Western Michigan University Cooley Law School Blog

Artistic endeavors: WMU-Cooley Law graduate is also a talented artist and entrepreneur  

Attorney and WMU-Cooley graduate Tammy Allison worked for the U.S. Department of Justice for a decade, spanning three presidential administrations, including George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, when she decided to launch the first-ever black owned Federal Executive Clemency law firm. She is only the third attorney in the United States who has worked at the Office of the Pardon Attorney (OPA) to own a firm dedicated to federal executive clemency.

WMU-Cooley Law School alumna Katrina Hofstetter, who earned her undergrad degree in history, summa cum laude, from Ferris State University, spent 13 years as a legal assistant at Bossenbrook Williams PC in Lansing,  learning about the law, including the administrative and practical aspects, how to build lasting and trustworthy relationships with clients, and how to run a law practice.   

Starting a new law school from scratch is not a simple matter. WMU-Cooley Law School’s founder, Justice Thomas E. Brennan, had many concerns, large and small, to attend to, from hiring faculty to acquiring furniture. He devised the school’s innovative year-round schedule, created the Student Bar Association and Scholastic Review Board, composed the school’s motto, and designed its distinctive diplomas.  Another of Brennan’s concerns was that his students—also new, of course—achieve success at the new school. To that end he typed up a one-page list of suggestions he titled “Judge Brennan’s Ten Commandments for Law School.” For several years, Xerox copies were included in new-student welcome packets. In later years, some first-year professors attached copies to their course syllabus. But as far as is known, the “Ten Commandments” were never typeset or digitalized. . . until now. Here, preserved on the internet, is the handout that helped the first generations of WMU-Cooley law students achieve success.

2020 has been an unforgettable year so far; but a year that has placed a necessary spotlight on many areas of injustice that one graduating law student, Ray Petty, is ready to address head on. 

Martin Peters (Trimble Class, 2015), chief of staff and general counsel for Eckerd Connects in Clearwater, Florida, has a new title: Fellow. Peters was named a Bloomberg Fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and is now pursuing his master’s degree in that field. Peters is thrilled to be a part of the new and exciting program.

With the Covid-19 pandemic, and the resulting stay-home and business closure orders, face mask requirements, and related matters in the forefront of daily lives, managing safety and health care became the biggest single issue facing the United States in the spring of 2020. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer took an early pro-active approach toward trying to keep a lid on the virus. With the orders affecting many state departments and all businesses, plus the follow-through needed from those state agencies and local municipalities, it quickly became apparent that a point person was needed to coordinate all the goals the state was trying to accomplish. That someone is Sean Egan (Moore Class, 2013), deputy director of Labor in the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) since October 2019. In June 2020, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed Egan as the director of Covid-19 Workplace Safety.

Christian Wise Smith (Wilkins Class, 2011) has a history of beating the odds. So when he launched his campaign for Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney and was told he had little chance of success, he simply recalled his motto: significance over success. “By that measure, what I did was very significant, and ultimately, it’s going to lead to enormous success in fighting for social justice.”

When Zack Hugg entered undergraduate school at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, he planned to seek a career in the technology field. But, by his senior year, he’d discovered interests in intellectual property and privacy laws that led him to alter course and go to law school.

Logical reasoning and analytical thinking – that is what really drew WMU-Cooley graduate Gerlinde (Linda) Nattler to the law, from as far back as in high school. She reminisced about reading stories describing ancient Roman orator Cicero’s life during a Latin class. She loved how, as a lawyer, he was able to intellectually parse out arguments and fine-tune words to razor-sharp perfection.