Summary: The Thomas M. Cooley Law School paid close to $1 million in one calendar year for legal services stemming from two lawsuits it filed.
Earlier this month, the Thomas M. Cooley Law School released its new brand after reaching an agreement with Western Michigan University, according to The Am Law Daily.
The school, which is a registered nonprofit, will call itself the Western Michigan University Cooley Law School.
The new branding of the school comes after it dealt with some troubles involving lawsuits. Two lawsuits filed by Cooley Law against plaintiffs lawyers were dismissed in July. The lawsuits stemmed from statements posted on the internet asking for information so class actions could be filed by former students of the school for misrepresenting employment numbers of graduates.
In the litigation, Cooley Law was represented by Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone. The school paid $997,724 for legal services during the calendar year from September 1, 2011 to August 31, 2012.
In 2010, the school paid $1.5 million for a sponsorship of a minor league baseball stadium in Lansing.
Despite all of this, the enrollment at the school has continued to drop.
The law school recently decreased the number of professors on the payroll and set a limit for the number of first-year law students at the campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The school operates five campuses in Florida and Michigan.
