Wayne State University

Aim Higher

Robert M. Ackerman

Professor of Law
Office: Room 3315
Telephone: (313) 577-3933
Fax: (313) 577-9016
E-mail: ackerman@wayne.edu
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Blog URL
http://blogs.wayne.edu/lawdean/

Degrees and Certifications

J.D., Harvard Law School
B.A., Colgate University


Biography

Robert M. Ackerman recently returned to full-time teaching and scholarship after serving almost five years as dean at Wayne Law. As dean, he led the Law School in the development of a new Environmental Law Clinic, an Asylum and Immigration Law Clinic, and a Program for International Legal Studies. He secured funding for Public Interest Law Fellowships, and assisted in strengthening the Law School’s dynamic faculty by hiring a number of outstanding legal scholars and practitioners. In October, 2011, Ackerman welcomed more than 600 guests to campus for the dedication of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights, a project he and a number of Wayne Law faculty members, alumni and friends are helping make a reality.

Ackerman teaches courses in torts and dispute resolution. He serves on Labor@Wayne's internal advisory board and as Wayne State University’s faculty athletic representative. Previously, he served on the Institute of Continuing Legal Education’s executive committee, chairing that committee from 2009-2010.
Prior to coming to Wayne Law, Ackerman served as a professor at Penn State University's Dickinson School of Law, where he taught torts, dispute resolution, conflict resolution theory, negotiation and mediation. He also served as director of the Center for Dispute Resolution, at the time the nation’s seventh-ranked law school dispute resolution program.
Ackerman, a cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and magna cum laude graduate of Colgate University, served as dean and professor of law at Willamette University College of Law from July 1996 to May 1999. While dean, the law school experienced a 60 percent increase in financial aid to law students, a revitalization of the alumni organization and annual giving, enhanced visibility of the Center for Dispute Resolution and Law and Government program, and an increase in the diversity of the faculty and student body.
Ackerman has lectured at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, the University of Vienna School of Law, the Penn State University College of Medicine and Leicester Polytechnic School of Law (now deMontfort University). He has also been employed by the Denver firm of Holme Roberts & Owen and the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project.
He has written extensively in the fields of torts, dispute resolution, communitarian theory and civic responsibility, and his scholarship has appeared in a wide variety of high profile publications. His essay, "Taking Responsibility," was a winner of the international Communitarian Essay Contest and was published in the German social science journal Leviathan. His co-authored book (with Robert F. Cochran Jr.) Law and Community: The Case of Torts was published early in 2004.
Ackerman is an active participant in professional groups related to conflict resolution. He is a founding member of Mediators Beyond Borders, and has worked on development projects in Tanzania with Penn State's InterInstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge. He has also served as chair of the AALS Section on Law and Communitarian Studies and is chair-elect of the AALS Section on Socioeconomics.


Publications

“Verantwortung ubernehmen” Leviathan, 2007 (German translation of “Taking Responsibility”).

“Vanishing Trial, Vanishing Community?” Journal of Dispute Resolution, 2006.

“The September 11 Victim Compensation Fund: An Administrative Response to National Tragedy,” Harvard Negotiation Law Review, 2005.

Law and Community: The Case of Torts, with Robert F. Cochran Jr., Rowman and Littlefield, 2004.

"Disputing Together: Conflict Resolution and the Search for Community," Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, 2002.

“Tort Law and Federalism: Whatever Happened to Devolution?” Yale Law and Policy Review, Yale Journal on Regulation (Joint Symposium Issue), 1996.

“Tort Law and Communitarianism: Where Rights Meet Responsibilities," originally published in Wake Forest Law Review, 1995, revised and republished in To Promote The General Welfare: A Communitarian Legal Reader 1999.

“Defamation and Alternative Dispute Resolution: Healing the Sting,” Missouri Journal of Dispute Resolution, 1986.

“The Seat Belt Defense Reconsidered: A Return to Accountability in Tort Law?” New Mexico Law Review, 1986.


Accomplishments
  • May 6, 2011
    Robert Ackerman spoke about cross-border legal education at the Council of Canadian Law Deans, hosted by the University of Windsor Law School.

  • March 10, 2011
    Robert Ackerman will speak on a University of Windsor Law School Dean's Panel from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Friday, March 18 in Windsor Law's Conference Room 1111. The panel is titled "Balancing Legal Theory and Practicum in Law School Curriculum."

  • July 27, 2010
    Robert Ackerman is now on the Management Council for the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference. He is also beginning his third year as Wayne State University's Faculty Athletics Representative.

  • December 21, 2009
    Robert Ackerman will serve as a panelist on the Deans' Panel on Socioeconomics on Jan. 7, 2010, at the AALS Annual Meeting.

  • December 10, 2009
    Robert Ackerman will join Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), '58, and Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony, president, Detroit Branch NAACP, in a briefing held by The United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary on Solutions to the Indigent Defense Crisis on Dec. 14, 2009. The event is hosted by the Michigan Campaign for Justice and will be held at 9 a.m. at the Wayne State University Student Center Ballroom, 5221 Gullen Mall, Detroit. The briefing will address the indigent defense crisis facing our country, and will discuss existing obstacles to the effective and meaningful representation of indigent defendants and will consider solutions to these obstacles. Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn J. Kelly, '71, will be the keynote speaker, followed by a panel discussion of national and state experts on the issue of public defense.

  • January 28, 2009
    Robert Ackerman will be interviewed during half-time as a featured guest at the Wayne State University Warrior's men's basketball game vs. Ashland on Jan. 31, 2009.

  • October 15, 2008
    Robert Ackerman served as the keynote speaker at the Labor and Employment Law Section Meeting of the State Bar of Michigan on Sept. 18.

    He spoke to the Southfield Rotary Club on Sept. 25.

    He served as the keynote speaker during the Stanley "Hank" Marx Lecture Series in Dispute Resolution on Oct. 20


In the News
  • Robert Ackerman is quoted in a Crain's Detroit Business article titled "Job concerns keep enrollments down at some state law schools."


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  • Robert Ackerman was interviewed on WJR-AM's Frank Beckman Show earlier this month about the trial of the Hutaree militia defendants and their claim that they were engaging in speech protected by the First Amendment.


  • Robert Ackerman was quoted in an article in Michigan Lawyers Weekly on how law schools have changed in the past 25 years.


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  • Robert Ackerman was a featured guest on The Craig Fahle Show in a segment on law school transparency with regard to employment statistics. Ackerman also provided tips on things prospective students should consider.


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  • Robert Ackerman commented in a Legal News article titled "Discussing trends emerging from China's global impact."


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  • Robert Ackerman was quoted in the National Law Journal in an article titled "'U.S. News' considering giving third tier law schools a number." Dean Ackerman said he would welcome the change.


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  • Robert Ackerman was interviewed in a Model D article on the upcoming groundbreaking ceremony for the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights.


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  • Robert Ackerman was quoted in the Metro Times in an article titled "Lakes' law: New head for Great Lakes environmental group."


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  • Robert Ackerman was quoted in the Metro Times in an article titled "Murder case curveball: Prosecutor wants to question law students who worked on defense."


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  • Robert Ackerman commented in Crain's Detroit Business on a story regarding summer law associate programs. He states that Detroit is seeing less of a trend in law firms shutting down programs than elsewhere in the country.

     


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  • Robert Ackerman was featured by the Detroit Legal News on Feb. 18, 2009. The story was titled "Up to the challenge: WSU Law's Dean Ackerman seeks ‘a better way.'"


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  • Robert Ackerman was featured by the Detroit Free Press in an article titled "Detroit News Briefs" on Aug. 22, 2008.


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  • Robert Ackerman was quoted by Natalie Lombardo in Michigan Lawyers Weekly in an article titled "Associate Professor John Rothchild, Wayne State Univ.: The 'chief cook and bottle washer'" on Aug. 4, 2008. (Subscription Required)


  • Robert Ackerman was quoted by Cecil Angel in the Detroit Free Press in an article titled "Detroit News Briefs" on June 24, 2008.


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  • Robert Ackerman was quoted by Cecil Angel in the Detroit Free Press in an article titled "Tax expert to lead WSU law studies" on June 24, 2008.


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  • Robert Ackerman was featured in the Detroit Legal News in an article titled "Justice Corrigan, Law School deans to be featured at commencement" on April 28, 2008.


  • Robert Ackerman was quoted by Catherine Jun in the Detroit News in an article titled "WSU dean to bid farewell at gala" on April 4, 2008.


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  • Robert Ackerman was featured by Natalie Lombardo in Michigan Lawyers Weekly in an article titled "What's in store for Wayne State University Law School" on Mar. 10, 2008.


  • Robert Ackerman was featured in Crain's Detroit Business in an article titled "People" on Feb. 25, 2008.


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  • Robert Ackerman was featured in an article by the Detroit Free Press in article titled "People Making News" on Feb. 10, 2008.


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  • Robert Ackerman was featured in an article by the Michigan Lawyers Weekly in an article titled "Michigan Lawyers in the News: February 4, 2008" on Feb. 4, 2008.