By Grace Henning and Tanya Lundberg
After seven years of leading University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Dean Phyllis L. Crocker will retire effective June 30. The first woman dean of Detroit Mercy Law, Dean Crocker worked diligently to increase the diversity of the School of Law’s faculty, administrators, and students. Under her leadership, the percentage of people of color in the faculty increased to 24%, 34% of the fall 2020 incoming class identified as students of color, and the Association of Black Law Alumni was founded. Dean Crocker is an active member of the local legal community, including the Wayne Region of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan and the Detroit Bar Association Foundation. Dean Crocker begins every speech by noting that it is her privilege to serve as Dean of the School of Law, but it has been the School of Law’s privilege to have such a committed, student-focused, dynamic Dean since 2014.
Ready to take over the reins, Prof. Jelani Jefferson Exum will become Dean of Detroit Mercy Law effective July 1. Prof. Exum joined the School of Law faculty as the Phillip J. McElroy Professor of Law in 2019. She is the first African American and second woman to serve as Dean of the School of Law and joins 27 other Black women currently serving or incoming as Dean or Interim Dean of American law schools. Prof. Exum immersed herself in the Detroit Mercy Law community immediately upon joining the faculty. She served as co-chair of the Teaching and Learning Taskforce, which helped guide the School of Law through the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was also voted Professor of the Year by the Detroit Mercy Law student body for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Prof. Exum is a graduate of Harvard Law School and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College. Before joining academia, she served as a law clerk at the federal district and circuit court levels. She was previously a Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Toledo College of Law, an associate professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, and a visiting associate professor at the University of Michigan Law School. She was also a Forrester Fellow and instructor in legal writing at Tulane Law School.
Prof. Exum chairs the advisory board for the Neighborhood Defender Service of Detroit and writes primarily in the area of sentencing law and policy. Her research interests include comparative criminal law and procedure, policing, and the impact of race on criminal justice. The Detroit Mercy Law community is excited to have Prof. Exum as Dean and looks forward to seeing all that she and the School of Law will accomplish in the coming years.
