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Welcome Message from the President
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The Search for a Dean
The Free Press’ assault on me and Cooley had a considerable impact on Cooley’s board of directors. On the one hand, they were incensed by the obvious partisanship of the coverage. To a man, they rose to my defense. At the same time they understood that our primary objective at that point in time was to achieve approval by the American Bar Association. And they quite properly felt that the sooner we were accredited by the ABA, the sooner the flack from establishment deans would subside.
A meeting of the board was scheduled for late August, 1973. By that time, I had hinted in the press that I might soon be resigning as the president and acting dean of the law school, limiting my activities to board membership and perhaps some teaching.
We needed a dean and we needed to find one very quickly. The sooner a full time dean was on board, the sooner, I could begin to limit my visibility as the founder, organizer, and chief executive of the school.
We had neither the time nor the money to engage in the traditional decanal search procedure. My correspondence files indicate that I had several conversations with potential candidates for the job, but obviously, the office of dean of a start up law school with no library and only 75 students was not exactly a plum position.
About that time, I had employed Cooley’s first full time professor. His name was Roger Needham. Roger was a very interesting man. He had for a number of years been on the staff of ICLE, the Institute for Continuing Legal Education located at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In that capacity, he had authored a number of pamphlets and monographs particularly on the subject of civil procedure. His name was familiar to the academic world and the practicing bar. He was considered an expert in procedural law.
Roger had been engaged in the private practice of law in downtown Lansing, with only modest success. He much preferred the pace and flavor of academia to the nitty gritty of litigation. I have no doubt that Roger Needham was brilliant; probably off the charts in a standard IQ test. But he had a droll, obtuse sense of humor that evoked more puzzlement than laughter.
He remained on the faculty at Cooley for the rest of his life, becoming eventually an icon about whom stories, both real and invented were told and retold by the students.
He was a draconian grader. It was not uncommon for his classes to receive more D’s and F’s than C’s and B’s. Only rarely did he award an A.
An unreconstructed male chauvinist, he was merciless in the classroom. Many students enrolled as guests in other law schools just to take civil procedure. We called them Roger dodgers, and adopted regulations to discourage the practice.
Despite his toughness, Needham had a mushy side. He loved to talk informally with students, and would spend hours every day ensconced in the old cafeteria in the same chair, holding forth for the benefit of any and all who might stop by his table. If a student really wanted to learn civil procedure, Needham would tutor him or her endlessly.
When the board of directors came together in late August, I reported on my conversations with several candidates for dean. Various board members expressed the view that we had to announce appointment of a dean soon, if we wanted to avoid further negative publicity about the school. I agreed. After much thought about alternatives, we decided to offer the job to Roger Needham. He was already on the payroll. He had acceptable academic credentials.
Within a few days, Lou Smith had a letter from Roger, agreeing to take the job. We had a dean. All that remained was to make a public announcement.
Our son, John was attending a high school seminary in Newark, Ohio. He was due to return in the last week of August. Polly and I drove him back to school. On the way, we stopped at a Dutch Pantry restaurant somewhere near Bowling Green. We were disappointed with the meal. A soiled table cloth, dog eared menu, slow service and indifferent food left us happy to be out of there and back on the road. After a few miles, I turned to Polly and said, “You know, it’s too bad about that restaurant. Somebody had a great idea for a franchise, but they allowed it to be run by people who either didn’t care or didn’t know how to make it work.”
We gossiped a bit about out luncheon experience, then fell silent for a long time. Finally, I blurted out what was really on my mind. “I think I am going to quit the court and become the dean of Cooley Law School.”
In truth, I simply wasn’t prepared to let go of the reins. I had guided the school through the turbulent pre-incorporation days. I had engineered the accreditation of the Board of Law Examiners. I had a dream for Cooley Law School, and I wasn’t at all sure that Roger Needham could make it come true.
That night, Polly and I, sitting sleeplessly on the floor of a Howard Johnson motel, chewed over the import of what I was thinking of doing. What would it mean to our six children? Trading a seat on the state’s highest court for a second hand desk in a scruffy store front law school was hardly conventional wisdom. We talked about the risks. We talked about the opportunities and the challenges. We talked about a future that was full of hidden promises. By daybreak, the die was cast. I would leave the court.
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This Page was last updated on:
08/19/2004