Faculty

Cooley has one of the largest and most experienced faculty in the nation.

Experienced

Cooley professors teach three terms a year, which adds up to a faculty with more teaching experience than almost any other law school in the country. And, unlike most other law schools, Cooley’s faculty members bring to the classroom many years of experience as practicing lawyers such as:

David C. Berry - 15 years of practice
Professor & IP LL.M. Director

Norman Fell - 20 years of practice
Professor & Innocence Project Director

Lisa Halushka - 15 years of practice
Assistant Dean & Professor

Cooley students thus gain valuable insights into the real world of practice in specialized areas of the law. The faculty’s real-world knowledge combined with their exceptional academic backgrounds makes them the heart and soul of Cooley’s outstanding legal education program.

The vast knowledge and diversity among full time faculty members is complemented by a distinguished Adjunct Faculty - a group of more than 100 legal professionals who blend teaching with active careers on the bench and bar, providing students with valuable insights into the demands and rewards of the practice of specialized areas of the law.

Cooley students rate our faculty very highly, awarding them a median score of 9.07 on a scale of 10 in the most recent semester.

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Competitions

Cooley faculty coach and mentor students on practical skills including client counseling, negotiation, trials, and appellate advocacy.

Faculty News

Commentary »

Cooley's President and Dean, Don LeDuc, is publishing commentaries on the Law School, legal education, and related topics.

Faculty Analysis in the News

Please note that some links to external news sources may no longer be available.

Cooley Professor Tonya Krause-Phelan Explains Abduction vs. Missing Person Criteria for Jessica Heeringa Case, WOOD TV 8 ... Quoted: Tonya Krause-Phelan, professor

Cooley Professor Curt Benson Details Why the First Few Days of Jessica Heeringa Case Are Crucial, Fox 17 News ... Quoted: Curt Benson, professor

Cooley Professor Devin Schindler and Community leaders gather for a community conversation about gun violence, Grand Haven News ... Quoted: Devin Schindler, professor

What Was The Strategy Behind Quick Passage Of Right-To-Work?, Fox 17 News ... Quoted: Devin Schindler, professor

Court Cases Challenge Border Searches of Laptops and Phones, The New York Times ... Quoted: Patrick Corbett, professor and former assistant U.S. Attorney.

Federal prosecutors in Kilpatrick trial tap high-profile jury expert, The Detroit News ... Quoted: Alan Gershel, professor and former head of criminal prosecutions in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit.

Featured Faculty Member

Professor Joseph Kimble has over 25 years of teaching experience and is an international leader of the plain-language movement. He is the editor in chief of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing and the longtime editor of the "Plain Language" column in the Michigan Bar Journal. He has published dozens of articles on legal writing and research, and led the work of redrafting the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Federal Rules of Evidence.

His latest book, Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please: The Case for Plain Language in Business, Government, and Law, documents the untold savings possible if government, business, and the legal profession replaced their forbidding, verbose, unclear writing with plain language.

Scribes - The American Society of Legal Writers

Real-World Experience

Cooley has the distinction of being the only law school in the country with two members of its faculty chosen to be included in a law professor-focused study seeking the "best law faculty" in the country.