Don LeDuc, who oversaw Thomas M. Cooley Law School's explosive growth into the largest law school in the country, is retiring as Cooley's president at the end of August.
LeDuc arrived at Cooley as a professor in 1975 and served as dean from 1982 until he was asked to resign in 1987. In 1996, a majority of faculty supported LeDuc's bid to become dean once again. He became Cooley's second president in 2002, succeeding founder Thomas Brennan.
LeDuc was not available to comment on his retirement Tuesday evening, according to a public relations firm working with the law school.
One has to ask why a law school, after forcing a resignation in '87 of a professor-turned-dean, would say ten years later "Hey, remember that guy...? He wasn't so bad...! Let's hire him!"
In 1995, the year before LeDuc became dean for the second time, the school's enrollment was about 1,700 students. By 2010, that number had climbed to nearly 4,000, according to data from the American Bar Association.
The same year, Cooley paid just shy of $1.5 million for the naming rights for what is now Cooley Law School Stadium, the minor league baseball park in downtown Lansing. Those rights expire in 2021.
Cooley also expanded its reach under LeDuc's leadership, opening campuses in Auburn Hills, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor and Tampa Bay, Florida.
Oh, right. Nobody else could ride the scam-wave and drum up the Benjamins quite like that, except maybe the Valvoline Dean. And to think it might have had to do with academic rigor, mission, or something similar, just like the ABA (snicker). Every law school needs a minor league baseball park and several satellite campuses, some in entirely different states. Just ask Yale or Harvard.
Many, many outlets decried Cooley's practices and the consequences thereof, with OTLSS being one of the chorus. Here are a few select examples, and there are many more out there from various sources:
http://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2014/07/breaking-news-cooleys-ann-arbor-campus.html (declining enrollment)
http://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2015/04/lies-damned-lies-and-employment.html (gaming employment statistics)
http://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2014/08/cooleys-michigan-campuses-going-to-take.html (reducing faculty)
http://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2018/05/cooley-non-profit-or-inflilaw-contender.html (Least selective law school, Cooley lawsuit in response to ABA enforcement)
http://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2014/11/keep-your-kids-off-cooley.html (pipeline program)
https://www.lstreports.com/schools/cooley/ (LST Data)
http://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-wreck-of-thomas-m-cooley.html (awesome Liberal Arts submission)
Oh well. At least Cooley has the distinction of being the least-selective law school in the country. I guess that's something, and Leduc has his golden parachute to show for it. Scam-on, my friends.
Many, many outlets decried Cooley's practices and the consequences thereof, with OTLSS being one of the chorus. Here are a few select examples, and there are many more out there from various sources:
http://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2014/07/breaking-news-cooleys-ann-arbor-campus.html (declining enrollment)
http://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2015/04/lies-damned-lies-and-employment.html (gaming employment statistics)
http://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2014/08/cooleys-michigan-campuses-going-to-take.html (reducing faculty)
http://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2018/05/cooley-non-profit-or-inflilaw-contender.html (Least selective law school, Cooley lawsuit in response to ABA enforcement)
http://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2014/11/keep-your-kids-off-cooley.html (pipeline program)
https://www.lstreports.com/schools/cooley/ (LST Data)
http://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-wreck-of-thomas-m-cooley.html (awesome Liberal Arts submission)
Oh well. At least Cooley has the distinction of being the least-selective law school in the country. I guess that's something, and Leduc has his golden parachute to show for it. Scam-on, my friends.
LeDuc also presided over Cooley when it published its own ranking showing itself to be second only to Harvard among law schools. I'm not making this up.
ReplyDeleteThe trick was to give heavy weight to numerous factors that were proxies for size. With the most students by far, Cooley easily propelled itself nearly to the top. But size is no indicator of quality; indeed, with the notable exception of Harvard, the largest law schools (hello, InfiLaw) tend to be godawful.
And Cooley has lost ground even in size. The article quoted above glorifies LeDuc for raising enrollment to 4000 in 2010 but doesn't mention that enrollment plummeted right after that: first-year fell from 1583 in 2010 to 458 in 2017. But why bother with the facts in a dithyramb to a scam-dean?
Cooley is so fucking lousy that its students (if they may be so flattered) underperform those of the U of Puerto Rico on the LSAT—even though most of the latter have to take the test in a non-native language.
Is LeDuc, in "retirement", going to get two times the salary of a judge of the Michigan Supreme Court, as racist founder Brennan does (http://outsidethelawschoolscam.blogspot.com/2018/05/cooley-diversity-or-bigotry.html)?
In other news, someone inside the ABA ripped off $1.3M from the coffers (http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/aba_reveals_1.3m_theft_by_staff_member_on_tax_form). Eight years passed before the ABA noticed.
ReplyDeleteVery nice article, exactly what I was looking for.
ReplyDeleteIs anybody surprised....is there any more self-serving profession than the legal profession, and all of its hired experts where manipulation of facts and evidence is the default?
ReplyDeleteBut a student borrows money and steps down that way in order to make more money later on as a lawyer and step up.
ReplyDelete