach consumer protection law and related courses. A search to fill the position is underway with the goal of a July 1, 2023, start date.
“We are delighted to honor Professor Millemann with this naming,” said Dean Renée McDonald Hutchins. “For decades, Mike has been a driving force in our Clinical Law Program, which provides legal protections for some of the most vulnerable Marylanders. It is an apt tribute for his name to be attached to a professorship that will help us build our academic offerings in consumer justice.”
The endowed professorship is possible thanks to the efforts of members of the Gordon, Wolf & Carney law firm, under the leadership of Maryland Carey Law Board of Visitors member, Richard Gordon ’89.
“Mike Millemann has spent more than 50 years representing the disempowered and striving to increase access to justice,” said Gordon, who has known Millemann since Gordon’s law school days in the 1980s. “It is deeply gratifying for me personally, and for all of us at Gordon, Wolf & Carney, to help ensure that his legacy lives on for generations of future lawyers at Maryland Carey Law through this named professorship.”
Millemann, who is a Jacob A. France Professor of Law, joined the faculty in 1974 and has been a leader in building Maryland Carey Law’s acclaimed Clinical Law Program, which celebrates its 50th anniversary next year. Through the years, he has created and/or taught more than 25 clinics and legal theory and practice courses, as well as many classroom courses.
Millemann was introduced to consumer law in the 1980s when he was counsel in a series of successful class actions that shut down a virulent home improvement scam that targeted elderly, Black homeowners throughout Maryland. Subsequently, he was a leader in creating both Civil Justice Inc., which represents consumers, among others, through staff counsel and a network of private attorneys, and the Legal Services Program at St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center, which provides legal services to lower income Baltimore-area residents in consumer and housing matters. He also created and has taught the school’s Consumer Protection Clinic, which operates in partnership with the Consumer Protection Division of the Maryland Attorney General’s Office.
Millemann has gained national recognition for his work, including with national pro bono awards from the ABA and American Association of Law Schools, and his work and the work of his students in implementing the Maryland Court of Appeals’ 2012 decision in Unger v. State. That decision entitled 237 older prisoners to new trials. His clinic, working closely with the public defender’s office, negotiated the release of 20 of the Unger group, and helped the public defender’s office obtain the releases of approximately 20 more. Those released had been in prison for decades and very few have since re-offended, with a 97% success rate, according to Millemann.
Today, Millemann and his students continue to represent incarcerated people through a new Post-Conviction and Sentencing Clinic.
Millemann has written extensively, including in the fields of criminal justice, legal education, and access to justice, and was a leader in the creation of a number of other Maryland legal services and other organizations, including the Maryland Legal Services Corporation (through legislation), the Public Justice Center, the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service, the Prisoner Assistance Project (now operating as the Prisoner Rights Information System of Maryland), and Community Law In Action, a youth advocacy and development program. He also was the leader in creating the law school’s Environmental Law Program.
Millemann has been honored for his work with a number of awards in addition to the national pro bono awards, including the 2017 Robert M. Bell Medal for Access to Justice and the 2016 Maryland State Bar Association’s Robert C. Heeney Award. He is a member of the American Law Institute.