Western Michigan University Cooley Law School Blog

Let’s talk about stating issues. It’s a really important skill. There’s an old saying that “a question well stated is half answered.” It applies to resolving legal questions; a well-stated issue leads directly to the relevant rule, and off you go. Issue-spotting is crucial to exam success, but issue-stating is important as well.

I remember when I decided I wanted to be an attorney. My father had just enrolled in law school, and he came home and set his law school books on the kitchen table. I was young, and my father was starting law school “late.” He was retired from the military and owned his own construction company. It was a family business and we all worked together.

Law students often face tough challenges during their demanding legal studies. But Samantha Norris, who graduated from WMU-Cooley Law School on May 23, faced a far greater challenge—a strenuous battle against cancer.

According to the American Association of Retired Persons, so-called “free lunch” seminars are often used to lure people into investing in unsuitable or even fraudulent products. To help older Americans avoid being scammed, AARP and the North American Securities Administrators Association developed the Free Lunch Monitor Program.

When Shemia (Francisco) Washington was in fifth grade, she wanted to be like Clair Huxtable, the sophisticated and personable character played by Phylicia Rashad on The Cosby Show. “Claire was an attorney, so I wanted to be an attorney. Claire spoke Spanish, so I learned to speak Spanish,” Washington remembered with a laugh.

Congratulations! Your article has been researched, written, edited, and—hurray!—published. After all that work, why stop with one article? With some imagination, you may be able to develop one or more spin-off pieces for other publications. Sometimes this may involve a reprinting of your article in full. More often it will take the form of an excerpt or abridgment.

What does the word “scribes” call to mind? For most people, it evokes the image of medieval monks copying manuscripts with quill pens. But modernly it also refers to a society of legal writers.

Cooley Law School alumnus Rick Conklin always had a passion for the law—and while earning his undergrad degree in communications from Grand Valley State University, realized Lady Justice was calling his name.

During this age of the Coronavirus, numerous industries have been taking the necessary steps to adapt to the current realities, which has caused nearly everyone to do things differently within their working environments. And while many of these activities were already being done before the pandemic, years of change were packed into a very short amount of time. Yet these very changes may actually stick going forward, especially in the realm of legal education and the law. Consider these:

My fervent hope is to provide some historical perspective of the past year and the last three months. The title I came up with “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Maybe it should have been “These are the times that try men’s souls”