Richard D. McLellan is a lawyer at McLellan Law Offices PLLC. He has served as Chairman of the Michigan Law Revision Commission since 1986. He argued on the side of the appellee in the United States Supreme Court case Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, 494 U.S. 652 (1990).
Education
McLellan received his Bachelor of Arts in 1964 from Michigan State University Honors College with a degree in advertising. He received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 1967.
Government career
McLellan began his professional career as an administrative assistant to Michigan Governor William Milliken and as acting director of the Michigan Office of Drug Abuse. President Gerald Ford appointed him as an advisor to the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration as a member of the National Advisory Food and Drug Committee of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. In 1990, he served as Transition Director to then Michigan Governor-elect John Engler. In 2007, he was selected by the Secretary of Defense to participate in a tour of the United States Pacific Command as part of the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference ("JCOC"). In 2010, McLellan served as Chairman of the Transition Team for the newly elected Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette.
McLellan has been appointed by the Governor of Michigan to the following positions:
Chair, Michigan Film Advisory Commission
Chairman, Michigan Corrections Commission
Designated as an Emergency Interim Successor to the Governor (1991-2002) Governor's Representative, Upper Great Lakes Regional Economic Development Commission Governor's Representative, State Safety Commission Member, Governor's Victimless Crimes Task Force Member, Michigan Jobs Commission Member, Michigan Export Development Authority Member, Michigan International Trade Authority Member, McPherson Commission On Charter Schools Acting Director, Michigan Office of Drug Abuse McLellan was named by Supreme Court Chief Justice Maura Corrigan to the Underground Economy Task Force.
Education policy
McLellan has been active in public education and school choice. He has served as legal counsel to TEACH Michigan, a school choice organization, and in that capacity assisted in drafting Michigan's charter school law. He assisted in implementing the law and successfully defended its constitutionality in front of the Michigan Supreme Court. He was a co-author of the study "The Universal Tuition Tax Credit: A Proposal to Advance Parental Choice in Education," published by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. McLellan has been a supporter of allowing parents to choose the kind of education their child receives. He helped draft the Kids First Yes! ballot proposal. This proposal would have allowed school vouchers for students who are in "failing" school districts.
In 2011 and 2012, McLellan served as a volunteer education advisor to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and was involved in drafting legislation to implement the Governor's proposed education reforms. He was asked to undertake a rewrite of Michigan's School Aid Act of 1979 and submitted a new forms of schools amendment to the School Code, 300+ page draft school financing bill, and confidential report to the Governor. Both the legislative proposals were highly controversial among traditional school interests. During the process, McLellan engaged in an online debate with John Austin, president of State Board of Education.
McLellan has also been active in encouraging the use of technology in public education. He formerly served on the board of the Michigan Information Technology Network (MITN). In 2012, he encouraged the creation of and arranged financing for an Education Reform Advisory Team designed as "volunteer challenge to design a wholly new public education experience that bundles the most advanced technology tools for learning to apply, in the public education space, concepts that are being applied throughout society – using technology to both reduce unit costs and increase quality and performance at the same time." State Board of Education President John Austin, however, decried that effort, calling it: "an ideological and political agenda to create a for-profit marketplace for schools and to diminish and replace the existing public education system." The MEA and other education groups opposed the idea, calling it a secret "skunk works" project. Subsequently, Governor Snyder the governor asked state superintendent Mike Flanagan to take over the project, and to focus on using technology to make schools less costly and more efficient. The new effort is named the Education Technology Work Group.