Western Michigan University Cooley Law School

Western Michigan University Cooley Law School
Established 1972
School type Private
Endowment $21 million[1]
Dean Don LeDuc
Location Lansing, Michigan (flagship)
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Auburn Hills, Michigan
Tampa, Florida
Enrollment 1,285
185 Full-Time JD
1,024 Part-Time JD
76 LLM
[2]
Bar pass rate 61% (February 2018 first time takers)[3]
Website cooley.edu

Western Michigan University Cooley Law School (WMU-Cooley) is a private American law school located in Lansing, Michigan, and established in 1971.

It has four campuses. Its main campus is in Lansing, Michigan, and the satellite campuses are in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Auburn Hills, Michigan, and Tampa, Florida.[4][5] First year courses may be taken at Western Michigan University's Kalamazoo campus.[6]

History

In 1972, the Thomas M. Cooley Law School was established by a group of lawyers and judges led by Thomas E. Brennan, a former Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. The school was named in honor of Thomas McIntyre Cooley (1824-1898), a prominent 19th-century jurist, who was also a former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice. Cooley was a dean of the University of Michigan Law School and visiting faculty at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.[7]

On July 28, 2014, the ABA and the Higher Learning Commission gave their approval to an affiliation between Cooley and Western Michigan University.[8] On August 13, 2014, the affiliation became official and included Cooley changing its name from "Thomas M. Cooley Law School" to "Western Michigan University Cooley Law School".[9][10][11][12] Cooley Law School classes are offered on each of Western Michigan's four campuses.[13]

Curriculum

Cooley prepares its graduates for entry into the legal profession. While most students work toward a Juris Doctor degree (J.D.), Cooley also offers the Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree as well as joint degrees in Master of Business Administration (J.D./M.B.A.) and Master of Public Administration (J.D./M.P.A.). The J.D/M.B.A. is offered in partnership with Oakland University; the J.D./M.P.A. is offered in partnership with Western Michigan University.[14] Concentrations include: general practice, litigation, business transactions, administrative law, international law, environmental law, taxation, intellectual property, Canadian practice, and focused studies.[15]

Cooley operates programs allowing ABA-approved foreign study credit in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition, students are able to study at ABA-approved programs through partner law schools, including U.S. law schools operating programs in: London, England (University of Notre Dame); Oxford, England (Florida State University); Madrid, Spain (College of William and Mary); Montreal, Canada; Quebec, Canada (Pennsylvania State University); Paris, France; and Muenster, Germany.

Accreditation

Cooley has been accredited by the American Bar Association since 1975 and by the Higher Learning Commission since 2001.[16][17]

In 2017, Cooley was sanctioned by the American Bar Association for violating the ABA requirement that schools only admit students who appear capable of earning a Juris Doctor degree and passing a bar exam.[18] The ABA announced in April 2018 that the school was now in compliance with the ABA standards for admissions, and the sanction was lifted.[19]

Clinical programs

Cooley offers clinical programs at each campus. Students who participate in any of the Michigan clinics are allowed to practice law in Michigan under the Michigan Court Rules by representing clients in court, drafting client documents, and giving legal advice under the supervision of faculty. The Innocence Project is nationally recognized in the United States for helping free persons wrongfully incarcerated by obtaining DNA evidence and providing pro bono legal advocacy to overturn their convictions - Cooley's Innocence Project clinic has contributed to overturning four convictions.[20][21][22][23] Cooley also offers an elder law clinic, Sixty Plus, Inc., which provides free legal services to senior citizens, as well as two Public Defender's clinics, which allow students to work in the Public Defender’s office with indigent clients who are accused of committing a crime. The Access to Justice Clinic provides a general civil practice, focusing on family and consumer law. Free legal help in family law and domestic violence matters is offered at the Family Legal Assistance Project. Evening and weekend students can gain experience in the Estate Planning Clinics or the Public Sector Law Project, which provides civil legal services of a transactional, advisory, legislative or systemic nature to governments.[24] Cooley offers externships throughout the United States at over 2600 approved externship sites. Student externs work under the supervision of experienced attorneys, with the guidance of full-time faculty.[24]

Libraries

Cooley has a library at each of its five campuses. Legal research can be conducted at the libraries through a variety of media, including print, electronic, and multimedia sources. Reference librarians are present at each campus. The libraries have a total of about 60 staff. CoolCat is the online library catalog. The Cooley libraries collectively house roughly 670,000 volumes with an annual growth rate of more than 17,000 volumes. Cooley Law has a reciprocal agreement with both Western Michigan University and Oakland University allowing access to the materials in each institution's collections.[25]

Motto

Cooley's Latin motto, In corde hominum est anima legis, was written in the 1970s by its founder, former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas E. Brennan. Brennan had originally described the meaning as "the spirit of the law is in the heart of man"; when a female organization called the Cooley Action Team argued that the motto should also refer to "the hearts of women", Justice Brennan agreed and changed it to "The spirit of the law is in the human heart".[26]

Costs

The total cost of attending (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) Cooley for the 2017-18 academic year was between $69,104 and $70,134, depending on the campus.[27]

Bar passage

In recent years, the average school bar passage rate has been about 50%.[28] 53% of graduates passed the Michigan bar exam on their first attempt in July 2017, below the 83% average for other Michigan law schools.[3] The average school bar passage rate was 51.86% in 2015, 52.73% in 2014, and 51.45% in 2013.[28] Cooley's bar passage rates have averaged about 20% less than the state average pass rates.[28] Cooley's bar passage for first-time takers for the February 2018 exam was 61%.[29]

Ranking and reputation

In 2017, Cooley was sanctioned by the American Bar Association's for violating the ABA requirement that schools only admit students who appear capable of earning a Juris Doctor degree and passing a bar exam.[18] During the 2016-2017 application cycle, the school admitted 86% of applicants, the highest of any ABA-approved law school. The entering fall 2017 class had a median GPA of 2.94 and median LSAT of 142 (18th percentile of test takers). The 25th percentile GPA of enrolled students was 2.59 and the 25th percentile LSAT of enrolled students was 139 (11th percentile of test takers), both lowest of any ABA-approved law school outside of Puerto Rico.[30] That same year, the school was ranked the "worst" law school in the country by law website Above the Law,[31] referring to a list of the "bottom 10 least selective law schools in the U.S. (excluding Puerto Rico)".[32]

The ABA announced in April 2018 that the school was now in compliance with the ABA standards for admissions, and the sanction was lifted.[19]

In 2012, Cooley was noted, by a plaintiff's attorney in a civil lawsuit regarding false advertising, for having "the loosest admissions standards of any accredited or provisionally accredited American law school... the employment prospects of its graduates are grim, even compared to the generally dire state of the legal job market."[33] In 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the district court's dismissal of the plaintiff's lawsuit because although the graduates’ complaint showed that the statistics on which they relied were objectively untrue, their reliance on the statistics was unreasonable.[34] Judge Quist noted that "it would be unreasonable for Plaintiffs to rely on two bare-bones statistics in deciding to attend a bottom-tier law school with the lowest admission standards in the country."[35]

According to the organization Law School Transparency, Cooley is considered one of the most at-risk law schools for exploiting students for tuition.[36][37]

Post-graduation employment

According to disclosures required by the American Bar Association (ABA), 30.6% of graduates from the class of 2017 obtained full-time, long-term, bar-passage-required employment nine months after graduation, while 20.7% of graduates were unemployed 9 months after graduation.[38]

Branch campuses and ABA accreditation

Main Building in downtown Lansing

In 2002, when Cooley was expanding, Cooley filed a lawsuit against the American Bar Association for delaying the accreditation of its satellite campuses in Grand Rapids and Auburn Hills.[39] Cooley was working to gain ABA accreditation since the satellite schools opened in June 2002, but had faced delays caused by disagreements on standards, resolved by a settlement of Cooley's lawsuit with the ABA, resulting in the ABA's acquiescence.

In May 2012, Cooley opened a new branch campus in Riverview, Florida, in the Tampa Bay region.[40][41]

After suffering a 35% decline in enrollment across its five campuses between 2012 and 2013, Cooley announced on July 2, 2014, that it would not be enrolling first year students on its Ann Arbor campus for the Michaelmas term in 2014, but that current and transfer students could continue their studies at that campus. The announcement also called for cuts in faculty and staff.[42] On October 3, after having outlined a transition plan in June, Cooley announced the Ann Arbor campus would permanently cease operations on December 31, 2014.[43][44][45] The Ann Arbor campus was subsequently sold in 2015 to Concordia University Ann Arbor to house Concordia's School of Nursing.[46]

Since the Michaelmas term in 2015, Cooley has offered first year classes at Western Michigan University's Kalamazoo campus.[47]

Ranking and Judging the Law Schools

Cooley is shown as "Rank Not Published" in the U.S. News & World Report listing of law schools.[48] Cooley is ranked second in the twelfth edition of Judging the Law Schools, which is published by Cooley.[49]

Cooley relies heavily on its library statistics in its own Judging the Law School rankings. Specifically, Cooley has 10 library-based statistics in its 2010 rankings, which included separate entries for the total square footage in the library, the seats available in the library, the amount of hours the library is open, the total number of volumes in the library, the total number of titles in the library, the number of librarians, the total hours that staff works in the library, and several other library-based criteria.[50] Cooley has been subject to intense criticism and backlash for assigning equal value of these library-based statistics to far more important factors such as bar passage rate and percentage of graduates employed following graduation.[51][52][53][54]

Defamation lawsuit by Cooley

In July 2011, Cooley filed a defamation lawsuit against the law firm Kurzon Strauss, LLP and four anonymous bloggers after they claimed the school was inflating its post-graduation employment statistics and was under federal investigation for its student loan default rate.[55] The firm retracted the statements, but maintained the school used "'Enron-style' accounting techniques" to manipulate their jobs-placement data.[56] In September 2013, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Jonker dismissed the lawsuit, stating that Cooley was a limited purpose public figure and did not provide adequate evidence the defendants acted with actual malice. The court further noted "the statement that 'Cooley grossly inflates its graduates' reported mean salaries' may not merely be protected hyperbole, but actually substantially true."[57]

Class action against Cooley

In August 2011, a class-action lawsuit by 12 Cooley graduates was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, alleging[58] fraud and misrepresentation about Cooley's published employment information concerning its graduates. The school responded by filing a motion to dismiss.[59] On July 20, 2012, Judge Gordon Jay Quist granted the motion, concluding: "The bottom line is that the statistics provided by Cooley and other law schools in a format required by the ABA were so vague and incomplete as to be meaningless and could not reasonably be relied upon. But, as put in the phrase we lawyers learn early in law school—caveat emptor." The judge further noted that "it [was] unreasonable for Plaintiffs to rely on two bare-bones statistics" in deciding to attend Cooley as it is "widely accepted that American law schools, Cooley included, employ all sorts of legerdemain to boost employment rates in a contracting legal market."[60]

Faculty and staff layoffs

In August 2014, Associate Dean James Robb announced that Cooley had begun laying off faculty and staff at all its campuses.[61] A JD Journal article claims that the layoffs will exceed 50%, but James Robb denied this claim.[62] Cooley had experienced a drop in enrollment of over 40% in recent years and had raised tuition by 9 percent.[63]

Notable faculty

Notable alumni

References

  1. ↑ "Higher Ed Index". febp.newamerica.net. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Statistics - Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar". www.americanbar.org. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  3. 1 2
  4. ↑ "Cooley Law School Campuses". WMU-Cooley. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Law School Transparency - Thomas M Cooley Law School Profile".
  6. ↑ "Expanded Course Offerings Planned - September 2017". Western Michigan University Cooley Law School. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
  7. ↑ Steiner, Bernard Christian. "The History Of University Education In Maryland". Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  8. ↑ Zipp, Yvonne (2014-07-28). "Western Michigan University-Cooley Law School affiliation receives approval from Higher Learning Commission, American Bar Association". MLIVE.com. Western Michigan University. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
  9. ↑ Pinho, Kirk (2014-08-13). "Cooley Law School adds Western Michigan University to name — any objections?". Crain's Detroit Business. Retrieved 2014-08-14.
  10. ↑ Callahan, Elizabeth (2014-08-14). "Cooley name change to Western Michigan was long time in planning". National Jurist. Retrieved 2014-08-17.
  11. ↑ "The New Western Michigan University Cooley Law School". Western Michigan University Law School. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  12. ↑ "Law - Academics - Western Michigan University". Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  13. ↑ Ward, Stephanie Francis (September 11, 2018). "Cooley Law's Kalamazoo, Michigan, campus approved by ABA's Legal Ed section". Retrieved September 18, 2018.
  14. ↑ "Graduate LL.M. Programs - WMU Cooley Law School". www.cooley.edu. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  15. ↑ "Concentrations - WMU Cooley Law School". www.cooley.edu. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  16. ↑ "ABA-Approved Law Schools - Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar". www.americanbar.org. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  17. ↑ "Higher Learning Commission". www.ncahlc.org. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  18. 1 2 Frakt, David (2017-12-15). "The 2017 Bottom 10 Law Schools in the Country". The Faculty Lounge. Retrieved 2017-12-30.
  19. 1 2 Tyler Roberts (April 27, 2018). "Cooley Law Back In Compliance With ABA Admissions Standard". Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  20. ↑ https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3769
  21. ↑ https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=3288
  22. ↑ https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=4546
  23. ↑ https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=5159
  24. 1 2 "Experiential Learning, Clinics & Externships - WMU Cooley Law School". www.cooley.edu. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  25. ↑ "Law Libraries - WMU Cooley Law School". www.cooley.edu. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  26. ↑ "Cooley: About". Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  27. ↑ "Tuition and Expenses".
  28. 1 2 3 "ABA Required Disclosures" (PDF).
  29. ↑ http://courts.mi.gov/Courts/MichiganSupremeCourt/BLE/Documents/stats/ExamStatistics2000-Feb2018.pdf
  30. ↑ "2017 1L JD Applicant/First Year Class Data". ABA. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  31. ↑ Zaretsky, Staci. "The 10 Worst Law Schools In The Country (2017)". Above the Law. Retrieved 2018-05-12.
  32. ↑ "The Faculty Lounge: The 2017 Bottom 10 Law Schools in the Country". www.thefacultylounge.org. Retrieved 2018-05-12.
  33. ↑ "Torts — Fraudulent Misrepresentation — Sixth Circuit Finds Law School Applicants Could Not Reasonably Rely On School-Provided Employment Statistics. — MacDonald v. Thomas M. Cooley Law School, 724 F.3d 654 (6th Cir. 2013)" (PDF). Harvard Law Review. 127: 1017–1024. Retrieved 29 April 2016.
  34. ↑ United States Court Of Appeals For The Sixth Circuit, Nos. 12-2066/2130
  35. ↑ "Class Action Lawsuit Dismissed".
  36. ↑ Ward, Stephanie Francis (February 2, 2017). "LSAT scores at high-risk schools getting worse, according to analysis by law school reform group". ABA Journal. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  37. ↑ "Comments on Proposed Revisions to Standards 316 and 501" (PDF). Law School Transparency. July 27, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  38. ↑ http://abarequireddisclosures.org/EmploymentOutcomes.aspx. Retrieved 23 July 2018. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  39. ↑ "Michigan law school sues American Bar Association". Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  40. ↑ "Cooley opens Tampa campus". Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  41. ↑ "Cooley Law School expands into Florida, welcomes first class of students". Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  42. ↑ "Cooley Law School Plans to Cut Jobs, Halt First Year Enrollments in Ann Arbor".
  43. ↑ "Cooley Law School may close Ann Arbor campus in December".
  44. ↑ "Cooley Law Plans To Shutter Ann Arbor Campus".
  45. ↑ "Statement of Intent to Close". Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  46. ↑ Allen, Jeremy. "Ann Arbor's Concordia University launches new School of Nursing program". MLive Media Group. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
  47. ↑ Robins, Andrew (August 13, 2014). "WMU Cooley Law School Announces Classes". WMUK. Retrieved January 23, 2015.
  48. ↑ "U.S. News and World Report: Cooley Law School". Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  49. ↑ Brennan & DuLac, Judging the Law Schools, 12th Ed., 2010.
  50. ↑
  51. ↑ Mystal, Elie. "Latest Cooley Law School Rankings Achieve New Heights of Intellectual Dishonesty". Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  52. ↑ "Blogger". thirdtierreality.blogspot.com. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  53. ↑ "The top five law school marketing failures". Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  54. ↑ "Thomas Cooley Law School's Reputation Is In The Dumps... So It's Thinking About Changing Its Name". Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  55. ↑ "Cooley Sues Law Firm and Bloggers, Says Law School Falsely Accused of Misstating Grads' Success".
  56. ↑ "Cooley Law School loses 6th Circuit defamation appeal".
  57. ↑ "Thomas M. Cooley Law School v. Kurzon Strauss, LLP, et al" (PDF).
  58. ↑ Macdonald v. Thomas M. Cooley Law School, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, Case No. 11-cv-00831
  59. ↑ "Cooley Law School, October 20, 2011, "Cooley Files Motion to Dismiss Jobs Reporting Lawsuit"". Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  60. ↑ "McDonald v Thomas M Cooley Law School: IV. Conclusion". Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  61. ↑ ""Cooley Law School cutting faculty, staff positions," Aug. 15, 2014, ''Detroit Free Press''". Freep.com. 2017-05-16. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  62. ↑ Ostler, Andrew (August 15, 2014). "More Than Half of Staff Being Laid Off by WMU Cooley Law School". JD Journal. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
  63. ↑ "Belinda Thurston, "Cooley 'right-sizing'" Aug. 14, 2014, ''City Pulse'' (Lansing, Michigan)". Lansingcitypulse.com. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  64. ↑ Shelbourne, Mallory (15 June 2018). "Trump says Cohen is no longer his lawyer". TheHill. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  65. ↑ "Trump's Lawyer Went to the Worst Law School in America". POLITICO Magazine. Retrieved 2018-05-04.
  66. ↑ Hiroe Ruby Makiyama’s Profile
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