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Derek Matthews gives next generation of Cooley Law School students a start in legal profession in Tampa

Derek Matthews gives next generation of Cooley Law School students a start in legal profession in Tampa

Derek Matthews (Vinson Class, 2017) is no stranger to giving back to Cooley Law School in the Tampa Bay region. Outside of legal practice, Matthews sponsors the annual Cooley Alumni Golf Outing in Tampa and participates in alumni events and mentoring programs to build relationships with faculty and fellow graduates.

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  • Cooley Homeland Security Expert Gen. Michael C.H. McDaniel Tapped By Media as Legal Expert During COVID-19 Pandemic
    Cooley Homeland Security Expert Gen. Michael C.H. McDaniel Tapped By Media as Legal Expert During COVID-19 Pandemic

    Cooley Homeland Security Expert Gen. Michael C.H. McDaniel Tapped By Media as Legal Expert During COVID-19 Pandemic

    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: To Teach A child To Achieve, You must show Achievement
    Nina Yakubov: To Teach A child To Achieve, You must show Achievement

    Nina Yakubov: To Teach A child To Achieve, You must show Achievement

    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: Destined For Law School
    Joeie Skelly: Destined For Law School

    Joeie Skelly: Destined For Law School

    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.”

  • Jalitza Serrano: Best Ways to Learn in Law School
    Jalitza Serrano: Best Ways to Learn in Law School

    Jalitza Serrano: Best Ways to Learn in Law School

    Cooley Law School 3L student, Jalitza Serrano, is living proof that you can not only conquer your fears, but transform them into something positive to help others.

  • Daniel Cardwell: Drive Comes From Within
    Daniel Cardwell: Drive Comes From Within

    Daniel Cardwell: Drive Comes From Within

    Back in high school, no one had the 20/20 vision to see where Daniel Cardwell would be in the year 2020 – not even Cardwell himself. Moving around to different states growing up, as his entrepreneurial parents launched businesses, his education suffered. He even dropped out of high school. It wasn't until later when he discovered his struggles in school were due to an undiagnosed learning disability that things changed.

  • It's Tax Season! Take Advantage of Free Tax services
    It's Tax Season! Take Advantage of Free Tax services

    It's Tax Season! Take Advantage of Free Tax services

    Once again it's tax season. Probably one of the most stressful times of year, outside of the pressures you might feel during the holidays or, if you are a law student, taking a law school exam. Take a deep breath. There are some easy and FREE resources you might be able to use.

  • The Bar Taking Process: What You Need to Know
    The Bar Taking Process: What You Need to Know

    The Bar Taking Process: What You Need to Know

    Taking the bar exam will be one of the most stressful events of your life. You just spent tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on law school and you believe all will be for naught if you do not pass this exam. Maybe, like my brother, you have a lucrative job lined up contingent on your passing. Or, maybe you have your own office or firm planned out and ready to launch - you just need that darn law license!

  • Zack Hugg: Cooley Law School Connections Instrumental in Career Climb
    Zack Hugg: Cooley Law School Connections Instrumental in Career Climb

    Zack Hugg: Cooley Law School Connections Instrumental in Career Climb

    When Zack Hugg entered undergraduate school at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, he planned to seek a career in the technology field. But, by his senior year, he’d discovered interests in intellectual property and privacy laws that led him to alter course and go to law school.

  • Cooley Grad: Article Published in the Florida Defender
    Cooley Grad: Article Published in the Florida Defender

    Cooley Grad: Article Published in the Florida Defender

    Exclusion of Partial DNA Specimens, Specimens from Multiple Contributors and the Lab-Created Phenomenon of Allelic Dropout by Jason S. Downs Cooley graduate Jason S. Downs is an attorney in Brevard County at Murphy’s Law Offices, P.A. His article, Exclusion of Partial DNA Specimens, Specimens from Multiple Contributors and the Lab-Created Phenomenon of Allelic Dropout, published in the Winter 2019 issue, Volume 31, No. 4, of the Florida Defender, A Publication of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Downs is a member of FACDL and the Young Lawyers Division of The Florida Bar. Before law school, he was a successful independent analyst and brief author. He was retained by many Florida criminal defense attorneys to lend his skills in formulating winning defense strategies and developing theory. He has authored hundreds of successful dispositive motions and is the author of dozens of prevailing appeals in all levels of the Florida court system and in the Supreme Court of the United States.