Category Archives: Knowledge, Skills, Ethics

Cooley stresses legal knowledge, practice skills, and professional ethics, an approach that is the latest trend in legal education and new to most law schools, but has been in place at Cooley since its founding in 1972.
Knowledge: Master the substantive knowledge required for passage of the bar examination and admission to the bar.
Skills: Master the basic fundamentals required for the competent practice of law and representation of clients.
Ethics: Understand and embrace the legal, moral, ethical, and professional responsibilities of lawyers.

by | May 16, 2013 · 3:00 pm

Cooley People

vuletich_victoria

Professor Victoria Vuletich teaches Professional Responsibility at Cooley Law School.  She is chairperson of the ABA’s Center for Professional Responsibility Continuing Legal Education Committee. Before joining Cooley’s faculty in 2008, Professor Vuletich was Deputy Division Director of the State Bar of Michigan Professional Standard’s Division, where she advised attorneys regarding ethical dilemmas and practical issues they were facing.  She also served as staff counsel to the State Bar of Michigan Client Protection and Unauthorized Practice of Law programs and developed and managed the Practice Management Resource Center.

Someone once said that people who love people are the luckiest people in the world.  (O.K. it was Barbra Streisand who sang that, but I hate disclosing that as it negates my cool, hip image.  Well, all right, as cool and hip as an Ethics Professor can get.)  There isn’t a day that goes by at Cooley when I don’t feel like the luckiest person in the world. And many of my faculty colleagues feel the same way.

Through Cooley I have met the most interesting and wonderful people.  My boyfriend is always urging me to invite more students for dinner as he enjoys getting to know the rich and diverse array of people at Cooley.

Here’s what I am talking about.  This is the second week of classes.  In my Lansing class there is:

- a former sportscaster

- someone who wants to be an agricultural lawyer

- a person who ran a coffee shop for ten years

- a folk musician

- a person who collects presidential election memorabilia

- a person whose favorite season is winter

- a significant number of obsessed sports fans.

In my Grand Rapids, class, there is:

- a person who had a robin build her nest in his barbeque grill

- a cake decorator

- a rugby player

- someone who speaks fluent Chinese

- a significant number of folks who are animal lovers

- a significant number of people whose lifelong dream is to be a lawyer.

In every class there are people who hail from all around the world:  this term I have students from South Korea, Trinidad, Tobago, and Canada. Although I am just getting to know my students this term, I already find them fascinating.  By the end of the term when I have gotten to know some of them better, my life will be incredibly enriched.   And thanks to Facebook, I can see how their careers and personal lives blossom long after they have left Cooley.   It thrills me no end to see the marriages, babies, promotions and moves to other venues.

I am indeed a very lucky person!

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by | April 10, 2013 · 10:00 am

Equity & Remedies and the Bar Exam

Prof. Otto Stockmeyer

Emeritus Professor Otto Stockmeyer has been teaching Equity & Remedies for three decades at Cooley and two other law schools.  He has just finished his last class in the Land Down Under as part of Cooley’s Foreign Study Program. 

One of the reasons that Cooley – alone among Michigan’s five law schools – makes Equity & Remedies a required course is its value for bar-prep purposes.  Equity or Remedies or both are listed by 22 states as tested on the essay portion of their bar exam, including the biggies: New York, California, and Michigan.

Some other states (including Florida) do not separately test Equity or Remedies on their bar exams, but indicate that the topics could be tested as a component of other officially listed subjects.

bar exam

Moreover, the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) tests both rights and remedies embodied in Contracts, Property, and Tort law.

And 26 states plus the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories now use the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE), and the list is growing.  On the MEE, Remedies can appear as part of several listed topics, including Contracts, Federal Civil Procedure, and Real Property.

This is undoubtedly why Prof. Tracy Thomas, who has taught Remedies for more than a decade, reports that “the number one comment I get from former students and alumni [is] that Remedies helped them get ready for and feel good about the bar exam.”  Tracy Thomas, Teaching Remedies as Problem-Solving: Keeping it Real, 57 Saint Louis University Law Journal __ (2013) (forthcoming) (available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2209791).

My experience has been similar.  That’s one reason why I like to think of our Equity & Remedies course as the “dessert of the required curriculum,” best savoured last.  Do Cooley alums agree?  I welcome your comments.

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by | March 15, 2013 · 1:30 pm

Supreme Court Limits Federal Court Role in Patent-Related Disputes

Professor David Berry

Professor David Berry

 Professor David Berry teaches Intellectual Property courses in Cooley’s J.D. and LL.M. programs.  In this posting he discusses an important recent U.S. Supreme Court case involving federal jurisdiction.

In February’s 9-0 decision in Gunn v. Minton, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a state law action that includes a substantive issue of federal patent law must be heard in state court, not federal court. The decision may allow state courts to determine patent issues which in the past were the exclusive province of the federal courts.

Gunn involved a state-court action for legal malpractice relating to a failed patent infringement litigation. The patentee, Minton, lost the infringement case when the trial court ruled that his patent was invalid for violating the “on-sale” bar. Gunn, Minton’s attorney in the infringement action, argued that the on-sale bar did not apply under the experimental use exception. Minton subsequently sued Gunn for malpractice under Texas state law. The Texas Supreme Court ruled that because the malpractice claim turned on whether the experimental use exception would have saved the patent, Minton’s malpractice claim “arose under” the federal Patent Act, and thus was subject to exclusive federal jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1338(a).

The Supreme Court reversed. The Court held that the patent issue was not “significant,” because the outcome of the issue would not affect the “federal system as a whole.” Essentially, the Court reasoned that Minton’s patent was invalid, and the state court’s determination of the experimental use issue could not change that result. Second, the Court ruled that allowing a federal court to hear the malpractice claim would disrupt the balance between federal and state courts established by Congress. Specifically, the Court noted that state courts have a special interest in deciding cases relating to the conduct of attorneys licensed in the state. Thus, the federal court lacked jurisdiction, and Minton’s claim must be decided in the Texas state courts.

Under Gunn, other cases involving patent issues which are currently heard in federal courts may be sent to state courts. These include breach of contract actions relating to patent licenses and commercial disparagement cases based on allegations of infringement. For a fuller discussion of the Gunn v. Minton case, and whether the Court’s decision addresses the practical and policy concerns resulting from state court jurisdiction over patent law issues, read Prof. Berry’s paper, “Gunn v. Minton: The Supreme Court Pokes Another Hole In Exclusive Federal Jurisdiction Over Patent Rights,” available on SSRN ID 2232879.

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by | January 18, 2013 · 5:00 pm

Greetings From Hamilton, New Zealand

Prof. Otto Stockmeyer

Emeritus Professor Otto Stockmeyer is teaching this term in Cooley’s study aboard program in Hamilton, New Zealand.  He received the Socrates Award from the Hellenic Bar Association for effective use of the Socratic method of teaching and was the first recipient of the Cooley Student Bar Association’s Barristers Award for contributions to student-faculty relations.

 What a pleasure it is to be teaching in Cooley’s study abroad program in New Zealand this term.  Let me take you on a short photographic tour.

First is a photo of my Equity & Remedies students in the classroom we are using at the University of Waikato, where I also enjoy the use of a well-equipped office.

Class

Next is the lovely entrance to the law school building.

Law School Entrance

Students enjoy lunch and the chance to relax on a patch of campus near the law school building.

Lunch on the Lawn

Outside our apartment on Victoria Street in downtown Hamilton, which is party central for the 30,000 college students who attend its three institutions of higher learning.

Apartment

Our students enjoyed the Cooley-sponsored trip to the black-sand beach at Ragland on the Tasman Sea, which is renown for the finest left-curling surfing waves in the Southern Hemisphere — no, it has nothing to do with how water spins down the drain!

Beach

As Professor Terry Cavanaugh constantly warns me, one must always remember to look right, not left, for oncoming traffic before crossing the street.

Look for Cars

It is 80 degrees here today, a splendid early summer day.  All is well.  – Otto

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by | November 24, 2012 · 10:00 am

Law School Success Tips Have Proven Validity

 

Prof. Otto Stockmeyer

Emeritus Professor Otto Stockmeyer received the Socrates Award from the Hellenic Bar Association for effective use of the Socratic method of teaching and was the first recipient of the Cooley Student Bar Association’s Barristers Award for contributions to student-faculty relations.

 When Emeritus Professor Otto Stockmeyer tells students how to succeed in law school, he has the data to back up his advice.

Take his admonition to never miss class.  Using courses taught at Cooley and two other law schools, he compared class attendance and grades and found a strong positive correlation.  On average, almost half a grade level separated those students with perfect attendance from those who “maxed out” their allotted absences.  See his article “Better Grades @ No Extra Cost.”

His advice to brief every case and not rely on “canned” briefs was confirmed when Professor Stockmeyer looked at a sampling of Casenote Legal Briefs in his subject, Contracts.  He found them to be inadequate, unreliable, and dead-bang wrong on occasion.  For details, see “My Encounter with Canned Briefs.”

Professor Stockmeyer also encourages students to visit TWEN (The West Education Network) often.  TWEN is website hosting course discussion forums, links to CALI (Computer Assisted Legal Instruction) lessons, and review quizzes.  He found that, on average, students who received Honors level grades (a B or above) accessed his Contracts II TWEN site with much greater frequency than students whose grades put them on academic probation (a C or below).  The results of his research were reported in “Link Between Course Website Use and Law School Grades Confirmed, published in Michigan Computer Law in 2003.

Earlier, researching the effect of class size on student grades, Professor Stockmeyer found that when class size increases, student performance, as measured by grade-point averages, declines. See his piece,  “The Effect of Class Size on Student Performance.”  This finding, like his others, may seem self-evident.  But many students prefer the anonymity of larger classes, with lesser chances of being called on.

So when students are told to attend every class, write their own briefs, use TWEN regularly, and rejoice when called on, they should know that it’s advice they can rely on to perform at their best.

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by | November 2, 2012 · 9:42 am

Greetings From Belgrade

Prof. Paul Carrier

Prof. Paul Carrier

By Professor Paul Carrier

Professor Paul Carrier has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship – his second – to teach International Law at the University of Belgrade in Serbia.  He is writing a series of posts about his  experiences.

Greetings from Belgrade! On assignment at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law, I had the good fortune to meet with the President of the Serbian Bar Association recently. There are some very exciting legal happenings afoot.  Along with teaching and skills course work, I will try to lend a hand and to learn as much as I can about a national bar in the state of transition. I may also pick up a few tips and pointers regarding an international extradition case.

The Serbian Bar Association is an independent organization promulgating and enforcing the rules of admission and membership since 1868. There are eight regional bar associations for the eight administrative regions in the country, with a Council comprised of members of each regional bar association. Authority to self-govern was granted by the Ministry of Justice, and the main governing body is the Council. (The bar associations of Kosovo and of Metohija are currently not involved in Serbian Bar Association activities due to their steps to become self-governing and fully autonomous regions).

Current issues facing the national bar are a new, voluntary continuing legal education training system responding to EU requirements for accession into the union and a ruling by the national constitutional court that arguably establishes government control over licensing in contravention of the nearly 150 years of autonomy. With regard to the former, a new voluntary system of continuing legal education is set to take effect for the legal bar, with the possible implementation of a mandatory system in due course. The early focus is on criminal law and criminal procedure as the country undergoes transformation from a civil-law advocacy system to a more adversarial one. Of utmost priority is training of attorneys in criminal procedure, especially for witness examination, cross-examination, the use of leading questions, and related matters. Following these efforts, the Advokatska Komora Srbije (AKS) will turn to training regimes for other major practice areas (called “katedra” here, or major practice areas) such as civil law and international law.

A recent decision by the constitutional court has now put into question the autonomy of the AKS. Serbian law only allows review of administrative issues, and not substantive ones. The issue then is one of the separation of powers, i.e., whether it is the Ministry of Justice or some other governmental agency or court to act as the final arbiter of AKS rules and practice, or whether it will remain with the bar association as it has for the last 150 years.

The AKS is also attempting to license, govern and discipline all lawyers in Serbia. Currently, the AKS only has authority over attorneys at law, and not judges or prosecutors, who have their own rule-making and standards-enforcing systems. The AKS also does not have authority over in-house counsel, who are governed and sanctioned in their dealings at commercial courts by their own corporate employers.

The AKS President is involved in an extradition request on an Interpol warrant for a dual citizen of the United States and of Israel involving an international extradition treaty.

Finally, I am also supervising an extern working at a Belgrade business law firm in addition to my duties at the Faculty of Law. In addition to the truly unique legal issues that I am learning here, I will be trying to open more doors to rewarding externship opportunities.

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by | September 7, 2012 · 5:00 pm

Gone Abroad, But Hardly a Stranger in a Strange Land

Prof. Paul Carrier

Prof. Paul Carrier

By Professor Paul Carrier

Professor Paul Carrier has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship – his second – to teach International Law at the University of Belgrade in Serbia.  This is the inaugural post in a series that will recount his experiences.  Professor Carrier has for years made important contacts around the world on behalf of Cooley.  Cooley students should in particular note the wonderful international externship opportunities available to them.

I just finished a three-week intensive Slovak language course offered by the Philosophy Faculty, Comenius University, Slovak Republic as a way to refresh my connection to Central European languages and culture. I have also met or corresponded with a variety of former colleagues and friends in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Austria. Their professions range from former law clerks who worked with me, to Slovak judges who I have met and taught Legal English, to the named partner of a Viennese arbitration firm who has already accepted three externs from Cooley. 

One of my goals was to try to put myself back into the right frame of mind, culturally and linguistically, as I am about to embark on a teaching assignment with the Faculty of Law at the University of Belgrade in Serbia.

Another goal was to continue professional relationships as a way to establish externship opportunities in international law for Cooley students who would like to gain legal experience abroad.

Externships that I have helped to establish include law firms in Bucharest, Romania; Beijing, China; Singapore; and, now, Belgrade, Serbia. Cooley has a truly unique and highly professional externship program. To date, every externship site that I have worked with has been pleased with their Cooley externs, and, though some are on-again, off-again due to student interest, all are willing to consider future externs from Cooley. The only hurdle that I have experienced with the establishment of foreign externships is to convince a first-time site to take a Cooley extern. Once the first extern is in place, the program’s value becomes clear and then sells itself. In fact, some sites such as a business law firm in Madrid, Spain regularly ask whether there are any good candidates for upcoming terms (not always easy to fill).

My primary assignment in Serbia is to help the law students at the University of Belgrade with skills-based courses and moot court opportunities such as the VIS International Arbitration Competition held in Vienna, Austria every year. While there, I hope to broaden my understanding of civil law systems based on the Austro-Hungarian codes model, on teaching and learning trends in Central Europe and in the Balkans for law students, and to delve more deeply into different legal philosophies.

I look forward to sharing insights on different legal philosophies and on different teaching methods and learning expectations with regard to the Serbian law students with whom I will have the pleasure to work over the next two semesters.

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by | August 20, 2012 · 11:00 am

Not Just Another “Day at the Office”: The Work of Cooley’s Immigrant Rights and Civil Advocacy Clinic

Professor Jason Eyster

Professor Jason Eyster

The Immigrant Rights and Civil Advocacy Clinic at Cooley’s Ann Arbor campus combines a real law office serving clients with instruction in skills and ethics to upper level law students.  The clients of this clinic are indigent immigrants who receive legal representation in both immigration and civil matters.  Some cases involve both types of representation, as did recent efforts to help a boy from Honduras receive permanent residence in Ypsilanti, after fleeing his home at fourteen years of age, having been abused and neglected by his parents.  The tortuous path led student interns to Immigration Court in Detroit and to Probate Court in Ann Arbor, as well as requiring the filing of written applications to the Citizenship and Immigration Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This month clinical activities are shifting into a higher gear due to changes in immigration procedures affecting young immigrants, announced by President Obama in July.  Many immigrants entered the United States as children, either through valid temporary admission at a border crossing or through entry without inspection, and remain here without immigrant status.   Many have attended and graduated from high school or served in the armed forces.  For the last ten years, advocates for these children have sought passage of the DREAM Act, which would provide permanent residence for those who complete their education or military service.  While bills have been proposed nearly annually, the act has not been passed and there is no assurance that it will be approved in the near future.  In response to the growing political pressure, the Department of Homeland Security will use an existing remedy, “deferred action,” to grant two-year legal presence to immigrants who entered when they were less than sixteen years old, have been here continuously for more than five years, and have satisfactory school or armed services records.  An estimated 1.4 million immigrants may qualify for this program, but the rights are temporary and the risks of deportation for unsuccessful applicants and their families are serious.  Therefore, qualified legal assistance is essential.

To train and mobilize non-profit legal service providers, I, on behalf of Cooley’s CiRCA Clinic, and other clinic organization directors have met several times to create a comprehensive plan for informational meetings, individual consultations, and large-scale workshops to help qualified candidates complete applications. Cooley Law School students who are currently enrolled in the CiRCA Clinic helped organize a workshop at  Washtenaw Community College on August 7.  The student-interns and I presented the details that are thus far announced to an audience of more than 100 attendees. 

For more than two hours, the attendees asked questions about deferred action.  Many had very complicated cases that will require careful review of their documents and personal histories and of operational instructions for the government processing. 

Because Cooley has the only law clinic specializing in immigrant legal assistance, CiRCA will provide both individually-scheduled intake interviews and a day-long workshop on Saturday, November 17th at the Ann Arbor campus.  The intakes will be supervised by students enrolled in the clinic, but all Cooley students will be invited to attend a training session and meet directly with potential beneficiaries of the program.  Participation in this activity will help satisfy pro bono pledge aspirations

Through direct client representation in court, social justice advocacy and outreach, and events such as the upcoming Deferred Action Workshop, student interns at Cooley’s CiRCA Clinic learn first-hand about the work of a lawyer in an environment that fosters reflection and ethics.

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by | August 13, 2012 · 3:00 pm

Major Legal Employment Study Shows Law Graduate Employment Better Than Expected

Cooley’s logo

Cooley Law School has released a series of reports on legal employment in the United States.  The purpose of this study is to insert the nation’s most authoritative data into the public dialogue about the national legal employment picture.  Cooley invites you to comment to this blog.

Much of the current discussion in the media and on the blogs about employment in the legal profession is unsubstantiated, anecdotal, misleading, and incorrect.  Cooley Law School thus decided to study the subject based upon the most authoritative data that can be found — data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the National Association for Law Placement (NALP).  The study is presented in two reports.

Report One covers the national employment data compiled by the BLS.  It establishes that employment for lawyers grew during the past decade, even during the recession, and that the environment in the legal profession that awaits law school graduates reflects relatively full employment, particularly in comparison to other professional and management occupations.

Among the BLS top ten management and professional occupational subcategories, employment in legal occupations was bettered only by those employed as healthcare practitioners and technicians.  Lawyers are among the occupations least affected by the recent recession.

Report Two puts into perspective public discussion about the employment outlook for recent graduates from ABA-accredited law schools by placing NALP data for those graduates a 10-year context.  It explains why the employment data used by NALP to establish employment and unemployment rates among recent graduates is both accurate and reliable.  (The 2011 NALP report data has not been released publicly. We will update the report for 2011 once the data is public.)  Report Two concludes that, contrary to the perception advanced by certain media and blogs, the employment rate is very good for law school graduates.

The unemployment rate for 2010 law school graduates who sought to enter the job market was 6.2 percent, and these graduates overwhelmingly obtained full-time professional employment.  While the job market is more challenging now than three years ago, within nine months of graduation around 90.5 percent of the newly-minted lawyers either found employment or entered graduate school.  Of this employed group, 96.7 percent of them reported having found professional employment, and 90.2 percent of those professional positions were full time.

Reports One and Two contradict the assertions that are widespread on blogs and in a segment of the media regarding the employment situation for lawyers, refuting the notion that unemployment among current lawyers and law school graduates is high.  Looking at the data in this context highlights the invalid assumptions and faulty logic in the arguments used by the critics and shows that their conclusions are inaccurate and misleading.  Rather, the facts overwhelmingly discredit these assertions.  Legal education is actually one of the best choices for a career.

Read these reports and tell us what you think by commenting to this blog site.  Also see our media release on the topic.  For more information about Cooley, see generally our website.

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by | August 10, 2012 · 4:00 pm

My Journey…is not ending, it is only beginning

Susan Zuiderveen

Susan Zuiderveen

Susan Zuiderveen is a third-year Cooley student serving on an externship.  This is the eighth post in Susan’s outstanding series.

As my externship is coming to an end, I am very sad and I am also amazed.  I am sad because I have met so many wonderful people that I have enjoyed working with and will miss seeing every week.  I am also sad because I have enjoyed being in the criminal court system.  It was wonderful to spend time in the environment in which I hope to work after graduation.  It confirmed that I definitely want to be in the criminal court system as a prosecutor, and it only made me more excited to get started in my new career.

I am also amazed at how much I have learned.  I set three goals for myself at the beginning of the externship, hoping to achieve some knowledge in each area.  The first goal I set was to observe different attorneys to learn skills of effective persuasion in a trial.  In my externship, I have seen several attorneys in many different types of trials including civil and criminal.  I was also able to observe five different prosecuting attorneys in different trials.  It was a wonderful opportunity to see so many different styles and skills of all of the attorneys.  Not only did I learn skills of effective persuasion, I realized that effective skills come in many different styles and personalities.  Each attorney had their own unique way of arguing and persuading, and I was able to observe many different approaches.

The second goal I set was to gain a basic understanding of the court documents and the paper flow in the court system.  By digging into the files and doing my research project, I became more famililar with the paperwork and the filing system used.  But I also learned the human side of the paper process.  I delivered current court documents to staff during the day as as they were needed.  This allowed me to get to know all the individuals and their roles in the paper flow.  There are so many people involved, each playing a crucial role.  I gained an appreciation for the number of people it takes to process and file all of the many documents into the correct files.

My last goal was simply to meet people in the criminal court system.  When I first set this goal, I only thought of it in terms of the people that work in the courthouse every day.  I  never imagined that I would meet so many different people in so many different roles in the court system.  Not only did I get the opportunity to know the judge I am working for and her staff, but I also met and got to know the other three judges and their staffs as well.  I spent time with sheriff deputies, parole officers, attorneys, and court clerks.  There are so many people involved in the court system, and it was wonderful gaining an appreciation for the different roles that are needed to make the system work.

Looking back I am truly amazed at how much I have learned in such a short time in my externship.  This externship exceeded all my expectations and goals and made me feel more confident and more excited than ever to graduate and start my career.  Even though I am sad that my time at the courthouse is ending soon, I don’t feel like it is ending forever.  I feel more like it is just being put on hold for a few months until I can return!

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