PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING REGARDING CHARACTER,
FITNESS, DISCLOSURE, AND BAR APPLICATION
CONSIDERATIONS BEFORE APPLYING TO
COOLEY LAW SCHOOL.

Character, Fitness, and Disclosure

Meeting the minimum index or LSAT score determines academic eligibility for admission, but the Faculty Admissions Committee may deny admission to candidates who lack the requisite character and fitness to study the law. All applicants must complete an official Thomas M. Cooley Law School application, which can be done online. You must answer every question, including disclosure questions, completely and forthrightly. Failure to disclose information may result in denial of admission, revocation of admission, suspension or dismissal after matriculation, withdrawal of certification of graduation, or revocation of the degree.

Accuracy in Answers

At the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, we believe that the practice of law is not a job — it is a profession and a noble calling. The privilege of admission carries with it professional obligations of trust, responsibility, and service to clients, colleagues, bench, bar, and the public. At Cooley, we are committed to fostering the highest standards of professionalism. To that end, our Associate Dean of Students and Professionalism works to develop in our law students the moral and ethical practices expected of members of the legal profession.

Your completion of the Cooley Law School application is the first step in your professional career. You must take the application process seriously and fill out the application truthfully and completely. This means that if you have any doubts about your answer to any question on the application, you must thoroughly investigate the situation and resolve that doubt before answering the question and submitting your application. You are responsible for the accuracy of the responses in your application.

The Importance of Candor

One of the most important professional obligations of a lawyer or law student is candor. The profession cannot entrust a client’s life, liberty, or property to someone who is not honest and forthright. Unfortunately, lack of candor is the most frequent and severe problem encountered by state bar character and fitness authorities. Your candor on the Cooley application is a prerequisite to admission to the school. It also is a crucial measure of your character and fitness for admission to a state bar. You will undergo a comprehensive background check when you apply for bar admission. This will include a review of all your academic and criminal records. Bar investigators will compare your answers on the Cooley application to the information obtained in these record checks. If you withheld requested information on the Cooley application, your state bar will discover that failure. Bar character and fitness committees treat these failures to disclose as serious offenses that can delay or prevent bar admission. State bar authorities investigating such failures to disclose alert the applicant’s law school of the failure. The Thomas M. Cooley Law School responds to these failures to disclose with post-graduation disciplinary sanctions. These sanctions include withdrawing certification of graduation or revocation of the degree.

You can save expense and heartache and affirm your lifelong commitment to the professional obligation of candor by answering every question on the Cooley application truthfully and completely. Most people make mistakes. One vital measure of character is how a person acknowledges a mistake, takes responsibility for it, makes amends, and demonstrates through behavior that it is not likely to recur. You are far more likely to encounter difficulty with the law school and the bar if you fail to disclose a matter in response to a question on the application than for disclosing the matter itself.

Character Matters – Other State Bar Character Considerations

State bar character and fitness committees consider many factors beyond those addressed in questions on the Cooley application. Some of the most important of these include any history of substance abuse, financial irresponsibility, excessive gambling, and abuse of the legal process with frivolous lawsuits. Problems like these, contribute to unprofessional, unethical, and even criminal conduct by attorneys in practice. Financial irresponsibility is one of the fastest growing problem areas in character and fitness investigations. Many bar applicants have a history of defaulting on debt they incurred while undergraduates, particularly credit card debt. These unpaid debts can remain on a credit record even after the creditor has stopped actively trying to collect. The sooner you address significant problems in your life, the less likely they are to hinder bar admission. If you have a problem, seek help now, while you are still years away from bar application. For example, if you have a bad credit record, you might consider contacting a nonprofit credit counseling agency for advice on how to negotiate a payment schedule for a debt or otherwise seek some relief and repair your record. Your demonstrated commitment now to address problems will help mitigate any impact those problems might have on bar admission. If you have questions about whether an issue in your life might present a problem for bar admission, you may want to contact your state bar, or have someone do so on your behalf, for information on how best to handle the matter.

Disclosure in Admissions

You must carefully read, understand, and comply with these instructions and those within the application form regarding full disclosure.

You must truthfully and completely disclose, among other things:

(1)	If you have ever been convicted of, pleaded guilty or no contest or otherwise admitted responsibility to, or conceded that a prosecuting authority had sufficient evidence to convict you of, any felony, misdemeanor, violation, or other offense;
(2)	If you have ever previously enrolled in law school;
(3)	If any school you have attended has subjected you to disciplinary action;
(4)	All convictions stemming from driving offenses including, but not limited to, all alcohol or drug- related driving offenses, reckless or careless driving, or convictions for driving while privileges were suspended or revoked;
(5)	All juvenile offenses. If records have been expunged or sealed, we require proof of the order or petition to expunge or seal, unless the law of the state in which you were convicted forbids inquiries about this information or its use by parties other than the state;
(6)	Information responsive to any other matter about which the application inquires.

Failure to disclose truthfully and completely may lead to revocation of admission or to suspension or dismissal after matriculation.

Updated and Late Disclosures

You have a continuing duty to answer the questions on your admission application. That duty begins upon your signing and submitting the application, continues even after you have been accepted to Cooley and commenced classes, and extends past your graduation through your admission to a state bar. It applies to events that occurred before you submitted your application, events that occurred after you submitted your application, and to events that occur throughout your enrollment in classes. Thomas M. Cooley Law School will look with disfavor upon post-enrollment disclosures of events occurring before you enrolled. In such a case, you will be subject to a review that could lead to discipline, suspension, dismissal from law school, revocation of your degree, and revocation of certification of your degree to bar admission authorities.

Disclosure Questions

If you have any questions about disclosure, please call the Admissions Office immediately to discuss your concerns. Please do not rely on the advice of others outside the Cooley Admissions Office. The questions on the application are clear. The word "ever" (as in questions on the application that read "have you ever") means "at any time" It does not refer to a limited time period or what is on your current record. Pending matters must also be disclosed.

We expect and appreciate your cooperation. Nearly every term, the school revokes the admission of one or two students for late disclosure of offenses or other information they should have disclosed when they filed the application. Don't put your time, money, academic career, and bar admission at risk. Meet your professional obligation with truthful and forthright disclosure. Once you have read this section on Character, Fitness, Disclosure, and Bar Application Considerations, please read carefully the Cooley application before filling out the application.

Once you have read this section on Character, Fitness, and Disclosure, you need to carefully read the printed version of the Cooley application before proceeding to the online version of our application (You can print out the application in PDF format). You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader loaded on your computer. Go to the Adobe Website to download the viewer.)

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