26 | NOVEMBER 19 • 2020

When future MSU College of Law
students receive the Elaine Fieldman
Endowed Scholarship, the benefactor
hopes it sets an example.

“While Jewish people do not have a
monopoly on giving back or engaging
in charity, it has been my experience
that Jews of all movements value and
practice repairing the world,” Elaine
Fieldman says. “I’
m a Secular Humanist
Jew and a member of the Birmingham
Temple. I feel so at home there
because of the Temple’
s dedication to
social justice and repairing the world.”

She adds: “If you value your education
and what you got from it, you should
give back to help others have that
opportunity. I loved school and I loved
being a lawyer, but I know it is much
more challenging financially for
students today.”

At just 23 years of age, Elaine
graduated cum laude from Detroit
College of Law (DCL) and began a
clerkship for the Honorable John H.
Gillis of the Michigan Court of Appeals,
followed by a clerkship with Justice
Charles L. Levin of the Michigan
Supreme Court. Justice Levin asked
her to stay on a second year, which
she agreed to only if she could have
two months off to visit Israel.

After the trip of a lifetime working on
a kibbutz and traveling, she was
looking for a job. Justice Levin
thought she would be a great fit for
the Detroit firm Barris, Sott, Denn &

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Driker. He was right. She joined the firm
in 1979 and stayed until her retirement.
While working, she earned her LL.M.
from Wayne State University, raised a
daughter and was committed to
community service.

She spent her first 13 years in business
litigation at the firm, later specializing in
commercial real estate lending, where
she represented banks, pension funds
and other organizations that loan
money for commercial real estate
development. She also got involved
with what she calls professional
responsibility, serving on and eventually
chairing both the Professional Ethics
Committee and the Attorney Discipline
Board. Unsurprisingly, she was tapped
by the MSU College of Law to serve on
its board of trustees in 2010.

She supported DCL’
s move to build the
MSU College of Law from the beginning.

“I thought it was fantastic,” she recalls. “It
gave us presence in the center of the
state at a top Big Ten school with a real
campus. I was impressed with how the
college incorporated the foundation of
DCL into something bigger.”

With support from alumni like Elaine
Fieldman, the legacy of DCL is sure to
continue to thrive at MSU.

LEARN MORE about support for the MSU
College of Law by contacting Senior
Director of Development Roxanne Caine
at cainerox@law.msu.edu or by calling
(517) 432-6324.

Elaine Fieldman, ’
76, created a scholarship
to support MSU College of Law students.

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT:

Love of school, law
and caring for future
generations led to
scholarship

MSU’s
undergraduate
program
in
supply
chain
management
is
RANKED
#1
by
U.
S.

News
&
Worl
d
Report
for
the
10th
consecuti
ve
year.

After
four
years
of
consistent
improvement,
MSU’s
six-year
graduation
rate
has
reached
a
RECORD
HIGH
81%
in
2020.