Founder and Content Curator CEJ

Michele DeStefano is the founder and director of » LawWithoutWalls and a Professor of Law at » Miami Law. She is an expert in entrepreneurship in the law. Her scholarship focuses on the growing intersections between law and business and legal entrepreneurship. Through qualitative interviews of general counsels and other professional service providers, Michele’s research investigates the impact changes in the law and business marketplace (including litigation funding, social media, public relations, regulation) will have on the legal profession and its potential for innovation. Her latest project includes over seventy 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, Michele presents regularly on Innovation, Teaming, Collaboration, Compliance, Technology and Education, and Litigation Funding. She teaches courses on the changing legal profession, law, technology, and innovation, civil procedure, professional responsibility, and compliance. Recently, she was recognized by the ABA as one of ten » 2013 Legal Rebels.

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.