WMU-Cooley Law School's accrediting agency, the American Bar Association, requires law schools to report certain information annually. The Law School's primary public report sets forth information as specified in Standard 509 of the ABA's Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools. The Law School also reports on the extent to which it offers scholarships that are conditioned upon certain student academic performance.
ABA Standard 509 Report
Click here to see the Law School's 2021 ABA Standard 509 Report. This report highlights key information about the Law School, including tuition and fees, living expenses, GPA and LSAT scores of entering students, grants and scholarships awarded and conditions placed upon scholarships, student body demographics, curriculum, faculty and administrators, attrition and transfer numbers, and bar passage rates. Standard 509 reports, which are filed by all ABA-approved law schools, provide prospective students with valuable comparative data. We encourage you to read them.
Bar Passage Information
ABA Employment Outcomes
Law schools collect and report graduate employment information to the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar (ABA). WMU-Cooley Law School asks each graduate to complete the ABA’s Employment Questionnaire.
ABA Employment Summaries for the 2018, 2019 and 2020 graduate cohorts are posted below in the format required by the ABA. This ABA-designed questionnaire collects employment information for those who graduated between September 1 and August 31 of the prior academic year. The 2020 reporting year thus includes those who graduated from WMU-Cooley between September 1, 2019 and August 31, 2020.
Information on employment outcomes for the Class of 2020 may not reflect a particular law school’s typical results in this area. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, bar admission exams were canceled or delayed in many jurisdictions, thus making it more challenging for graduates to secure employment by the annual Graduate Employment Status Date of March 15. Please reference the 3 years of employment outcome data posted on the ABA Required Disclosures webpage of each ABA-Approved Law School or at www.abarequireddisclosures.org.
- Click here to see the ABA Employment Summary Report (Class of 2021)
- Click here to see the ABA Employment Summary Report (Class of 2020)
- Click here to see the ABA Employment Summary Report (Class of 2019)
These reports are also available on the ABA's Placement Statistics page. Click here for that ABA page.
Reporting Employment Data
WMU-Cooley Law School publicly reports its graduate employment data in accordance with ABA guidelines. As with any statistics, it is important to understand the definitions of terms and the methodology used to compile graduate employment data and reports. Click here for an explanation of the ABA's reporting protocol.
If you have questions about WMU-Cooley Law School's graduate employment data, contact WMU-Cooley Law School’s Office of Career and Professional Development.
Career and Placement Services
Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley provides comprehensive services to help students and graduates with career planning and employment searches. Click here for a full description. WMU-Cooley also offers extensive clinical internship and externship opportunities as well. Click here for a full description.
U.S. Employment Data on Law Careers
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps detailed employment data on law careers. Click here for U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
ABA Conditional Scholarship Retention Data
Interpretation 509-3 to ABA Standard 509 defines a conditional scholarship as follows: "A conditional scholarship is any financial aid award, the retention of which is dependent upon the student maintaining a minimum grade point average or class standing, other than that ordinarily required to remain in good academic standing."
WMU-Cooley's honors scholarships are not conditional within the meaning of Standard 509. Rather, unlike at many other law schools, our honors scholarships are continued for the duration of the student's enrollment at the Law School as long as the student is not subject to sanction under the Honor Code or Disciplinary Procedures
| Students Matriculating In: | # Entering with Conditional Scholarships |
# Whose Conditional Scholarships Have Since Been Reduced or Eliminated |
|---|---|---|
| Previous Academic Year 2018-19 |
0 | 0 |
| 2017-18 | 0 | 0 |
| 2016-17 | 0 | 0 |
Affiliation Agreement with WMU
In 2013 WMU-Law School and Western Michigan University entered into an Affiliation Agreement.
The affiliation between WMU and WMU-Cooley, which are legally and financially independent institutions, will end on or before November 5, 2023.
Attorney Licensing Requirements
In addition to a bar examination, there are character, fitness, and other qualifications for admission to the bar in every U.S. jurisdiction. Applicants and students are encouraged to determine the requirements for any jurisdiction in which they intend to practice to seek admission by contacting the jurisdiction. Addresses for all relevant agencies are available through the National Conference of Bar Examiners.
WMU-Cooley's J.D. program satisfies the educational requirements for U.S. jurisdictions.
Copyright Infringement Is Prohibited
Copyright infringement is the act of exercising, without permission or legal authority, one or more of the exclusive rights granted to the copyright owner under section 106 of the Copyright Act (Title 17 of the United States Code). These rights include the right to reproduce or distribute a copyrighted work. In the file-sharing context, downloading or uploading substantial parts of a copyrighted work without authority constitutes infringement.
Penalties for copyright infringement include civil and criminal penalties. In general, anyone found liable for the civil copy right infringement may be order to pay either actual damages or "statutory" damages affixed at not less than $750 and not more than $30,000 per work infringed. For "willful" infringement, a court may award up to $150,000 per work infringed. A court can, in its discretion, also assess costs and attorneys' fees. For details, see Title 17, United State Code, Sections 504, 505.
Willful copyright infringement can also result in criminal penalties, including imprisonment of up to five year and fines up to $250,000 per offense.
For more information, please see the Web site of the U.S. Copyright Office at www.copyright.gov, especially, their FAQ's at www.copyright.gov/help/faq.
See WMU-Cooley Law School's policies regarding peer-to-peer file sharing (pdf).
Degree Learning Outcomes
Click here to see the Law School's JD Program Learning Outcomes
Click here to see the Law School's Learning Outcomes for the LL.M. Programs