Robyn Frankel ’85

While a law student at L&C, I had the good fortune to participate in an externship at the Metropolitan Public Defender’s Office. The experience provided a lasting impression of the daunting responsibility of education and of power. I returned to Michigan in 1990, and spent the next 30+ years as a criminal defense practitioner. I accepted the director’s position at the Conviction Integrity Unit a little over a year ago and did so for many of the same reasons I made other professional life choices. I wanted to protect individuals from government overreach. I wanted to be part of a solution in difficult times. Mostly, I wanted to return freedom to those who had it stripped away by a system that had lost its grasp on fairness and justice. And I wanted to show that where we see unfairness and injustice, that we are not afraid to make things right.