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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Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Homeland Defense Strategy and retired Brigadier General Michael C.H. McDaniel, associate dean at Cooley Law School, was sought out by the media to explain how President Donald Trump can use the Insurrection Act to help control riots.
Cooley has been offering online legal education for over a decade through our Graduate LL.M. Programs. Since 2010, LL.M. faculty have been teaching online classes, starting with the program in Intellectual Property Law, and then moving into other LL.M. degree programs in Tax, Homeland and National Security, and Corporate Law and Finance. We have also offered a Weekend Blended Learning Program for our J.D. students, allowing them to have 4 weeks of online instruction of a 15-week semester, since September 2017.
Tracey Brame, associate dean of Cooley’s Grand Rapids campus, Renalia DuBose, a Cooley professor in Tampa, Florida, and Criminal Law Professor Tonya Krause-Phelan, have been called upon to speak about racial injustices happening throughout the country and the legal ramifications following the recent deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Ahmaud Arbery in Glynn County, Georgia.
On Thursday, April 9, ABC News reported on concerns over face coverings for people of color. The report states that people of color are being put in a position to choose between wearing a face mask for the safety of self and others, or to not wear a mask because it appears threatening to others, simply by being black, especially black males. The report came after two black males in eastern Illinois were followed out of a retail outlet by a police officer because they were wearing a mask, despite federal and state orders to wear masks.
When the coronavirus hit and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued her stay home-stay safe order, thousands of people were suddenly faced with rearranging their lives to fit the new reality.
Just like any organization or business or higher education institution, individuals have their our own learning ecosystem – that is, they have their own sources for learning. Some people reach out to people they respect or feel are experts to learn; maybe a family member or friend, or it could be a professor, mentor or colleague.
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Homeland Defense Strategy and retired Brigadier General Michael C.H. McDaniel, who serves as director of Cooley Law School’s Master of Laws Program in Homeland and National Security, has experience in leading multiple government agencies in times of disaster. He held his post with the Pentagon during the H1N1 epidemic and most recently led Michigan’s response to the Flint water crisis. McDaniel often provides support to government agencies during times of crisis.
Nina Yakubov is one of those people who always had a good idea what she wanted to do, even at an early age. Growing up in Russia, being around very educated people, Yakubov was especially amazed by how lawyers could think in a way nobody else could. She thought of attorneys as "Super Heroes."
Joeie Skelly knew that she wanted to be a lawyer since she was 8 years old. “While other kids were playing house,” she recalled, “I pretended to play lawyer.”
