Western Michigan University Cooley Law School Blog

Read about WMU-Cooley Law School's Grand Rapids BLSA student chapter and their community outreach and support for local Deborah House. Read the Dec. 12, 2018, Legal News story below.

An adjunct professor at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, Stacey Dinser might be considered a bountiful giver.  It’s just something that comes naturally to her. It then is no surprise that her dedication and enthusiasm for teaching the law have resulted in her being honored with the 2018 Frederick J. Griffith III Adjunct Faculty Award.

The decision-making process for attending law school is a difficult one. First, you need to decide if you really want to go to law school, or not. Then you need to decide what law school is a good fit for you. Never a small factor, you need to figure out how to make law school affordable or balance law school into your already busy schedule. It's not for everyone. Law school and a legal career are only for those individuals who really want it, have the ability, and are truly willing to put in the effort. 

Growing up along the AuSable River, a young Colin Hunter watched as the AuSable River International Canoe Marathon would run alongside his family’s home in Grayling, Michigan, aspiring that one day he would enter and compete. In 1996, at the age of 15, he did. The grueling, 120-mile non-stop canoe race starts in Grayling and ends near the shores of Lake Huron in Oscoda, Michigan. What Hunter didn’t realize then was that training and competing in canoe racing would prepare him for success in law school and his career now as judge of the 46th Circuit Court in northern Michigan.

Giving comes from the heart and is a very personal decision. You support causes that have meaning to you and make a real difference in the world. Let us tell you about five programs at WMU-Cooley that we are very proud of and that we ask you to support. 

It’s hard to imagine when Kendra Smith (Person Class, 1994) and John Smith (Bird Class, 1995) attended WMU-Cooley Law School that they would end up being the real-life protagonists in a book written about an environmental case they defended, which would go all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Barbra Bachmeier (Fisher Class, 2007) has spent her life caring for others and is willing to go wherever, and do whatever she can, to help others in need. From working as a nurse across the globe in the U.S. Army National Guard to helping victims of interpersonal violence and advocating for children, Bachmeier is up for the task.

On their respective sides of the Atlantic, both England’s Lord Denning and our own Justice Cardozo were beloved for their storytelling style of opinion writing. In his book Style: Toward Clarity and Grace, Joseph M. Williams explains the appeal and effectiveness of telling stories as a form of communication:

In England, Lord Denning was hailed at his death as "the best-known and the best-loved judge in the whole of our history." This tribute was due at least in part to his storytelling style of opinion writing. Are there American judges with a similar flair for storytelling? Surely one is Justice Benjamin Cardozo of the New York Court of Appeals (1914-1932) and United States Supreme Court (1932-1938).

Alfred Thompson Denning--England's Lord Denning  to the legal world—died in the final year of the 20th Century at the age of 100. Before retiring in 1982, he had served on the bench for 38 years, the last 20 as Master of the Rolls, the head of England's Court of Appeal. At a memorial service held in Westminster Abbey, the Lord Chief Justice of England hailed Denning as "the best-known and the best-loved judge in the whole of our history."  Lord Denning was most renowned for his clarity of expression. His judicial opinions (the English call them "judgments") were regarded as models of lucidity. He wrote in short, crisp sentences intended to make the law accessible to lay people. A biographer referred to his writing style as “pungent English." Many law students encounter their first Denning opinion in Contracts in a case involving Anglia Television's suit against the American actor Robert Reed for backing out of an agreement to star in a made-for-television movie. Lord Denning sets the stage in the opening sentences of his opinion: