Joan Vestrand teaches Personal and Professional Responsibility, Legal Ethics in the Digital Space, and a course called Getting to Excellence which focuses on the connection between ethics, attitude, and success.  Professor Vestrand, who chairs the law school’s Professional Responsibility department, formerly served as the Associate Dean of the law school’s Ann Arbor and Auburn Hills campuses, after serving as an Assistant Dean and the Acting Dean of Students and Professionalism.  Upon her hire in 2002, Professor Vestrand helped to revamp the law school’s legal ethics curriculum and assisted in the development and implementation of numerous professionalism initiatives and programs. In 2006, the law school was awarded the American Bar Association’s E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Award for these programs. 

Prior to joining the law school and for more than a decade, Professor Vestrand served as a state ethics prosecutor investigating and prosecuting ethics violations against Michigan lawyers and judges.   She then became a partner and shareholder at Moore Vestrand and Pozehl, P.C. where she concentrated her practice on lawyer disciplinary defense, legal ethics, the representation of law school graduates in state bar character and fitness proceedings and serving as an expert witness in legal malpractice cases, a service she continues in today.   

Professor Vestrand is a former member of the State Bar of Michigan Representative Assembly, the policy making arm of the state bar. She is also past chair of the State Bar Special Committee on Grievances and the State Bar Law Practice Management section and served on the State Bar’s Grievance Committee and Annual Meeting Committee.  Presently, she is a member of the State Bar’s Professionalism Committee and its Standing Committee on Character & Fitness.  Presently, Professor Vestrand serves the State of Michigan as a hearing panelist in both bar admission and lawyer disciplinary cases. 

Professor Vestrand is a past chair of the Oakland County Bar Association’s Professionalism Committee, its Solo Small Firm Committee, and its Law Related Education Committee. She also served for several years as co-chair of the Federal Bar Association’s Law School Initiatives Committee.  

Over the years, Professor Vestrand has designed and implemented several programs and initiatives in benefit of disadvantaged youth and gives of her time regularly to these endeavors.  In 2012, she launched a student court between her law school and a local high school for restorative disposition of matters that otherwise would have resulted in student discipline.  In 2013, this court was converted to a peacemaking court, with law students overseeing teen peacemakers in their efforts to resolve student conduct issues and help peers make better choices.  This program received the Eastern Leaders Group 2013 Leadership Award and was a featured youth character program in connection with a 2014 Carnegie Project on Social Justice at the University of Missouri - St. Louis Center for Character and Citizenship. In 2015, Dean Vestrand brought the program to Avondale High School in northern Oakland County.

Professor Vestrand is a frequent lecturer on legal ethics and the importance of ethical behavior at the state and national level.  In addition to educating attorneys and business executives on Principled Leadership and Leading for Superior Results, she regularly gives of her time helping youth identify the connection between ethics and success, presenting to both high school and college-aged audiences. Her speaking engagements include several annual appearances as a featured speaker at the United States Coast Guard Academy’s annual Ethics Symposium, the West Point Military Academy’s Leadership Conference, and engagements at The Citadel Military Academy of South Carolina, including at their Annual Leadership Symposium.   

A named Fellow of the National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professionalism, Professor Vestrand was one of three national finalists for the 2006 Teaching Excellence Award sponsored by the ABA Center for Professionalism and the Commission on Chief Justices.  She is also a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, the Michigan Bar Foundation, the Oakland County Bar Foundation, and the George Romney Institute for Political Science at Adrian College. 

In 2007, Professor Vestrand was awarded the Oakland County Bar Association’s Frances R. Avendenka Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Legal Profession and the Community.  In 2008, she received the State Bar of Michigan’s Champion of Justice Award in recognition of her work in the field of legal ethics and her programs to benefit underprivileged youth.  In 2014 she was named a Leader in the Law by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.