Professionalism Publications

Below are a number of professionalism publications Cooley Law School produced, including the law school's award-winning professionalism program.

Professionalism Plan: Professionalism Taught, Learned, and Lived in Law School - Eighteen proposed initiatives, developed by Thomas M. Cooley Law School. Endorsed by the Student Bar Association, Faculty, Staff, Board of Directors, Alumni Association, and Board of Governors, and supported by the State Bar of Michigan.
Professionalism Plan - The Second Decade: Bringing Professionalism to a New Generation of Law Students - The Professionalism Advisory Committee’s 20 recommendations, combined with input from staff, faculty, and others, form the basis for this new professionalism plan’s 25 initiatives that will guide us through the next decade.
Inspiring Pro Bono: The Thomas M. Cooley Law School Experience - Faculty and students regularly contribute thousands of hours per year to such efforts through pro bono projects and through externships and clinics. In this document, we focus on the 2009 pro bono efforts our students have undertaken without the awarding of academic credit - not even clinic or externship credit. Cooley has truly fostered an overwhelming commitment to pro bono service.
Reflections of a Lawyer's Soul: Institutional Experience of Professionalism at Thomas M. Cooley Law School - By Amy Timmer and Nelson Miller. The several-hundred-page book, titled Reflections of a Lawyer’s Soul—The Institutional Experience of Professionalism at Thomas M. Cooley Law School, celebrates how professionalism has permeated the law school’s program. Written in response to the recent Carnegie Foundation report Educating Lawyers, the Reflections book documents how Cooley Law School anticipated by many years the report’s conclusion that law schools need to better integrate skills and ethics with law schools’ traditional knowledge dimension.
Creating a Culture of Professionalism in Law School: The Thomas M. Cooley Law School Experience - How Cooley successfully implemented the 18 initiatives from the original plan. This program was selected for the 2006 Professionalism Award from the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism. Read about the ABA Professionalism Award.
Michigan's Guide to the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) - The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) offers special protections to soldiers against civil actions like divorce and foreclosure while they are deployed. Cooley and attorneys with Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP (Honigman) bring clarity to SCRA's application for Michigan's courts and, ultimately, provide another layer of support to Michigan servicemen and women.