Isabel Zagazeta is a 3L J.D. candidate and Dean’s Fellow at Cooley Law School in Tampa, Florida. Originally from Canada, she earned her undergraduate degree at Wilfrid Laurier University before moving to Florida to study law at Cooley. She has earned book awards, served on Law Review, mentored incoming students, and was part of Cooley’s Moot Court team that recently won first place at the 2026 Robert Orseck Moot Court Competition. With a passion for legal writing and healthcare compliance, Isabel is building a strong foundation for a future in law at Cooley.
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The Library Minute is a video series describing study aids and other secondary sources available for students in the Cooley Law School libraries. In this episode, we establish some baseline context by talking a bit about a type of source you’re probably already familiar with: the casebook.
After graduating from Cooley Law School in January, Geofrey Bilabaye will work as a research attorney at the Michigan Court of Appeals. Read about Geofrey's journey from Tanzania to a legal career in the Legal News story by Sheila Pursglove below.
We were on the cusp of the new millennium. Y2K. Wired phones. Movies on tape. Dial-up modems. The digital age was just getting underway. At Cooley Law School, also underway was the notion of starting a law school study abroad program in the Pacific Rim and later in Toronto, Canada.
Law school isn’t like any other college experience you may have experienced. The unique demands on you in law school are much greater and more challenging than anything you may have encountered in your life. From day one, each law student begins a process that shapes and molds them into the kind of lawyer he or she will become. Only after that first critical year, will a student really understand expectations and move forward confidently. Here are what several second-year students would like to share about their experiences during their first year at Cooley Law School.
The Honorable Thomas E. Brennan, founder of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School and former Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, died peacefully surrounded by his loving family on Sept. 29, 2018 at the age of 89. He has been called one of the most important innovators in legal education of the past 40 years. A visionary. A risk-taker. An “idea guy.” His legacy reaches far beyond the founding of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, rippling through the lives of more than 20,000 graduates of the institution he imagined back in 1972, touching even the lives of generations of people he never would meet.
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Read about Cooley Law School's Grand Rapids BLSA student chapter and their community outreach and support for local Deborah House. Read the Dec. 12, 2018, Legal News story below.
An adjunct professor at Cooley Law School, Stacey Dinser might be considered a bountiful giver. It’s just something that comes naturally to her. It then is no surprise that her dedication and enthusiasm for teaching the law have resulted in her being honored with the 2018 Frederick J. Griffith III Adjunct Faculty Award.
The decision-making process for attending law school is a difficult one. First, you need to decide if you really want to go to law school, or not. Then you need to decide what law school is a good fit for you. Never a small factor, you need to figure out how to make law school affordable or balance law school into your already busy schedule. It's not for everyone. Law school and a legal career are only for those individuals who really want it, have the ability, and are truly willing to put in the effort.
Growing up along the AuSable River, a young Colin Hunter watched as the AuSable River International Canoe Marathon would run alongside his family’s home in Grayling, Michigan, aspiring that one day he would enter and compete. In 1996, at the age of 15, he did. The grueling, 120-mile non-stop canoe race starts in Grayling and ends near the shores of Lake Huron in Oscoda, Michigan. What Hunter didn’t realize then was that training and competing in canoe racing would prepare him for success in law school and his career now as judge of the 46th Circuit Court in northern Michigan.
