Julie Hurwitz

• Biography

  Julie Hurwitz is a partner at Goodman Hurwitz & James, P.C., a Detroit-based law firm specializing in civil rights and §1983 litigation involving police and government misconduct. With a legal career spanning over four decades, she has successfully tried numerous high-profile civil rights cases to verdicts exceeding $1 million, including matters involving police misconduct, prisoner rights, malicious prosecution, wrongful conviction, failure to protect, and sexual harassment.

  Julie is an active member of the National Lawyers Guild and Jewish Voice for Peace and serves on the boards of the NLG/Maurice & Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights, and the Peoples Water Board. She has been recognized as a “Michigan Super Lawyer” every year since 2006 and has also been nominated as a “Lawyer of Distinction.”

  A prominent advocate for victims of constitutional violations, Julie has written, taught, and spoken extensively on civil rights and liberties. She is part of the legal team representing plaintiffs in the Flint water crisis, where she successfully argued before the Michigan Supreme Court that the State could be held directly liable under the substantive due process clause of the Michigan Constitution. She is also preparing for trial against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, addressing the EPA’s failure to act during the Flint water crisis.

  Julie has a long history of representing political activists arrested for civil disobedience, including during the 1983 Williams International protests, the Detroit newspaper strike in the 1990s, the 2014 "Homrich 9" water shut-off protests, the 2018 Michigan Poor People’s Campaign, and the 2020 anti-police brutality protests, which resulted in a seven-figure settlement and a preliminary injunction.

  Julie earned her bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1978, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1982.

• Degrees and Certifications
  • J.D., University of Michigan Law School, June 1982
  • B.S. in Economics, University of California, Berkeley, June 1978
• Recent courses taught

  Winter Term 2025 (current)

  • LEX7127 - Constitutional Litigation