Saul Green Named in Lawyers Weekly Hall of Fame
Miller Canfield is pleased to announce that Saul Green has been included in Michigan Lawyers Weekly's 2020 Hall of Fame.
Green is a lifetime Detroiter who has dedicated his life to service to the community and excellence in the practice of law. His remarkable career began in 1972, when he went to work doing research for judges at the Michigan Court of Appeals. Soon after, he was hired to serve as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. In 1976, he was named chief counsel for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Later, Green was hired to serve as Wayne County Corporation Counsel. In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed him U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, where Green counted among his biggest accomplishments the trust and relationship-building he did between law enforcement and community members, and the work he did in raising law enforcement awareness and sensitivity to racial profiling.
Green joined Miller Canfield in Detroit in 2001 and took the lead in the firm's minority business group and its white-collar crime practice. He very soon after took the case that he says is the work he is most proud of. It was a pro bono case in which he represented Eddie Joe Lloyd, a person who had been convicted of the 1984 rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl for which he was serving a life sentence. In 2002, after Lloyd had been imprisoned 17 years, the Innocence Project reviewed Lloyd's case and conducted DNA testing that showed he could not have been the perpetrator. Green served as Lloyd's counsel and asked then-prosecutor (now Mayor) Mike Duggan to review the Innocence Project's findings. Duggan came to the same conclusion as Green and joined the motion to set aside Lloyd's conviction which the court granted.
Green was enjoying the career of a successful litigator when duty called him back to the public sector. After Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick left office under a cloud of criminal charges, Green went to work in 2008 as deputy mayor under the city's new mayor Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. He was asked to take the job, in part, based on his well-earned reputation for being a man of high ethical standards. He then served during the early part of newly elected Mayor Dave Bing's term and returned to Miller Canfield in 2012.
His work in recent years has involved monitoring the reform of law enforcement agencies, including the Cincinnati Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, following Department of Justice investigations of allegations of police misconduct. This work has led to policing reforms for the betterment of communities, particularly communities of color.
During 2017 and 2018, Green, along with a team of experts he enlisted, were asked by the City of Cincinnati to review and refresh its 2002 police/community collaborative agreement that is seen as a national model. Green had been appointed by a federal court judge in 2002 to monitor the implementation of the now-18-year-old agreement, which was created to reform the city's police department following the fatal shooting of a black man by a white officer in 2001.
The review included an examination of arrests, traffic and pedestrian stops by officers, body-camera policies, police training and the status of the citizen independent review board. Green focused on four areas of the agreement: evaluation and accountability, community engagement, independent citizen review, and problem solving. Green's evaluation challenged the city and its residents to recommit to the reforms and values of the collaborative agreement.
Green's many awards and honors include:
- American Bar Foundation, Fellow
- State Bar Foundation, Fellow
- Hannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, 2019
- State Bar of Michigan, 1999 Champion of Justice Award
- Wolverine Bar Association, 1991 Trailblazer Award
- Wolverine Bar Association, 1998 Damon J. Keith Community Spirit Award
- Augustus Straker Bar Association, 2005 Trailblazer Recipient
- University of Michigan Alumni Association, 1994 Distinguished Service Award
- University of Michigan Leonard F. Sain Alumni Award; 1989 Distinguished Service Award
- Federal Bar Association, 2002 Wade Hampton McCree, Jr. Award
- Michigan Lawyers Weekly, 2007 Lawyer of the Year
- Corp! Magazine, One of Michigan's Most Powerful African-American Leaders, 2003; One of Michigan's Top African-American Achievers, 2005
- Best Lawyers in America, Criminal Defense, 2005-2006
- Michigan Super Lawyers, Criminal Defense, 2006-2008, Civil Rights, 2013-present
- Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit, Fair Housing Advocate Award, 2008
- Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, Humanitarian Award, 2009
- Detroit Public Safety Foundation, Integrity and Ethics Award, 2013
- University of Michigan – Detroit Center Hall of Fame, 2015
- Julian Abele Cook, Jr., Bernard A. Friedman FBA Civility Award, 2015
Green has volunteered his time with organizations like Detroit Youth Violence Prevention Initiative and Detroit Life is Valuable Everyday. His other professional, civic and social activities include:
- American Bar Association, member
- Federal Bar Association, Executive Board, 1980-1983
- State Bar of Michigan, Open Justice Commission, 1998; Task Force on Racial/Ethnic and Gender Issues in the Courts and Legal Profession, Co-chairperson, 1977; Committee on the Expansion of Under-represented Groups in the Law, Chairman, 1988-1994
- Wolverine Bar Association, President, 1988-1989; President-elect, 1987-1988; Secretary, 1986-1987; Newsletter Editor, 1986-1991; Board of Directors, 1985-1990
- Attorney General's Advisory Committee, 1999-2001; Healthcare Fraud Committee, 1998-2001; Organized Crime/Violent Crime Subcommittee, 1997-1999
- Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference, Lifetime Member
- Michigan Supreme Court, Attorney Grievance Commission, 1990-1994
- Advocates and Leaders for Police and Community Trust (ALPACT), Chairperson, January 1999-2001
- Michigan Alliance against Hate Crimes (MIAAHC), Co-chairperson, 1988-2001
- University of Michigan Law School, Visiting Committee, 1992-1995
- University of Michigan Alumni Association, President, 2001-2003; President-elect, 2000-2001; Vice President, 1998-1999; Member, Board of Directors, 1983-1986
- Commission on Safety and Abuse in American Prison-(VERA), Commissioner, 2005-2006
- Vera Institute of Justice, Member Board of Directors, 2008-2018
- Promise Schools, Member Board of Directors, 2014-present
- Common Justice, Treasurer, 2018-present
- Neighborhood Defender Service, Member, Board of Directors, 2019-present
- NAACP, Life Member
Green joins Miller Canfield colleague Amanda Van Dusen, a 2019 honoree, in the Hall of Fame.
See more at https://milawyersweekly.com/hall-of-fame/.