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Eli Savit is an American lawyer, law professor, and civil servant. His areas of expertise include civil rights, education law, environmental protection, state and local government, and criminal-justice reform. He currently serves as senior legal counsel in the office of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

Savit is a 2020 candidate for Prosecuting Attorney in Washtenaw County, Michigan.

Early Life, Education, and Career

Savit was born in 1983 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He graduated from Kalamazoo College, where he was voted senior class commencement speaker. Following graduation, Savit worked as an eighth-grade social studies teacher at I.S. 339, a public school in the South Bronx. He then attended law school at the University of Michigan, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and served as the Book Review Editor on the Michigan Law Review.

Legal Career

After graduating from law school, Savit worked as a law clerk for Judge Carlos T. Bea on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and for Judge David S. Tatel on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He then worked as a litigator at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., before being selected to work as a law clerk on the United States Supreme Court for Justices Sandra Day O’Connor (ret.) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Following his Supreme Court clerkship, Savit returned to Michigan, and accepted an appointment as senior legal counsel in the Detroit Mayor’s Office. In that capacity, Savit oversees thousands of public-interest lawsuits against banks and for-profit corporations, including suits against tax-delinquent corporate landlords and against the opioid industry. Savit also leads the City’s legal efforts in civil-rights cases. He serves as lead counsel for the City in Gary B. v. Snyder, a lawsuit which seeks to establish that Detroit schoolchildren have been denied their fundamental right to literacy.

In addition to his litigation work, Savit oversees multiple legal matters for the City of Detroit. Among other things, he led the negotiating team that, in 2017, struck a $48 million community benefits agreement with the Canadian government related to the Gordie Howe International Bridge, to be spent on job training, health monitoring, and environmental remediation in Southwest Detroit. In 2018, he crafted an agreement with the ACLU and community partners to prevent home foreclosures throughout Detroit. He also serves as the top education policy advisor for the City of Detroit.

Savit maintains an appointment at the University of Michigan Law School, where he teaches classes on public-interest litigation and state and local government. His academic work has been published in, among other journals, the Michigan Law Review and the Michigan Journal of Law Reform. Savit has also authored pieces in multiple popular publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal , the Detroit News , Slate , The Hill , and MLive.com. He is also a frequent contributor to the legal blog Take Care, where he primarily writes about environmental issues.

In addition to his work for the City of Detroit, Savit serves as a pro-bono cooperating attorney for civil-rights groups in Michigan. He has litigated in the Michigan Supreme Court on behalf of the ACLU, the League of Women Voters, and the American Association of University Women. He also presented testimony to the Michigan Civil Rights Commission in support of Equality Michigan’s successful effort to have the Commission declare that Michigan’s civil rights law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Candidacy for Washtenaw County Prosecutor

In May 2019, Savit announced his 2020 candidacy for Washtenaw County prosecutor, vowing to “end the era of mass incarceration. A Democrat, Savit’s platform includes elimination of cash bail, more support for addiction and mental-health treatment programs, and plea-bargaining reform.

Less than two weeks after Savit announced his candidacy, 28-year incumbent prosecutor Brian Mackie announced his retirement. Savit quickly secured endorsements from multiple elected officials and community leaders.