Dr. Nicholas Rine

Biography

Nicholas J. Rine is a Clinical Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. He has extensive experience as a trial lawyer in private practice, having tried cases in a wide variety of state and federal courts from the 1970s to the 1980s. During this period, Rine held several offices, including president of the Michigan Trial Lawyers Association. He joined the Michigan Law clinical faculty in 1989, where he taught various clinics such as the Civil-Criminal Litigation Clinic, Child Advocacy Law Clinic, Urban Communities Clinic, Asylum Clinic, Women's Law Clinic, and Pediatric Advocacy Clinic. Additionally, he taught courses on ethics and negotiation. Since 2004, Rine has provided a yearly course on Law Development, linking students’ volunteer work in internships with developing nations. He is actively involved with the U-M Center for Southeast Asian Studies and has directed Michigan Law’s Program on Cambodian Law Development, facilitating internships for students in Cambodia. Throughout the mid-1990s, Rine spent periods in Cambodia working with various human rights organizations and taught at the Royal University of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh. In 2000, he received a Fulbright grant and published a textbook on legal ethics in English and Khmer. Rine also contributes to training programs for legal services in both Cambodia and the United States and serves on the board of directors of Legal Aid Cambodia as well as on the U-M President’s Advisory Committee on Labor Standards and Human Rights.

Research Interests