Justice Joan L. Larsen
Justice Joan L. Larsen was named to the Michigan Supreme
Court on September 30, 2015, by Governor Rick Snyder.
Before assuming office, Justice Larsen served on the
faculty of the University of Michigan Law School where she was also special
counsel to the dean. An award-winning legal scholar, Justice Larsen taught for
more than a decade at the University of Michigan where she received the L. Hart
Wright Award for Excellence in Teaching.
She continues to assist the law school as the adviser to the Henry M.
Campbell Moot Court Competition.
Justice Larsen graduated first in her class from
Northwestern University School of Law, where she served as articles editor of
the Northwestern University Law Review. At Northwestern, she earned the John
Paul Stevens Award for Academic Excellence, the Lowden-Wigmore Prize for the
best student note published in the Law Review, and the Raoul Berger
Prize for the best senior research paper.
After graduation, Justice Larsen clerked for the Hon.
David B. Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for
Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court. Following her clerkships, she
joined Sidley & Austin's Washington, D.C., office, where she was a member
of the Constitutional, Criminal, and Civil Litigation Section.
Before coming to Michigan in 1998, she was a visiting
assistant professor at Northwestern. She
later served as deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of
Justice Office of Legal Counsel, where she provided advice to the White House,
the attorney general, and government agencies regarding constitutional and
statutory law.
While at the University of Michigan Law School, Justice
Larsen's research and teaching interests included constitutional law, criminal
procedure, statutory interpretation and presidential power.
Justice Larsen is married to Adam Pritchard, a professor
at the University of Michigan Law School.
They live in Scio Township and have two children who attend Dexter
Community Schools.