Thu, 25 Sep 2025 14:14:37 -0700 marlon from private IP, post #18109077 đŽ /all Cooley Law School placed on probation by the American Bar Association https://www.mlive.com/news/2025/09/cooley-law-school-placed-on-probation-by-the-american-bar-association.html Cooley Law School placed on probation by the American Bar Association Published: Sep. 25, 2025, 3:34 p.m. Thomas M. Cooley Law School The exterior at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. J. Scott Park | jpark4@mlive.com By Matthew Miller | mmiller@mlive.com The American Bar Association has placed Thomas M. Cooley Law School on probation because of its continued failure to meet the required minimum bar exam passage rate. The ABAâs Standard 316 requires at least 75% of a schoolâs graduates who sit for the bar to pass within two years of graduation. Cooley, which has campuses in Lansing and Tampa, Florida, has been out of compliance since the rule was implemented in 2020. That failure âis sufficiently serious that it raises concerns about the quality of the student learning experience,â the ABAâs Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar wrote in a notice issued last week. Cooleyâs President James McGrath will now have to appear in front of the Council in February to make a case for why it should keep its ABA accreditation. Losing that accreditation would mean that Cooley students would no longer be eligible for federal financial aid and that their degrees would not be recognized by most employers and bar associations. But McGrath says he is â99 percent and change sure weâll be back in compliance.â âI was called in to testify before the ABA Council in August, and we laid out the fact that, at the time, we were seven graduates away from meeting the standard and we were just waiting for the July 2025 bar results,â he said. Cooley has had an improvement plan in place since 2020, he said. Itâs been working, albeit not as quickly as it might have. âIn my mind, weâre already in compliance,â McGrath said. âWe just donât know which graduates have passed the bar.â Cooley was once the largest law school in the country, with five fully functioning campuses in Michigan enrolling nearly 4,000 students. It was also one of the least selective, admitting students who would have had trouble gaining admission to any other ABA-accredited law school and many who had trouble completing the coursework and passing the bar. McGrath was hired in 2019 to put the school on a different course. James McGrath Thomas M. Cooley Law School President James McGrathCourtesy of Thomas M. Cooley Law School He has closed Cooleyâs Auburn Hills and Grand Rapids campuses, raised admissions standards, cut tuition, even took a stab at changing the schoolâs name as a way of putting its tarnished reputation behind it. He also accepted the reality that Cooley would be a smaller school. The student body was just 420 last year. Improvements have come slowly, McGrath said, partly because the majority of Cooleyâs students attend part time and those who were admitted under the old, lower standards are still taking the bar. In 2022, the year the ABA gave Cooley a grace period of up to three years to come into compliance, more than 20% of its student body had come in under the previous standard, McGrath said. Last year, it was 8%. By next year, âit will be almost nothing.â âEver since the onset of President McGrathâs tenure, weâve done a lot of work to implement positive change within our curriculum, within our teaching practices, within entrance standards, all the things that ultimately lead to success with being compliant with Rule 316,â said Mitchell Zajac, an attorney with Butzel Long and chair of Cooleyâs Board. âHaving done all that, we are extremely confident that, in a very short order, this will be something of the past for Cooley and weâll be working on a very productive and exciting next 50 years of our existence.â But McGrath granted that the news of the probation could endanger some of the schoolâs progress. Just last year, an auditing firm found that enrollment declines, years of operating at a deficit and the fact that Cooley was out of compliance with a debt service ratio on a series of bonds from 2014 âraise substantial doubt about the Schoolâs ability to continue as a going concern.â Cooley has paid off those bonds, McGrath said, in part by selling off its campus in Tampa â itâs now renting a smaller building â and its former campus in downtown Grand Rapids. But Cooley has been operating at a deficit since 2021 and, even before being placed on probation, had planned to continue doing so until next year at least, McGrath said. A decline in enrollment could be more than a bump in the road. âLuckily, Cooley is the school for some people because of our very flexible scheduling,â McGrath said. âAnd, you know, we will take a chance on students - to a certain point, that we believe will pass the bar at the rate required - that other schools still will not.â Thu, 25 Sep 2025 14:32:08 -0700 zerosugar from private IP Reply #13028414 wow!!! Thu, 25 Sep 2025 19:52:39 -0700 2tierreality from private IP Reply #15587282 Back in the day, Cooley used a hard curve to weed-out the dummies in 1L. But it was my understanding that the 2L and 3L students who survived the 1L weed-out were pretty capable. Thu, 25 Sep 2025 20:44:02 -0700 TribalBarConnection from private IP Reply #12271178 đŽ Cooley won't be around much longer. Thu, 25 Sep 2025 22:30:34 -0700 zerosugar from private IP Reply #13190201 did you want to go to cooley? Sun, 28 Sep 2025 15:43:29 -0700 Blee from private IP Reply #15990723 Cooley. Any Spanish speakers in the house? Remember when the word toilet was illegal? Good times. Sun, 28 Sep 2025 20:21:06 -0700 whiteguyinchina from private IP Reply #12916615 You had to spell it terlet haha Tuition is like 50k a year That's wild Wouldn't it just be better to go to an online law school if such exists?Replies require login.
@18109077 Andy đŽ @12271178 2tierreality đŽ
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