In an era of wavering public trust in government, people such as Grand Rapids’ mayor, David LaGrand, stand out for their firm commitment to justice, policy reform, and community revitalization. As a practicing attorney and a dedicated public servant, Mayor LaGrand has leveraged his legal expertise to enact meaningful change within Michigan, demonstrating how the legal profession can be used as a vehicle for social progress.

Mayor LaGrand’s career reflects a unique blend of legal practice and public service. For many years, he has employed his law degree to advocate for those often overlooked by the justice system. His journey into politics was motivated by a desire to address critical issues such as criminal justice reform and child welfare — areas where systemic improvements are urgently needed.

Mayor LaGrand earned a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1992. He then served as an assistant Kent County prosecutor before entering private practice in 2000. Mayor LaGrand eventually pivoted from the traditional practice of law to that of a politician. He first served as Grand Rapids City Commission for the Second Ward and as a member of the Grand Rapids Public Schools board. He then served as a state representative between 2015 and 2022, where he championed legislative initiatives that received bipartisan support, underscoring his ability to build coalitions across party lines.¹ Among his most notable contributions are the changes he brought to Michigan’s Child Protective Services (CPS) laws and his authorship of Michigan’s Clean Slate law.² He described the impacts of these reforms as “mind-blowing” and noted that one of the many great aspects of these reforms is that “[we] don’t have to talk about them to [know that they’re] insanely effective.”

In highlighting “mass incarceration” as a “terrible, terrible” problem, Mayor LaGrand authored Michigan’s Clean Slate law while serving as a state representative. His background as a criminal law attorney prepared him well both for authoring Michigan’s Clean Slate law and for negotiating bipartisan support for the law. The Clean Slate law expanded individuals’ eligibility to petition for expungement of certain criminal convictions and created a new process that automatically expunges certain criminal convictions.³ Allowing individuals to expunge certain offenses from their records serves to remove barriers to employment, housing, and education and, therefore, may help curb future mass incarceration. Mayor LaGrand explained that statistics show that cleaning up a person’s criminal history can increase their income by 24%, and that increase remains that much higher for the rest of their earning career. According to Mayor LaGrand, within six months of the adoption period of his Clean Slate law, more than 1 million people in the State of Michigan had crimes expunged from their criminal record.

At the time it was passed, Michigan’s Clean Slate law became the nation’s most comprehensive expungement package. After our Legislature adopted the Clean Slate law, Mayor LaGrand collaborated with Yale law students to write a similar bill in Connecticut. He ultimately testified in front of the Connecticut Legislature, and Connecticut passed a similar, albeit more expansive, expungement law. After Connecticut’s passing of its expungement law, nine additional states followed suit. Mayor LaGrand’s work, therefore, has had a national impact.

To further reduce mass incarceration, following the completion of his term as state representative, Mayor LaGrand worked to create the Michigan Sentencing Guideline Commission. Citing the fact that Michigan has the longest prison terms in the nation, the Michigan Sentencing Guideline Commission is tasked with reviewing the existing sentencing guidelines and suggesting changes to the Legislature that will result in fairer outcomes. Last, Mayor LaGrand expressed his desire to eventually tackle the issue of cash bail.

Mayor LaGrand’s reforms to Michigan’s CPS law also saw success. He was able to reform the CPS laws with unanimous bipartisan support.⁴ After learning that there were 430,000 parents in the State of Michigan on Michigan’s central registry, which Mayor LaGrand described as a “government watch list,” Mayor LaGrand’s “jaw dropped,” and he knew that reform of Michigan’s CPS laws had to occur. By his calculation, that meant approximately 10% of Michigan’s parents ended up on the central registry. After learning that so many people were on the central registry, Mayor LaGrand spoke with “the head of the child abuse and neglect system,” who estimated that only about 30,000 people should be on the central registry. This further confirmed to Mayor LaGrand that reforms to Michigan’s CPS registry needed to occur.

Mayor LaGrand explained that, with his legal experience doing abuse and neglect work, he saw regular “parents who made mistakes, which we all do because we’re all humans, [and they] would end up on this registry for things like they’d fall asleep on the couch and their kid would walk out the door.” Being on the central registry prevents people from chaperoning their children’s field trips and volunteering at church events, and it prohibits them from becoming foster parents. His CPS reforms were designed to enhance the efficacy of the CPS system, ensuring that children receive the protection and support they need while also ensuring that only the most severe child abuse offenders land on the central registry. Following the adoption of Mayor LaGrand’s CPS reforms, over 400,000 Michigan parents got off the CPS central registry.

Now serving as the mayor of Grand Rapids, Mayor LaGrand has not abandoned his commitment to reducing mass incarceration; however, he has shifted his focus to the needs of his immediate community: Grand Rapids. Mayor LaGrand believes strongly in community revitalization.⁵ With his commitment to creating stable and vibrant neighborhoods, Mayor LaGrand advocates for policies that attract investment and create jobs. In fact, he is a business owner. In an interview he gave during his mayoral campaign, Mayor LaGrand explained that he “started a number of neighborhood businesses starting with ... the first viable coffee house operation, downtown Grand Rapids in the ‘90s ... More recently, [L]ong [R]oad [D]istillers and [L]ess [T]raveled, on the West side and then on the East side,” and he believes that those businesses “are good for the neighbors there.”⁶ He further explained that, in addition to community stability and a solid educational system, “vibrant neighborhoods with affordable housing” are essential to “make some transformative progress.”⁷

Mayor LaGrand’s approach to the practice of law transcends traditional roles. He has creatively utilized his legal skills to identify and address systemic problems affecting local communities. His tenure as a state representative laid the groundwork for his current role as mayor, where he continues to advocate for innovative solutions to persistent issues.

In addition to all his political work, Mayor LaGrand has continued to pay his bar dues and still practices law. Thus, although he has spent considerable time in the political arena, Mayor LaGrand has never abandoned the “traditional” role of being a practicing attorney. His career has exemplified the invaluable role of lawyers in public service. Mayor LaGrand’s journey reminds us that when legal knowledge is paired with a genuine commitment to community welfare, it can lead to transformative outcomes that resonate far beyond the courtroom.