About the Tampa Bay Campus
Cooley Law School is excited to bring the same high-quality legal education to the Tampa Bay area as we have in Michigan.
Cooley's Tampa Bay Campus offers an outstanding facility with easy access to the campus from the highway.
Tampa Bay is a great place for students to live and learn the law–in a destination known worldwide for its beautiful landscape, many attractions, and thriving arts and cultural community.
More than six percent of Cooley's applicants come from Florida, and our alumni network of more than 15,000 graduates includes more Florida residents than any other state except Michigan. So our Tampa Bay students will feel right at home.
» Important Accreditation Information
Program
With a population of more than four million, but with only one law school, the area is under-served, especially for students who need to attend part time.
The quality of Cooley's program is very high. Because of our academic rigor, our students work hard, but they graduate well prepared to enter the profession. We have the biggest part-time program in legal education, and we are the best at delivering it.
Our size allows of great economies of scale resulting in a low tuition rate. Of the five law schools in Michigan, our tuition is second lowest, and we are among the lowest of the nation’s 100 private, unsubsidized law schools. We will be very competitive in Florida.
Alumni & Faculty
Cooley has alumni in every state. For example, more than 125 alumni sit as judges in courts of record across 14 states, including several judges in Florida already. Our 15,000+ alumni are in large and small firms, prosecutor and defender offices, corporations, governmental service, and academia.
When we begin offering classes in 2012, students will be taught by veteran Cooley professors and counseled and advised by veteran Cooley staffers who have agreed to relocate to Florida. Our new Florida students, many of whom are unable to relocate to Michigan, will soon come to find the value in a Cooley education.
Facilities
The new Cooley Tampa Bay campus is a 132,000 square foot building just off highway I-75 at exit #254.
Over three phases, with the final phase finishing late 2012, the new Tampa Bay facility renovation will look to be certified by the Society of Environmentally Responsible Facilities (SERF). Cooley currently has several buildings in Michigan certified and are seeking certification for all buildings by SERF.
The Tampa Bay facility will include 24 classrooms with 1,374 seats, which include four distance educations classrooms with 204 seats, a computer laboratory with 28 seats, a trial courtroom with 90 seats, and an appellate level courtroom with 96 seats. All classrooms are equipped with state of the art electronic educational tools and the entire building will be wireless.
Students, faculty, and staff will enjoy the law school's library, which will be approximately 25,600 square feet in area and have about 15,000 lineal feet of compact or movable shelving. The library will also include offices, work areas, reference and circulation areas, study rooms, study carrels and study tables. Cooley Tampa Bay will have its own law clinic as well as a variety of meeting rooms and offices to serve students, faculty, and staff.
