Maya Watson

• Biography

  Maya Watson is the Director of the Business and Community Law Clinic and an Assistant Clinical Professor. A native Detroiter, she joined Wayne State Law’s faculty in 2022.

  She brings eleven years of practicing transactional law, as an Associate and a Partner, in Detroit law firms.

  Prior to joining Wayne Law’s faculty, she served as the Director of the Maywood Medical-Legal Partnership and a Clinical Teaching Fellow at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. At Loyola Chicago, she co-taught Health Justice Lab: Race and Health Equity and Health Justice Clinic Weekend. Her scholarship focuses on health equity, social justice, and reparative justice.

• Degrees and Certifications

  J.D., Wayne State University Law School
  LL.M., Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
  B.A. Lincoln University, PA

  She is licensed to practice in MI, CA, and IL.

   

• Courses Taught

  Business and Community Law Clinic

• Selected publications
  • Inaccessible Health Care, 92 UMKC L. Rev. 393 (2023)
  • An Inter-professional AntiRacist Curriculum is Paramount to Addressing Racial Inequities in Health, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Vol. 50, Issue 1: (Spring 2022), p. 109-16 (with Abigail Silva, Jessica L. Simpson and L. Kate Mitchell).
  • A Civil Rights Act for Public Health, 98 U. Det. Mercy L. Rev. 299 (2021)
  • “The United States' Hollow Commitment to Eradicating Global Racial Discrimination,” ABA Human Rights Magazine, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Jan. 2020)
  • Filling the Gaps: A community case study in using an interprofessional approach and community-academic partnerships to address COVID-19-related inequities. Frontiers Public Health. In press. Kutchma M, Perez J, Stranges E, Steele K, Garis T, Prost A, Simbul S, Choo-Kang C, Gbikpi Benissan DG, Smith-Haney G, Mora N, Watson M, Griffith T, Booker N, Harrington A, Mitchell K, Blair A, Luke A, Silva A.

   

• Accomplishments

  Social Justice and Public Health, Association of Accredited Public Health Programs, May 26, 2022.

  National Public Health Week and The Loyola Project Documentary Screening Panel, Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health, April 5, 2022.

  African American Resilience: Courage in the Face of Persistent Conflict, 22nd Annual Rainbow PUSH Global Automotive Summit, November 10, 2021.

  Race and Health Inequities during the Covid-19 pandemic, Lehigh Valley Health Network, November 3, 2021.

  Place-Based Lawyering (Including Medical-Legal Partnerships): Connecting and Collaborating within Communities to Meet Legal Needs, 2021 American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, October 26, 2021.
  
  Engaging Students in Race and Health Equity Education and Practice, ASLME Health Law Professors Conference, June 10, 2021 (with Abigail Silva & L. Kate Mitchell).

  Addressing COVID-19’s Disproportionate Impact on Black and Brown Communities in the Western Cook County Suburbs through Interprofessional Collaboration and consideration of a Federal Public Health Rights Act –
  Ms. Maya Watson Dr. Amy H. Luke Dr. Thao Griffith, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Law Review Symposium 2021, Pandemic: From Disparity to Equity, March 5, 2021.

  The Process of Starting the Maywood Medical-Legal Partnership, MLP Illinois, May 14, 2021.

  Innovations in Integrated Care: Medical Legal Partnerships, Dominican University, April 16, 2021 (with L. Kate Mitchell).
   

• Courses taught by Maya Watson

  Winter Term 2024 (current)

  • LEX8631 - Business and Community Law Clinic

  Fall Term 2023

  • LEX8631 - Business and Community Law Clinic

  Winter Term 2023

  • LEX8631 - Business and Community Law Clinic

Recent university news spotlights

• Business and Community Law Clinic uses multidisciplinary effort to support Detroit nonprofits, small businesses