Howard Katz has just written with the sad news that Michael Rich of Elon Law School has passed away. There will be a memorial service tomorrow at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church at 2105 West Market Street in Greensboro, North Carolina. Cribbing now from Elon's memorial:
One of Elon University School of Law’s most prolific teacher-scholar-mentors, beloved by students and colleagues alike, passed away Wednesday morning after a three-year battle with metastatic kidney cancer.
"Let it suffice that Mike’s dedication, even against insurmountable odds, to Elon Law, his students, his work, and his colleagues should inspire and sustain us all,” said Elon Law Dean Luke Bierman. “We are better for knowing Mike but his passing leaves a profound void in our hearts and our community.”
Rich was named as Elon Law’s Maurice Jennings Emerging Scholar in 2015 in recognition of work that had “shown extraordinary promise as a teacher and a scholar.” His work focused on the intersection of emerging technologies and criminal law with a particular interest in the way those technologies prevent criminal conduct.
His scholarship, featured in Elon University's 2015 President's Report, also looked at technologies like machine learning that can be used to predict crime and identify likely offenders. He critically examined the use of such techniques to create algorithms that can identify individuals who are likely to be engaged in criminal conduct. ...
Prior to joining Elon Law in 2010, Rich served as an assistant professor of law at Capital University Law School, where he taught courses in criminal law, evidence, and professional responsibility.
His publications include 2016’s “Machine Learning, Automated Suspicion Algorithms, and the Fourth Amendment” in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 2013’s “Should We Make Crime Impossible?” in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and 2010’s “Coerced Informants and Thirteenth Amendment Limitations on the Police-Informant Relationship” in the Santa Clara Law Review. ...
Rich is survived by his wife, Amy Minardo, and daughters Auden and Cora Rich-Minardo.
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