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Renee Knake Jefferson

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Renee Knake Jefferson
Trustee of the Michigan State University
Incumbent
Assumed office
December 2019
Preceded byNancy Schlichting
Personal details
Born (1973-10-29) October 29, 1973 (age 51)
Springfield, Missouri
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseWallace B. Jefferson
Alma materUniversity of Chicago Law School
OccupationLawyer, professor, author
ProfessionJoanne and Larry Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics at University of Houston Law Center
Websitewww.reneeknake.com

Renee Knake Jefferson is an American law professor. She holds the Joanne and Larry Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics at the University of Houston Law Center and is a member of the Board of Trustees at Michigan State University. She is the author of four books and teaches legal ethics, constitutional law, and leadership among other topics. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Early life and education

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Jefferson grew up in the Midwest, living in Kansas, Minnesota, and Missouri, where she was born.[1] She received her JD from the University of Chicago Law School.[1]

Career

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In her early legal career, Jefferson was in private practice at the law firms Mayer Brown and Hunton & Williams, and also worked as an attorney for Charlottesville, Virginia.[1] She moved on to teach at Michigan State University College of Law in 2006 where she also achieved tenure.[1] Her teaching included legal ethics as well as business school and honors college classes. In 2011, she co-founded the ReInvent Law Laboratory for Law, Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, an organization that helped students find opportunities outside of the traditional law areas.[2]

Jefferson became the Joanne and Larry Doherty Chair in Legal Ethics at the University of Houston in 2016.[1] During the first half of 2019, Jefferson held the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in Australia.[3] She was appointed to the Michigan State University Board of Trustees by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in December 2019, replacing Nancy Schlichting who resigned the same year.[4]

Jefferson is the author of four books, including Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court published by New York University Press in 2020,[1] and numerous academic articles.

Bibliography

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  • 2020, Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the Supreme Court
  • 2020, Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach
  • 2019, Gender, Power, Law & Leadership
  • 2018, Legal Ethics for the Real World: Building Skills Through Case Study

Personal life

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Jefferson married retired Texas Supreme Court Justice Wallace B. Jefferson on July 4, 2020, in Michigan. The couple share the same birthdays as Richard and Mildred Loving, whose United States Supreme Court case established the right of interracial marriage.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Jesse, David (20 December 2019). "Former MSU law school professor Renee Knake returns, this time as a board member". Detroit Free Press.
  2. ^ "Renee Knake, '99, Appointed to Michigan State University Board of Trustees". The University of Chicago Law School. 4 December 2019.
  3. ^ "Renee N. Knake, '99: Awarded the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology". The University of Chicago Law School. 9 April 2018.
  4. ^ Banta, Megan; Johnson, Mark (4 December 2019). "Whitmer appoints legal ethics professor to MSU Board of Trustees". Lansing State Journal.
  5. ^ Holt, Brianna (31 July 2020). "Their Very Own Loving Story". The New York Times.
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