LANSING, Mich. – Cooley Law School Distinguished Professor Emeritus Retired Brigadier General Michael McDaniel was honored by the Center for Homeland Defense and Security Naval Postgraduate School for his commitment to homeland security education. McDaniel received the Christopher Bellavita Educator Award during the 2026 CHDS Alumni Professional Exchange Continuing Education Workshop in February. Named after Christopher Bellavita, former CHDS director of academic programs who was instrumental in developing the Master's program, the award recognizes individuals for innovation in advancing the homeland defense and security mission and is a distinction within the CHDS at the Naval Postgraduate School. McDaniel, who retired from Cooley in 2025, served the law school as professor, dean and director of Cooley’s Homeland and National Security Law LL.M. Program for 13 years. As a former state Homeland Security Advisor and member of Michigan’s National Guard, he was named co-chair of the state's task force on terrorism by Governor John Engler and Attorney General Jennifer Granholm following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Additionally, McDaniel’s leadership and homeland security knowledge was paramount in the Flint Water Crisis, as well as helping Lansing restore power to 96,000 residents – 40 percent of Lansing’s Board of Water and Light's customers – who had been without power for 11 days following a massive ice storm in 2013.
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On March 24, Cooley Law School’s Tampa Bay campus recognized students in the Hilary Term for their achievements during an honors convocation at the Hilton Garden Inn Tampa North in Temple Terrace.
On March 17, Cooley Law School hosted "Careers that Serve with Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel" for law students and faculty in the lobby of its Lansing campus.
On March 13, Cooley Law School’s Lansing campus recognized students in the Hilary Term for their achievements during an honors convocation.
Registration is encouraged and available online for those wishing to have convictions expunged.
New students in Cooley Law School's evening and weekend programs attended orientation on January 3-5, 2025. Orientation included new students at Cooley's Lansing and Tampa campuses to welcome the Dorean Koenig class to the Hilary (January) Semester.
LANSING, Mich. RIVERVIEW, Fla. – On November 14, Cooley Law School’s Kimble Center for Legal Drafting hosted a webinar that drew viewers from Poland, Nigeria, Canada, the UK, and throughout the US. The webinar—“Clear Legal Writing: New Resources, Technology, and Cases”—focused on various aspects of legal writing in plain language. It was cosponsored by Clarity, an international organization devoted to clear legal writing.
RIVERVIEW, FLA. – Cooley Law School’s Moot Court team won the Best Brief award at Florida State University’s Claude Pepper Elder law Moot Court competition, held Nov. 7-9, at FSU College of Law in Tallahassee, Fla. The team consisted of law students from Cooley’s Tampa Bay campus: Gabriella Logiudice, Safa Kudia, and Colby Weron. During the competition, 20 briefs from 20 Moot Court teams were evaluated, including teams from George Washington University, Baylor University, University of Chicago, Chicago-Kent, Stetson, University of California San Francisco, and Texas Tech. Law students from Cooley’s Lansing, Michigan, campus also competed in the competition, including: Arjan Malushi (brief writer), Larry Westcomb, and Jasmin Guillen. The competition does not allow any help from outside sources with anything except the basics of brief writing. Teams could not talk with practitioners or professors about the legal issues raised by the fact pattern. For Cooley, Logiudice was the brief writer on the team, while Kudia and Weron conducted research and spent countless hours debating the structure of each argument. They progressed to the elimination rounds, and faced George Washington University in their elimination round and did not progress. “This competition draws some of the best Moot Court teams from around the country,” said Cooley Law School Professor Christine Zellar Church, who coached the Tampa Bay team. “All of our students learn so much from picking a fact pattern apart, researching the fine points of the law, writing a brief, and then engaging in oral argument with teams from other schools. We are all so proud of the hard work and excellence of our students.” Cooley Law School was founded on a mission of equal access to a legal education and offers admission to a diverse group of qualified applicants across the country. Since the law school's founding in 1972, Cooley has provided a modern legal education to more than 21,000 graduates, teaching the practical skills necessary for a seamless transition from academia to the real world. An independent, non-profit law school, accredited by both the American Bar Association and the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Cooley holds classes year-round at its Michigan and Florida campuses. Nov 15 2024
WMU-Cooley Law School hosted civil rights activist Dr. Jerome Reide for the law school’s Social Justice Lunch Hour on June 30. Reide, who serves as the legislative liaison for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, spoke about a variety of topics, including the need for students to become involved in their community and make society a better place. “We need to continue to make our society more inclusive, more diverse,” said Reide. He also stressed the importance of women’s rights and the need for lawyers to be part of the legislature to help shape policy. “Policy is a pendulum that swings right or left depending upon who's in the White House, Congress, and on the Supreme Court,” he said. A long-time civil rights activist, Reide served as the regional field director for the NAACP from 2009-2020, and was primarily responsible for advocacy management of its Midwestern units. He also served as NAACP’s National Field Operations deputy director, Midwest Region III director, and Special Contribution Fund regional development director. Additionally, Reide served as co-chair, committee member of Individual Rights and Responsibilities within the American Bar Association, and director of the Justice Initiatives Division at the State Bar of Michigan. He also served on the board of directors for the Sugar Law Center and the Beckwith Civil Liberties Fund. As the coordinator of ACLU’s Access to Justice Project, Reide coordinated a national study of landlord tenant courts and published the findings in a public policy report, “Justice: Evicted.” During his time as a consultant with Wayne County Commission’s Ways and Means Committee, he helped convene four annual conferences of governmental, community, corporate and academic policy makers to discuss economic development policy in Greater Detroit-Windsor, and Ontario, Canada. Additionally, Reide coordinated an international trade mission to South Africa to link the jobs, housing, education, arts, and cultural policy initiatives of the Mandela Administration with Detroit's leadership. Reide is a member of the State Bar of Michigan, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the American Bar Association, and the National Bar Association. He has taught at Bowie State University, Eastern Michigan University, and the State University of New York's Center for Labor Studies. Jul 07 2023
Today, Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Martha D. Anderson set aside the conviction of George and Melvin DeJesus, who were wrongfully convicted of murder and felony firearms in 1997. “I just want to thank God first, because without him nothing is possible,” said George DeJesus. “I am thankful that the truth is finally realized and hope that our family as well as Margaret’s (victim’s) family can finally heal and put all of this behind us. I realize that justice for my brother and I also means opening up old wounds for the victim’s family. My heart goes out to them and I will be praying for them.” Assistant Attorney General Robyn Frankel, director of the Michigan Attorney General’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) moved to have the DeJesus brothers’ convictions vacated and requested dismissal of all charges. The statewide conviction integrity unit is one of the first of its kind, reviewing claims of innocence in all Michigan counties, except Wayne County, which has its own unit. George DeJesus is represented by Jessica McLemore of the Western Michigan University Cooley Law School Innocence Project (WMU-Cooley Innocence Project). Melvin DeJesus is represented by David Moran of the Michigan Innocence Clinic. The two innocence organizations worked collaboratively with the Attorney General Nessel’s office to finally achieve justice for these two men who served over two decades in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. “We are happy that George can say he has been fully exonerated after nearly a 25-year struggle to prove his innocence,” Tracey Brame, the director of the WMU-Cooley Innocence Project, said. “George has steadfastly maintained that he had nothing to do with this terrible crime. We are grateful to Attorney General Dana Nessel and the Conviction Integrity Unit team for their willingness to listen to the brothers and reinvestigate the case. Today, George and his brother, Melvin, have finally received justice.” On July 11, 1995, a Pontiac woman’s body was found nude in her basement with a pillowcase over her head and wires binding her neck, wrists, and ankles. DNA linked Brandon Gohagen to the crime scene. Gohagen originally told police that the DeJesus brothers had nothing to do with crime. Later, he confessed to sexually assaulting the victim but claimed that Melvin forced him to at gunpoint. Gohagen said that Melvin and George then bound and beat the victim to death. Ultimately, Gohagen pled guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct in exchange for his testimony against the DeJesus brothers. At trial, George and Melvin presented alibi defenses for the night Gohagen said the crime occurred. Nevertheless, the DeJesus brothers were convicted and sentenced to serve life without parole on December 30, 1997. At the request of the WMU-Cooley Innocence Project and the Michigan Innocence Clinic the Attorney General’s CIU reinvestigated the DeJesus brothers’ cases. The CIU interviewed numerous witnesses and reviewed decades of documents. The CIU located witness statements made within weeks of the crime, that corroborated the brothers’ alibis the night of the murder. But they also discovered more troubling facts about Gohagen. In 2017, Gohagen was convicted of the 1994 sexual assault and murder of another woman in Oakland County. Gohagen acted alone in that crime. In addition to the 1994 case, the CIU discovered 12 other women who were emotionally, physically, and sexually abused by Gohagen. The CIU also interviewed a witness who said that Gohagen confessed to implicating the brothers in exchange for a deal. Pretrial and post-conviction DNA testing never identified the brothers’ DNA at the crime scene, and there was no other physical evidence linking the brothers to the crime. “I wish to apologize for the actions taken by your fellow citizens against you 25-years ago. Twenty-five years of your life have been taken from you that cannot be replaced. Hopefully you will find some solace in the fact that you will be able rejoin your family and start living a normal life outside the prison walls. I wish you the best," said Judge Martha D. Anderson, judge for the Sixth Circuit Court in Oakland County, Michigan. Today, George is being released from the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia and will reunite with his brother and family in Lansing at One North Kitchen, 5001 W. Saginaw Hwy., Lansing, MI 48917 at 11 a.m. In 2018, the Department of the Michigan Attorney General received a Post-Conviction DNA Testing of Evidence grant from the Department of Justice to screen claims of innocence and conduct DNA testing in appropriate cases. In 2019 and 2021, the WMU-Cooley Innocence Project received an Upholding the Rule of Law grant from the Department of Justice to review cases in which unreliable forensics played a role in the conviction. Since 2018, the two offices have been partnering on DNA and other forensic casework. About the WMU-Cooley Innocence Project: The WMU-Cooley Law School Innocence Project is part of the Innocence Network, which has been credited with the release of over 375 wrongfully accused prisoners through the use of DNA testing. The WMU-Cooley project has screened over 6,000 cases and is responsible for the exoneration of seven men: Kenneth Wyniemko (2003), Nathaniel Hatchett (2008), Donya Davis (2014) LeDura Watkins (2017) Kenneth Nixon (2021), Gilbert Poole (2021), and Corey McCall (2021). The WMU-Cooley Innocence Project supported the exonerations of Ramon Ward and Lacino Hamilton by contributing its DNA expertise and grant resources to obtain testing. The project is staffed by WMU-Cooley Law School students, who work under the supervision of WMU-Cooley Innocence Project attorneys. If you want to support this project, donate and support the work of the WMU-Cooley Innocence Project. About WMU-Cooley Law School: WMU-Cooley Law School was founded on a mission of equal access to a legal education and offers admission to a diverse group of qualified applicants across the country. Since the law school's founding in 1972, WMU-Cooley has provided a modern legal education to more than 20,000 graduates, teaching the practical skills necessary for a seamless transition from academia to the real world. WMU-Cooley enrolls classes year-round at its Michigan and Florida campuses. WMU-Cooley is an independent, non-profit law school, accredited by both the American Bar Association and the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. Mar 22 2022
