When Reda Taleb (McLean Class, 2015) talks about “giving back,” she isn’t just reciting a slogan — she’s living by example. The daughter of immigrants from Bint Jbeil, Lebanon, Taleb’s parents, along with her six older siblings, laid roots in Dearborn’s south end, an area known for its pollution-emitting factory smoke stacks and community of Arab Americans seeking the “American Dream.”
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Neena Sterling (Gray Class, 2022) knew she wanted to be a lawyer since she was a young girl. When she graduated from college she was on track, but ended up hitting some bumps and taking time off to work for a year. In 2016, she had a daughter, and her dream of law school was put on the back burner.
Roger and Marilyn Grove had been donors and supporters of Cooley Law School. Roger was also a good friend of Judge Brennan’s. Both avid sports fans and athletes, they often met up for a match of tennis or racquetball or pickle ball, or a friendly duel in almost any sport. Roger was also a musician. He was a tenor and first baritone horn for the MSU Concert Band.
Elizabeth Devolder (Hughes Class, 2016) was nothing short of a superstar in law school. She excelled in classes and student competitions, even winning a national championship in the American Bar Association’s 2015 Client Counseling Competition. On top of that, she was selected as one of National Jurist’s 25 future lawyers honored in the national publication’s inaugural “Law Student of the Year” feature in 2016.
Pauline (Polly) Brennan was used to her husband, Tom — the late Michigan Supreme Court Justice Thomas E. Brennan Sr. — coming up with ideas — and plenty of them. Some were good, some not so good. “But some of his ideas were visionary,” she says, “And Cooley Law School was one of those.”
As a teenager, Yaritssa Plasencia (Blatchford Class, 2022) knew she wanted to pursue a career in physical therapy when she got such wonderful care from a physical therapist after a bad car accident.
Growing up, the only thing Cooley Law School graduate Connor Porzig cared about was basketball. “I like to think of it as my first love. Whether I was watching it on TV or playing outside, it was something that I understood and had a passion for from the beginning,” says Porzig.
Stephanie Ray was a very quiet child, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have a lot to say. "I think people found my opinionated self quite a shock, especially since I didn't really speak much as a child," laughed Ray. Born in Medellin, Colombia, Ray came to New York City to live with her adoptive parents, Stratton Ray and Virginia Ann Wright, in 1992.
What does being a lawyer mean to Yveline Dalmacy? Well, it doesn’t mean driving the fanciest car or living in the biggest house. To her it means touching and empowering as many lives as you can in your lifetime. That’s the legacy she wants to leave. As a proud Haitian who immigrated to New York when she was 14 years old, she met many challenges but still managed to help others along the way.
On Thursday, July 22, 2021, Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced the appointment of Kwamé L. Rowe to the 6th Circuit Court of Oakland County, in southeast Michigan. Rowe served as a special assistant prosecuting attorney with the Trafficking Unit for Oakland County, working on felony cases involving human trafficking, complex narcotics, and homicide.
