Michele DeStefano
Associate Professor, University of Miami School of Law
Michele DeStefano is the founder and co-creator of LawWithoutWalls and an Associate Professor of Law at Miami Law. She is an expert in entrepreneurship in the law. Before joining the Miami Law faculty, she was a Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, where she was previously the Associate Research Director of the Program on the Legal Profession. Her primary area of scholarly interest is in the growing intersection between law and business, how this intersection is reshaping the role of both inside and outside counsel, and the consequences of these developments for clients, the profession, and the public. Employing a mix of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, Michele’s research investigates the impact changes in the law and business marketplace (like litigation funding, social media, and public relations) will have on the legal profession and its potential for innovation. Currently, she is conducting interviews of general counsels and chief compliance officers of large, publicly traded corporations to analyze and assess the changing role of compliance.
In addition to spearheading LawWithoutWalls with Michael Bossone, Michele teaches courses about the Legal Profession, professional responsibility, civil procedure, and business associations.
From 2003 to 2004, Michele clerked for Chief Judge William G. Young of the Federal District Court of Massachusetts. She also worked for a year as a Special Master on a patent law case. Before attending law school, she was a Senior Marketing Manager at Levi Strauss & Company (1995-1998) and an Account Executive at Leo Burnett Advertising Company (1991-1995). Michele earned a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and a B.A., magna cum laude, from Dartmouth College and has been admitted to the Massachusetts, Minnesota, and District of Columbia bars.
