Marian Faupel's Profile Image

Marian Faupel

Throughout her career, Ms. Faupel has always represented “David” in David vs. Goliath cases and is passionate about people’s civil rights. Ms. Faupel continues to provide quality legal services to clients from all walks of life.

Marian Faupel has practiced law for over 35 years in Southeastern Michigan. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 1965, and later graduated from Wayne State Law School in 1983. She was a senior editor of the Wayne Law Review, which has published approximately 15 articles written by her. Ms. Faupel represented the birth parents in the famous “Baby Jessica” case and taught Family Law as an adjunct professor at Wayne State’s Law School for many years. She was named a 1993 Michiganian of the Year by the Detroit News in recognition of “activity pursued with excellence, zest, and dedication, thereby making Michigan a more habitable place for all its citizens.” In 2008 Ms. Faupel received the Richard J. Barber Wayne Law Review Alumni Achievement Award.

About Marian - In Her Own Words

The road to becoming an attorney (especially one who handles many family law cases) has been a true journey for me. I grew up in Highland Park, MI—which, back then, was a tree-lined city with the first community college in Michigan and a very progressive school district. Unfortunately, the schools I attended there are now in moth-balls.

When I was in the 8th grade, my parents sent me to a boarding school in Adrian on the campus of Siena Heights, where I received a wonderful education and longed to become a teacher myself. After graduation from St. Joseph Academy, I went on to the University of Michigan, where I obtained my bachelor’s degree and a teaching certificate. My husband was drafted during the Viet Nam war, and the Army took us to New Jersey and Kentucky. I taught high school not only in Michigan but in both of those other states. I not only taught during the day, but I also taught a Title I program in the summer, taught the GED class in the evenings, and tutored unwed mothers in their homes for the State of New Jersey while there.

After my husband was discharged, we returned to Michigan, and I received one of the last lifetime teaching certificates from the State of Michigan. In 1978, I was elected to the Saline Board of Education, where I served for three terms (12 years). In 1980, while on that Board, I entered Wayne State’s Law School and ultimately was elected a senior editor of the Law Review. After graduation from law school in 1983, I worked for Detroit-area law firms for 7 years before forming my own firm in 1990, the same year that I left the School Board. In 1992, I was retained by Dan and Cara Schmidt after Jan and Robbie DeBoer filed an action in Ann Arbor for custody of the little girl they had tried to adopt, “Baby Jessica.” The DeBoers were represented by the University of Michigan’s Law School (the Child Advocacy Clinic), and that case actually went to the United States Supreme Court before it was over.

During the case, virtually everyone in the United States was talking about the “best interests of the child.” My clients prevailed, and their daughter was returned to them after protracted litigation in Iowa (before they had even met me) and further litigation in Michigan, during which I represented them. At the heart of the case were the fundamental, constitutional rights of fit natural parents to the care, custody, and control of their own children. At Wayne State’s Law School, Professor Robert Sedler taught me a reverence for the United States Constitution, but I never imagined that I would have a case that turned so much on those precious rights.

A unifying factor for me throughout my life and my career has been my passion for justice. In 2002, Wayne State’s Law School invited me to teach family law as an adjunct professor, and the Law Review at the Law School gave me the Alumni Achievement Award in 2008, which I cherish. At the award banquet, I was invited to speak to the current law review members—and my message to them was that you can make a living and a difference in people’s lives at the same time.

I owe much to the many teachers and mentors in my life, including the teachers in Highland Park, the Adrian Dominicans, and Professor Robert Sedler, who taught me to love the law.

Education

  • Wayne State University Law School, J.D. (1983)
  • University of Michigan, A.B., English (1965)

Bar Admissions and Honors

  • Michigan
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
  • United States Supreme Court
  • Recipient of the prestigious Alumna Achievement Award from Wayne State Law School
  • Recipient of the Michiganian of the Year Award from the Detroit News
  • Prevailing attorney in the "Baby Jessica" case
  • Adjunct Professor of Law at Wayne State Law School with extensive publications in multiple areas of the law
  • Former member of a school board, tax board of review, industrial/business development commission, and elected to the State Representative Assembly of the Michigan Bar Association
  • Bar Association's Representative Assembly for two years
  • Senior editor of Wayne State Law Review