Wayne State snags Levin, creates center in his name

• Center to focus on oversight responsibilities%2C methods for legislators%2C business leaders
• Symposiums likely to be held both in Detroit and Washington
• Levin also joining Detroit law firm as senior counsel

WASHINGTON – Having investigated Pentagon spending, Enron's bookkeeping and the causes of the 2008 financial crisis, former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin knows more than most about legislative oversight and its role in changing policy.

As it turns out, he wants to share.

With a faculty vote this afternoon, the Wayne State University Law School in Detroit created a new center named for Levin, which school officials say will educate future attorneys, business leaders, legislators and public servants on "their role in overseeing public and private institutions."

Levin himself will take over as chairman of the new Levin Center at Wayne Law, step in as "distinguished legislator in residence" at the university and teach classes, beginning this fall with a course on tax policy, its effects on society and, as Levin put it, "how tax avoidance activities have punched a hole in our income tax system." He will co-teach the class with the school's Alan Schenk.

For anyone who knows or has covered Levin, it comes as little surprise that he has found a vehicle to continue what has been one of his chief passions during 36 years in the Senate: pursuing an urgent need for aggressive government oversight of questionable practices in business and the bureaucracy and using investigatory tools to improve public policy.

"They called me, they suggested there be this center that would focus on the oversight authority of government and the difference it can make," Levin, a native Detroiter, Harvard Law graduate and Michigan's longest-serving U.S. senator ever, told the Free Press. "I'm very much committed to the city, so it had a great attraction to me."

On Monday, it also was announced that the 80-year-old Levin, who is planning to move back to Detroit full time in the near future, was taking on a role as senior counsel at Detroit-based Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP. He told the Free Press he plans to split about half his time between the law firm and the university and spend the other half with his family.

In other words, he expects to be busy.

There were other offers, he said.

But Wayne Law succeeded in luring Levin in by proposing a center that will train legislators and business leaders "to embrace the same ideals of integrity and transparency and accountability that he has built his life around, "said the law school's dean, Jocelyn Benson.

While development of the center is in its infancy, Benson said it's expected to include academic courses at the university; workshops and training sessions for local, state, federal and tribal leaders in Detroit and Washington, potentially in partnership with national nonprofit watchdog groups; and research into oversight activities and their effects on public and private institutions.

The center is also expected to put together a forum or other programming tied to national events, such as the 40th anniversary this fall of the first reports from the Church Committee, the U.S. Senate panel that looked into illegal intelligence gathering activities by federal agencies in the mid-1970s.

In his classes, Levin — a former chairman and longtime member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations who led probes into Wall Street banks, defense spending, Apple's overseas investments, crude oil speculation and much more — will teach, through case studies, the ins and outs of oversight investigations, their need and their impact.

"There aren't many centers like this at law schools," said Benson, noting that, while there are some centers named for former senators, "This is really the only center of its kind at a law school based on legislative oversight."

Benson said the initial costs of setting up the center are relatively low — $100,000 to $150,000 annually — and that an advisory board will help direct operations and build an endowment. Eventually, she said, it is hoped the center will be entirely funded through that endowment.

Former top staffers to Levin, Linda Gustitus and Elise Bean, will serve as interim executive directors and Eugene Driker will be chair of the center's advisory committee.

Wayne State President M. Roy Wilson said Levin, who won praise from colleagues as a "senator's senator" for his intellect, integrity and work ethic as he prepared to depart Congress late last year, will be a draw for the law school.

"Given his stature, to have a senator like that at Wayne State means a lot," Wilson told the Free Press. "I think there are very few people who could do something like this. ... We're very pleased."

Contact TODD SPANGLER at 703-854-8947 or at tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on twitter at @tsspangler.