Criminal pro bono matters
Selected criminal matters involving fairness, procedural concerns, disproportionate consequences, or meaningful need.
Detroit pro bono law firm
Access to justice. Technical counsel when ideas matter.
Detroit IP is a pro bono-centered law firm serving people and communities in selected civil and criminal matters, while also providing patent-focused intellectual property counsel for innovators.
Pro bono work is not a side note at Detroit IP. It is part of the firm’s core identity.
Pro bono mission
A law firm built around access to justice.
Detroit IP often provides pro bono representation in selected matters where the need is real, the stakes are meaningful, and legal help can change the trajectory of a person, family, or community.
Civil pro bono matters
Selected civil disputes where the case materially affects housing, work, family stability, reputation, finances, or basic fairness.
Patent and IP counsel
Patent preparation, prosecution, office action responses, IP strategy, and technology-centered matters involving software, AI, chemistry, and engineering.
Pro bono first
Detroit IP takes civil and criminal matters pro bono.
Detroit IP exists to make careful, serious legal work available beyond traditional fee-paying clients. While the firm is selective about its clients, we believe in protecting the rule of law, especially when the system fails.
Criminal defense and post-charge issues with fairness concerns
Civil disputes with meaningful personal or community stakes
Pro bono review based on need, merits, timing, and capacity
Attorney profile
James W. Taylor II
James is a patent attorney with a technical background in chemistry and computer science. Through Detroit IP, he combines patent-focused technical counsel with a pro bono-centered commitment to civil and criminal matters where access to counsel matters.
Before practicing law, James worked at the United States Patent and Trademark Office and as a researcher. He brings together patent prosecution experience, litigation judgment, and technical training while reserving meaningful firm capacity for pro bono work.
Criminal fairness issues
Family and financial distress
Complex technical issues
Knowledge to cross-examine experts
Our difference
Technical judgment matters when the evidence is technical.
Detroit IP brings together legal advocacy, chemistry, and computer science. That combination matters in patent work, but it also matters in civil and criminal matters where the facts depend on scientific testing, digital records, financial trails, or technical expert testimony.
Chemistry: the central science
Chemistry connects physical evidence, materials, biology, testing methods, instrumentation, and scientific inference. That background helps Detroit IP evaluate whether testing was designed correctly, whether controls were appropriate, whether results support the claimed conclusion, and whether an expert is overstating what the evidence actually shows.
Computer science and digital evidence
Computer science training helps Detroit IP investigate matters involving software systems, account access, metadata, logs, cloud services, databases, networks, cryptocurrency-adjacent records, and online communications. When someone tries to hide behind the anonymity of the internet, technical knowledge can help trace what happened, preserve what matters, and challenge unsupported assumptions.
Cross-examining scientific experts
Scientific testimony often turns on details: sample handling, calibration, contamination risk, validation, error rates, chain of custody, and whether the reported conclusion follows from the underlying data. Detroit IP can read the evidence behind the conclusion and identify where the science is strong, weak, incomplete, or being pushed too far.
Patent-level technical fluency
Patent practice requires translating complex technology into legally precise arguments. That same discipline helps in pro bono matters involving technical evidence: separating what the record actually proves from what an opposing party, witness, or expert merely says it proves.
Contact
Tell us where help is needed.
For a pro bono review, send a brief description of the issue, the parties involved, the court or agency, if any, and any upcoming deadline. We will respond within 2 business days.