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Reda Taleb’s Life’s Work: Turning Pain into Purpose — and Giving It Back to Dearborn

Reda Taleb’s Life’s Work: Turning Pain into Purpose — and Giving It Back to Dearborn

When Reda Taleb (McLean Class, 2015) talks about “giving back,” she isn’t just reciting a slogan — she’s living by example. The daughter of immigrants from Bint Jbeil, Lebanon, Taleb’s parents, along with her six older siblings, laid roots in Dearborn’s south end, an area known for its pollution-emitting factory smoke stacks and community of Arab Americans seeking the “American Dream.”

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  • Modern Legal Education: What It Is and Why It Is So Important
    Modern Legal Education: What It Is and Why It Is So Important

    Modern Legal Education: What It Is and Why It Is So Important

    WHAT IS “MODERN LEGAL EDUCATION”? Does it describe a particular program? Is it a term that outlines a specific set of programs with rules and protocols to follow? Or does “modern legal education” simply encompass anything since the time when the fictional Professor Kingsfield terrified first-term students in John Jay Osborn Jr.’s “The Paper Chase.” The answer is a little bit of all of the above, plus the opinions, projects, and ideas of a vast number of legal scholars dedicated to putting forth their ideas in publication.

  • Neena Sterling: Cooley gives extra push, fight, and motivation to excel in law school
    Neena Sterling: Cooley gives extra push, fight, and motivation to excel in law school

    Neena Sterling: Cooley gives extra push, fight, and motivation to excel in law school

    Neena Sterling (Gray Class, 2022) knew she wanted to be a lawyer since she was a young girl. When she graduated from college she was on track, but ended up hitting some bumps and taking time off to work for a year. In 2016, she had a daughter, and her dream of law school was put on the back burner.

  • Verbal vs. Oral: Know the Difference
    Verbal vs. Oral: Know the Difference

    Verbal vs. Oral: Know the Difference

    With the encouragement of my colleague Joe Kimble, editor of the long-running Michigan Bar Journal Plain Language column, I submitted “Help Wanted (and Needed!),” which appeared in the January 2019 issue. It called attention to help-wanted ads that demand excellent writing skills—but demonstrate something less.

  • Yaritssa Plasencia: Achieving Confidence Through Challenges
    Yaritssa Plasencia: Achieving Confidence Through Challenges

    Yaritssa Plasencia: Achieving Confidence Through Challenges

    As a teenager, Yaritssa Plasencia (Blatchford Class, 2022) knew she wanted to pursue a career in physical therapy when she got such wonderful care from a physical therapist after a bad car accident.

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    Two Sides of the Dog Collar: Puppy Contract Musings

    Two Sides of the Dog Collar: Puppy Contract Musings

    “Woof!” There are over 63 million United States households that know this sound when they come home from school or work. It’s the sound of your precious pup who keeps you company during the midst of your studies or sane after a long day at the office. Many of these furry friends were procured from a breeder where the buyer was obligated to sign a puppy contract. The general purpose of a puppy contract is to protect the dog. But how far can a breeder go before a court will not enforce the contract? Though these musings do not provide legal advice or opinions, following are some general points to consider if you purchase a puppy from a breeder or sell a puppy to a buyer.

  • Connor Porzig: Build Good Habits and Put in the Work
    Connor Porzig: Build Good Habits and Put in the Work

    Connor Porzig: Build Good Habits and Put in the Work

    Growing up, the only thing Cooley Law School graduate Connor Porzig cared about was basketball. “I like to think of it as my first love. Whether I was watching it on TV or playing outside, it was something that I understood and had a passion for from the beginning,” says Porzig.

  • Confusion: Bad for Contracts, Good for Students
    Confusion: Bad for Contracts, Good for Students

    Confusion: Bad for Contracts, Good for Students

    In the middle of their study of Contract law, students encounter a cluster of cases dealing with when courts should grant some form of relief to parties who unknowingly enter into contracts beset by misunderstanding, mistake, or ignorance. I call this cluster “the Law of Confusion.” Reading the cases, students are at least as confused as were the parties to the lawsuits that they are being asked to study.

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    The Study of Remedies, Law's Cure for Wrongdoing, is in Declining Health.

    The Study of Remedies, Law's Cure for Wrongdoing, is in Declining Health.

    I have previously blogged about the unfortunate case of Peevyhouse v. Garland Coal. In a poll of law professors, Willie and Lucille Peevyhouse were voted “The Most Screwed Victims in Case-law History.”

  • Showcase Your Scholarship, Part One: Use SSRN to Archive Articles
    Showcase Your Scholarship, Part One: Use SSRN to Archive Articles

    Showcase Your Scholarship, Part One: Use SSRN to Archive Articles

    An earlier post suggested ways to maximize the impact of your scholarship through spin-off articles.This three-part post identifies another way to showcase your scholarship: establishing a digital archive to display and preserve your publications, including self-published ones.