Michigan Law Workers' Rights Clinic

02/06/2021

Today is the last day to order WRC Swag! Orders will start shipping out on June 16, 2021. Thank you to everyone who has supported our clinic! We are looking forward to seeing everyone rock their WRC gear!

https://pogo.undergroundshirts.com/collections/michigan-workers-rights-clinic-apparel

Michigan Workers Rights Clinic Apparel Wear your worker pride with these t-shirts, tote bags, and zip-ups and celebrate the Workers' Rights Clinic!The Workers' Rights Clinic ("WRC") at the University of Michigan is staffed by law students, including second-semester first year stude...

01/06/2021

Tomorrow is your last chance to order WRC Swag!! We have tote bags, t-shirts, and quarter-zips with artwork designed by recent clinic alumna Maria Christina Smilde '21. https://pogo.undergroundshirts.com/collections/michigan-workers-rights-clinic-apparel

Michigan Workers Rights Clinic Apparel Wear your worker pride with these t-shirts, tote bags, and zip-ups and celebrate the Workers' Rights Clinic!The Workers' Rights Clinic ("WRC") at the University of Michigan is staffed by law students, including second-semester first year stude...

28/05/2021

Happy Friday! Today, we want to give a HUGE shoutout to our clinical director, University of Michigan Law School's Professor Rachael Kohl!

Since joining the WRC, she's represented hundreds of clients, returned over $4,088,455.75 to the community, supervised a whopping 326 hearings, submitted 154 administrative and court briefs, both argued and prepared students for 23 oral arguments(including at the Michigan Supreme Court!), won 316 cases, & changed countless students' lives!

Rachael's leadership, both before and during the pandemic is impossible to quantify! THANK YOU, RACHAEL!

27/05/2021

TEACHING FELLOW SPOTLIGHT! Since 2019, our wonderful teaching fellow, Andrea Van Hoven has returned $1,445,075.94 to the community, acted as supervising attorney in 94 hearings, and submitted 49 briefs! GO ANDREA!!

She has also mentored countless students and helped to fill the clinic with joy & laughter! THANK YOU, ANDREA!!

27/05/2021

Stay cozy and celebrate the only legal clinic at University of Michigan Law School that is open to second-semester first year students with this Quarter-Zip by ordering it before June 2! It will ship right to your door.

https://pogo.undergroundshirts.com/collections/michigan-workers-rights-clinic-apparel

26/05/2021

What's blue and white and celebrates the only statewide free legal support for Michigan workers navigating unemployment insurance? This tote bag, with student-designed artwork! Thank you Maria Christina Smilde!

Get it before our pop-up store ends on June 2!
https://pogo.undergroundshirts.com/collections/michigan-workers-rights-clinic-apparel

26/05/2021

*REMINDER* If you want to support the WRC and get some swag with artwork designed by our very own Maria Christina Smilde , visit our pop-up online store before June 2! The orders will be shipped directly to you! https://pogo.undergroundshirts.com/collections/michigan-workers-rights-clinic-apparel

Michigan Workers Rights Clinic Apparel Wear your worker pride with these t-shirts, tote bags, and zip-ups and celebrate the Workers' Rights Clinic!The Workers' Rights Clinic ("WRC") at the University of Michigan is staffed by law students, including second-semester first year stude...

24/05/2021

This week, we are celebrating the hard work of the WRC with swag!! Wear your worker pride with these t-shirts, tote bags, and zip-ups and celebrate the Workers' Rights Clinic! The Store will be open from now until June 2!

https://pogo.undergroundshirts.com/collections/michigan-workers-rights-clinic-apparel

Michigan Workers Rights Clinic Apparel Wear your worker pride with these t-shirts, tote bags, and zip-ups and celebrate the Workers' Rights Clinic!The Workers' Rights Clinic ("WRC") at the University of Michigan is staffed by law students, including second-semester first year stude...

24/05/2021

Since March of 2020, we've helped thousands of people and returned over $4 million to the community. And now, we can celebrate all this hard work with WRC SWAG with artwork by clinical alumna Maria Christina Smilde '21! Order between now and June 2!

https://pogo.undergroundshirts.com/collections/michigan-workers-rights-clinic-apparel

Michigan Workers Rights Clinic Apparel Wear your worker pride with these t-shirts, tote bags, and zip-ups and celebrate the Workers' Rights Clinic!The Workers' Rights Clinic ("WRC") at the University of Michigan is staffed by law students, including second-semester first year stude...

21/05/2021

A just economic recovery and return to "full" employment is dependent on a combination of factors including increased vaccination, work supports such as child-care and family care, and schools and day-care centers reopening. Workers have the right to good jobs!

21/05/2021

20/05/2021

Unemployed Workers United National Employment Law Project

20/05/2021

Many people cannot return to work because they:
-Are not yet fully vaccinated
-Have caregiving responsibilities
-Are looking to change their field of work
-Seek better wages and conditions
-Need money for gas, phone, internet to search for work

19/05/2021

Workers have the right to good jobs! A just economic recovery and return to "full" employment is dependent on a combination of factors including increased vaccination, work supports such as child-care and family care, and schools and day-care centers reopening.

21/04/2021

For the last day of classes, here is our end of term round up! This term the WRC at University of Michigan Law School had 49 hearings, 19 Court Briefs, 15 Administrative Briefs and 6 Oral Arguments, with an 86% win rate! To date, the WRC has returned almost $800,000 to the community!!

22/12/2020

This holiday season, the best gift the MI State Legislature can give Michiganders is a better unemployment law. In this oped, WRC Clinic Director Rachael Kohl and one of our law students call on the state legislature to amend the statute so it actually helps workers during the pandemic. Read more https://www.bridgemi.com/guest-commentary/opinion-lawmakers-must-act-protect-unemployed-michiganders-2021

14/10/2020

*BREAKING NEWS* The UI expansion bill passed the state house and had some critical language to protect workers added!

In a marathon session, the GOP-led Legislature also passed bills demanding subpoena power over Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s appointees and approved a non-binding measure opposing defunding the police.

14/10/2020

Worker advocates across the state, including Clinic Director Rachael Kohl, are calling on the legislature to amend the pending UI bill to fix some of the biggest gaps in its current coverage. The bill is currently in the House!

Worker advocates are calling on the Michigan House of Representatives to amend a bill that ties unemployment benefits to strong legal protections for

12/10/2020

Economic independence is critical in violence prevention. For those experiencing IPV, the financial entanglement with an abusive partner is difficult to sever without alternative economic support.
https://bit.ly/36nbqHP

Perspective from The New England Journal of Medicine — A Pandemic within a Pandemic — Intimate Partner Violence during Covid-19

12/10/2020

As the legislature considers codifying some of 's EOs, important distinctions are missing. Those distinctions are "the difference for thousands of people in getting unemployment pay versus being disqualified," said 's Rachael Kohl.
https://bit.ly/2SIOKKm

But there's a catch – it only passes if four business liability bills pass, too.

06/10/2020

Make no mistake, Gretchen Whitmer's Executive Orders have been vital for the Michiganders getting benefits during the pandemic.
University of Michigan Law School's Professor Rachael Kohl breaks down the possible implications of the recent MI Supreme Court's holding. https://www.wxyz.com/news/coronavirus/gov-whitmer-warns-up-to-830-000-could-lose-unemployment-benefits-after-supreme-court-decision

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is asking for clarity on when the state’s Supreme Court ruling on her executive orders goes into effect, saying more than 800,000 Michiganders could be at risk of losing unemployment benefits if the orders are struck down immediately.

05/10/2020

Protection from DV and IPV is a workers' rights issue. A 2002 study from found that abusive partners harassed 74% of employed battered women at work. 1 in 4 battered women report quitting work at least partly due to DV. https://bit.ly/34eEejl

02/10/2020

What happens when UI systems focus on finding fraud over accessibility? Read about the findings of 's recent study here: https://bit.ly/3naFhcL

01/10/2020

October is ! Protection from the effects of domestic violence and intimate partner violence in the workplace is crucial. Read up on your state laws here: https://www.workplacefairness.org/domestic-violence-workplace

Information about Domestic Violence and the Workplace provided by job and employee rights advocacy organization Workplace Fairness.

21/09/2020

An amazing breakdown on the inequities backed into the UI system! Thank you for this important work,

https://www.newamerica.org/public-interest-technology/reports/unpacking-inequities-unemployment-insurance/

23/07/2020

Michigan's UI system's biggest barrier to functioning well? It's own software. Prof. described it as "the biggest barrier to Michiganders getting benefits — both historically since 2013 and right now during COVID-19,"

https://bit.ly/3hne9U1

Michigan overhauled its unemployment insurance system nearly a decade ago to save money, root out fraud and make it harder for jobless workers to qualify for benefits. Now, with more than one million workers jobless, the state has flagged 1 in 3 claimants for fraud amid the coronavirus pandemic.

22/07/2020

If Congress doesn’t unemployment boost workers pressured to go back to work will be putting themselves & their families at a higher risk of contracting —a disease already disproportionately affecting Black & brown communities. https://msmagazine.com/2020/07/16/unemployment-compensation-runs-out-this-month-will-congress-savethe600/

The $600 weekly unemployment payments will expire at the end of the month. Activists call on Congress to extend the program and protect vulnerable workers.

22/07/2020

It is only 10 days before the $600 per week expanded unemployment insurance benefits expire (and 72 hours until states start sending out letters to millions of unemployed workers telling them their benefits will be reduced or cut all together).

22/07/2020

The $600 unemployment boost is critical to helping families keep food on the table, a roof over their heads & the lights turned on. If Congress cares about economic recovery, it must put families & workers first.

22/07/2020

If the $600 boost in emergency unemployment benefits are cut, more than 1 million Michiganders will struggle to pay their bills. We can’t afford that. Congress must .