Faculty Teaching - Research & Writing
Cooley was one of the first to recognize that Research and Writing is just as important as torts, contracts, and property.
Cooley students are required to take six hours of Research & Writing
- First-year classes are taught and graded by full-time, tenure-track professors—with more than 116 years of teaching experience among them.
- We teach both book and electronic research, using a problem approach, and we stress the best use of each.
- Cooley was one of the first law schools to teach legal drafting—it's been part of our program for 10 years. Our students draft contracts, releases, and statutes.
- We test what we teach: all Cooley students take a punctuation test and two research tests.
Professors
Cooley was the first law school to place all its Research & Writing professors on tenure track and keep them there.
- In 2002, the Legal Writing Institute awarded Cooley's dean the Golden Pen Award for this pioneering decision.
- Cooley's Research & Writing department has professors with an average of 12 years of teaching experience. And we keep our classes small (20-25 students).
- All Research & Writing professors practiced law before joining the faculty, and all passed a rigorous performance test.
- Cooley is a leader in the plain-language movement and a leader in supporting and publishing legal writers and legal-writing teachers.
Department
Cooley's Research & Writing department reflects a commitment to experienced teaching, practical skills, and plain language.
Cooley Research & Writing professors edit The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, The Scrivener (Scribes' newsletter), and Clarity. The Scribes Journal is the oldest law journal devoted exclusively to legal writing.
Within the past year alone, Cooley professors have published articles about legal writing in Trial, Clarity, The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, and the Michigan Bar Journal.
Cooley was the first law school to teach research with 14 self-guided audiotapes that walk students through the research process and legal analysis.
What Cooley Students Say
"Cooley students have a definite advantage because of the excellent Research & Writing classes we are required to take."
"Thanks for imparting that knowledge, for being precise, and for making us enjoy the process. (Please note the serial-comma usage.)"
"The process has really changed the way I write."
