Thomas M Cooley School Of Law

Thomas Cooley chief defends jobs data, expansion plans

First, the nation's largest law school sued New York firm Kurzon Strauss, claiming the firm defamed it in online posts advertising a potential class action against the school. Then, on Aug. 8, Cooley announced plans to open a new campus in the Tampa Bay, Fla., area in 2012. Cooley already has four campuses throughout Michigan and an annual enrollment of close to 4,000 students, but the new campus would be its first outside the state. The news was criticized by some bloggers, who likened the school to a degree mill that produces far more attorneys than can find legal work. Cooley released its own report on the state of the lawyer employment market, citing data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that lawyers have one of the lowest unemployment rates among white-collar occupations. The school also cited a large alumni network in Florida as a reason to open a campus in the state, where it eventually plans to enroll 700 students. From our perspective, you're always doing offense and defense. Obviously, we want to attract new people, but we also want to protect the enrollment levels we have. The economy in Michigan is worse than elsewhere, so we were looking at a way to take our program to a location where students are, rather than try to entice students to come to Michigan where the economy is below par. It's not strictly a growth thing. D.L.: Florida is probably average for law school enrollment based on its population. It's 80% bigger than Michigan, but it doesn't have 80% more law school seats. The major demographic factor we look for is a large urban area with a relatively low number of law school seats. The Tampa-St. Petersburg area fits that. It's a little over 4 million people and has one law school. As a result, it's a much better market than almost any other place in the country at this time. How many law schools there are in the state is significant, but it's not an overriding factor. D.L.