DETROIT "" William Ortman has joined the faculty of Wayne State University Law School as an assistant professor of law.

For fall semester 2016, he will be teaching Administrative Law.

"Will brings to our faculty a depth of experience in administrative law and criminal law," said Associate Dean Lance Gable. "We are excited to add such an accomplished lawyer and creative scholar to our faculty."

Ortman comes to Wayne Law from Harvard Law School, where he served as a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law since 2013.

What primarily attracted Ortman to Wayne Law was what it provides students.

"I wanted to be part of an institution that provides excellent value for students," he said. "Wayne Law does that, as its small class sizes, mentoring programs, and numerous scholarship and grant programs all evidence. I also wanted to be part of a vibrant scholarly community. Wayne Law does that, too. As part of the interviewing process, I got to spend a day meeting with Wayne Law professors. The probing and insightful questions on the paper I presented that day helped make it a better article."

Ortman's teaching and research interests include criminal law, criminal procedure and administrative law.

"I'm especially interested in understanding the effects of widespread plea bargaining on our criminal justice system," he said. "More generally, my goal is to identify legal rules and institutional arrangements that are ordinarily taken as given, but that may not be serving us well. This is partly prescriptive, as I sometimes suggest alternative rules and arrangements that might better achieve social objectives. But it is largely descriptive. I think that examining the latent assumptions of laws and institutions helps to reveal their inner workings and normative commitments."

Previously, Ortman was a partner at Weinhardt & Logan in Des Moines, Iowa, and prior to that was a partner with Berlin McCormick in Des Moines. His practice at both firms focused on criminal defense and complex civil litigation.

He clerked for Hon. David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Ortman, who has moved to Beverly Hills, Michigan, earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science with a minor in philosophy in 2002 from Swarthmore College. He earned his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 2006.

Photo attached: William Ortman