ABA-Required Information
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 annual "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.
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 2015-16 |
0 | 0 |
| 2014-15 | 0 | 0 |
Articulation Agreement
WMU-Law School has entered into an academic Articulation Agreement with Western Michigan University through which Law School students may take select university courses for Law School credit and certain university students may take select Law School courses for university credit. Click here to read the Articulation Agreement. The faculty of the two institutions determine which courses may be taken for credit at their own institutions, and the list of those courses is subject to change without notice. Not all courses are offered under this program every term. Contact the Law School Registrar for more information.
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).
