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Welcome Message from the President
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A Cause to Celebrate
On January 2, 1975, I received letter from the American Bar Association's Consultant, James P. White, suggesting three persons for the upcoming reinspection of the law school: Professor Peyton Neal of Washington and Lee, Dean Harold Wren of Richmond, and Dean John Murphy of Saint John's University School of Law in New York.
Their appointment was too late for a visit and report to be completed before the January meeting of the Council. We would not be considered until the mid-winter meeting of the American Bar Association, scheduled for February in Chicago.
Dean Murphy chaired the inspection team. Under his leadership, the members went about their work in a business-like and professional manner, producing a report which concluded in these words:
"The current team is of the opinion that the exceptions and
possible exceptions specified in earlier reports about the
Thomas M. Cooley Law School have been either eliminated or
substantially improved to the point where their elimination
is imminent and that the Thomas M. Cooley Law School is
organized and operated in substantial compliance with the
Standards of the American Bar Association."
The words were music to our ears. This time there should be no vacillating, no equivocation, no double talk and delay. The bottom line was there for all to see. There could be no basis for the Accreditation Committee or the Council to ignore the flat out conclusion of the inspectors.
Still, I was wary. I began to accumulate information of the processes and procedures of the House of Delegates, the 600 or so member governing body of the American Bar Association. It was their resolution, after all, which would officially recognize Cooley as an approved school. Would it be possible to override a negative decision by the Council? How would we go about it?
Fred Beusser Jr. was the State Delegate from Michigan. Wally Riley was in the chairs to run for the presidency of the ABA. I bent their ears and tapped into their contacts. It would be a tricky and delicate bit of maneuvering to get the matter on the docket of the House if it did not come up as an agenda item on the report of the Council. And even assuming that we could get a hearing, how could we educate 600 delegates about our cause and its merit? Surely there would be an enormous inertia favoring acquiescence in the decision of the Council.
I determined to take our petition public. I had a family contact with a major Chicago advertising firm. Don Mahlmeister had married my first cousin. He was bright, energetic, and willing to jump into the fight. Together, we drafted a full page advertisement detailing the Cooley story and urging ABA delegates to do what was, under their own rules and consistent with every precept of decency and fairness, the right thing.
Don called his contacts at the Chicago Tribune and alerted them to the possibility that we would be coming in at the very last minute to buy the ad. The Accreditation Committee would meet Thursday and Friday, February 20 and 21. The Council would meet on Saturday and the House of Delegates would convene on Monday and Tuesday of the following week.
It wasn't until late Friday afternoon that we received a copy of the Accreditation Committee's report. It rather grudgingly recommended provisional approval for Cooley, while still expressing concern over some of our policies.
Time was running out. We had to make a "go-no-go" decision about the Tribune ad by the close of business on Friday, and do it without knowing what the Council would do the next day. All along, the Council had been more difficult than the Accreditation Committee. Cooley President Jack Cote, Phil Marco, Chairman of Cooley's Board of Directors and Associate Dean Bob Krinock were with me at the Palmer House Hotel. We decided to scrap the ad, and summon reinforcements from Lansing.
I contacted Carl Schwedler, President of Cooley's Student Bar Association, and urged him to get up a delegation of students and come to Chicago immediately. By sunup on Saturday, Carl was in the lobby of the Palmer House with Student Bar Secretary Richard Shoemaker, Law Student Division Representative Jim Woodworth, Student Bar Senator Mike Makulski, and Marshall MacFarlane, editor of The Pillar, Cooley's student newspaper.
After the usual delays, time and room changes, our delegation was seated in a large meeting room where twenty-odd members of the Council listened to our presentation in near total silence. I felt the lack of argumentative questioning was a nod to our students. Afterwards, our intrepid band assembled in the bar off of the hotel lobby and waited while Krinock, Schwedler and MacFarlane, prowled the upstairs corridors in search of news about the outcome.
Finally, Bob Krinock appeared flush with excitement. The Council had voted to recommend provisional approval for Thomas Cooley. He heard it directly from the Consultant and the Chairman of the Accreditation Committee, neither of whom extended a hand in congratulations.
That they stayed in character only heightened the delight of our celebration.
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This Page was last updated on:
01/31/2005