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Welcome Message from the President
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Why Thomas M. Cooley?
One of the most common questions I hear is, "Why did you name your law school Thomas M. Cooley?" Sometimes the question is even more to the point; "Why didn't you name your law school the Thomas E. Brennan School of Law?"
The key words in the question are "your law school." For years I had to deal with the common perception that I owned the law school, that it was mine in the proprietary sense; that I was the principal if not the only stockholder.
Just telling people that Cooley is a non profit educational corporation was never enough. They still somehow assumed that, because I started it, I owned it. Even if it was a nonprofit corporation, they thought I owned the nonprofit corporation.
Once, in an effort to dispel this misconception, I offered to host a meeting of Sigma Chi, the journalism fraternity, which had an active alumni chapter in the state capitol. We provided dinner and drinks at the law school. A good meal. An open bar. All the things that journalists like.
I only asked for one thing in return. Would the assembled reporters and writers be so kind as to fill out a short questionnaire? Actually, take a little test to see how much they knew about Thomas M. Cooley Law School. We supplied the paper and pencils as they came in, and collected their answers before dinner.
While they were eating, I had the questionnaires tallied up, so that, when the meal was over, and they were about to begin their fraternity meeting, I was able to give them the results.
Most of them were way off on the size of the school. Even then, when the law school was only a few years old, it was among the larger schools in the country. I think the media people simply assumed that, because the school was new, it was small.
But the question that really stumped the journalists was the corporate structure and ownership of the school. Almost universally, they believed that I had some proprietary interest in Cooley. One of the questions was, "If Cooley Law School goes out of business, who gets its real estate and other assets?" I don't think there was one correct answer to that question. They all thought that I would, somehow, end up with the assets.
The correct answer, of course, is that the assets of Cooley Law School constitute an educational trust, irrevocably dedicated to the advancement of legal education. If Cooley ever goes out of business, its board of directors will be obligated to see that the assets are used for that purpose, either by transferring them to another law school, or by establishing legal education scholarships, or in some other way, assuring that the educational purpose of Cooley's charter is carried out. Tom Brennan and his heirs would get nothing.
Nor did I ever receive any of the profit from the operation of the law school. As I say, it is a non profit corporation. That doesn't mean that it cannot be operated profitably. In fact, Cooley was, and is, a very profitable non profit institution. It makes money. Always has. From the very first year, the amount of revenue coming in always exceeded the amount of expenses going out.
I thought that was my duty as the President and CEO to make sure that we stayed in the black. After all, we had a serious obligation to our students. They were plunking down hard earned cash, and borrowed dollars to receive a legal education. We had to stay in business to deliver our part of the bargain. We had to stay in business, not only to complete their formal professional training, but we had to grow and enhance our reputation so that the diploma we awarded would continue to have greater and greater prestige in the community.
And we did just that. Every nickel of Cooley's surplus went into its growth and development. We bought real estate. We bought books. We hired faculty, and invested in all of the accouterments of higher education that were demanded by the American Bar Association or expected by our students and staff.
And it was a good thing, too. If Cooley had not been run profitably, it never would have become the educational giant that it is today. Certainly gifts and contributions never would have done it.
Early on, I visited all of the independent, non university affiliated law schools in America. At John Marshal Law School in Chicago, I met the long time Dean, Noble Lee. He told me that John Marshall owned two large buildings in the Chicago Loop, and had a substantial endowment to boot. I asked him where it all came from. Did he have big donors? He smiled and told me that in the 75 year history of the school, there had not been a total of one million dollars contributed. Where did all of their assets come from? Lee grinned and said, "From the provident management of our resources."
It was a line I well remembered.
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This Page was last updated on:
08/19/2004