The staff prides itself on the comprehensive editing and reviewing of articles, to ensure all items published are innovative and of professional quality.
In addition to publications two times a year, the Cooley Law Review also sponsors a lecture series, an annual symposium, and a distinguished brief award.
Articles in our Law Review have been used as persuasive authority in seven briefs in the United States Supreme Court – including one decided in 2006. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has cited one of our articles in one of her opinions. Our articles have been cited in the decisions of 10 state supreme courts: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. Our articles have also been cited by the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th, 6th, and 8th Circuits, as well as numerous state appellate and district courts.
History of the Law Review
Ten years after founding Thomas M. Cooley Law School, Judge Thomas E. Brennan decided that Cooley's students needed their own law review. Thus, the "Cooley Law Review" was founded in 1980. Our publication was known as the Cooley Law Review until 1990, when the title “Thomas M. Cooley Law Review” was adopted.
Many different faculty advisors have served the Law Review. Spencer Abraham, who represented Michigan in the United States Senate from 1995-2001 and co-founded the Federalist Society, assisted the Cooley Law Review as its first faculty advisor. Other faculty advisors who are best known and loved for their contributions to the law review include Professors Philip Prygoski, Evelyn Calogero, Mark Cooney, Chris Trudeau, and current advisor Prof. Mark Cooney.
As the law school has grown, the size of its law review has increased dramatically. In 1980, the law review started with just ten students. Today the law review is made up of over 40 students, including eight student-leadership roles that make up the Board of Editors.
Even the qualifications to participate in the law review have changed with time. Before Professor Eugene Krasicky came up with the idea for a Scholarly Writing class at Cooley, students qualified for the law review solely on the basis of their grade point average. When Scholarly Writing first became a prerequisite for law review, it was actually two classes. Now the Scholarly Writing class requires students to write a Casenote or a Comment. This experience familiarized students with the two most common forms of law review articles.
The Thomas M. Cooley Law Review continues to publish two issues each year.
Law Review Organizational Chart
