As Governments Get Censorship Happy, New Technologies Popping Up To Route Around That

Cooley Law School Sued Over Its Supposedly 'Misleading Employment Stats'

from the so-that's-why-it-sued dept

Mon, Aug 15th 2011 7:03pm — Mike Masnick

We recently wrote about how the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, whose sole actual claim to fame appears to be that it takes on more students than any other law school, was suing some online critics. It had actually filed two lawsuits, one was against some online critics, and the other was against a law firm that had clearly been sniffing around some Cooley practices. Well, now the other shoe has dropped and, as ShellMG points out, that same law firm has sued Cooley in a class action lawsuit, claiming that the school posts false claims about its postgraduate employment rates. This is, clearly, what Cooley was trying to stave off with its original lawsuit, since in its lawsuit against the Kurzon Strauss law firm, it highlighted a message posted to a legal board asking students to come forward with information about Cooley's employment stats. Of course, the fact that Cooley sued first (with, as many people pointed out, lawyers who graduated from other schools) kind of makes you wonder what the school is hiding. That is, rather than wait to see if the law firm actually had anything, Cooley filed what could be described as a SLAPP suit, in that it appears it sought to stop the law firm from actually getting its message out to former students. It certainly makes for an interesting defamation claim. Can you accuse a class action law firm of defamation for reaching out to find people who had a bad experience?

In the end, I still think that Cooley comes out of this looking terribly. Suing critics never looks good. And now its stats are likely to get a lot more scrutiny. I'm curious how comfortable Cooley is with that...

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Filed Under: attention, employment, law school, stats
Companies: thomas m cooley law school

10 Comments

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blaktron (profile), 15 Aug 2011 @ 7:13pm

Defamation has to be a lie right? Can't really be defaming when you're asking a question....
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 15 Aug 2011 @ 8:04pm

Cooley Law School has now made sure that even more of their former students will be aware that there is a lawfirm seeking to gain information about if they were mislead by Cooley's figures.

Trying to hush things up usually means not drawing more attention to the issue.
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Pixelation, 15 Aug 2011 @ 9:16pm

"I'm curious how comfortable Cooley is with that..."

Are you asking if they're cooley with it?
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Big Al, 15 Aug 2011 @ 11:24pm

Re:
Where's the 'Groan' button when you need it?
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Anonymous Coward, 16 Aug 2011 @ 2:27am

'In the end, I still think that Cooley comes out of this looking terribly.'

Terribly what? Oh, you meant 'terrible'.
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NotMyRealName (profile), 16 Aug 2011 @ 3:11am

Re:
I could see how asking a question could be defamation.

Say you own Restaurant A. Two blocks away is Restaurant B, and they serve the same types of things you do. You take out a half page ad in every local newspaper you can find that says: "Have you developed a rash or open sores around your mouth after eating at Restaurant B? If so contact Finklstein, Smith + partners at 555-1234. Large class action settlement may occur."
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NotMyRealName (profile), 16 Aug 2011 @ 3:18am

Re: Re:
Grr... no edit. Idea above modified from one of Chuck Palahniuk's books. Don't remember which one. I recommend reading all of them to find out :)
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CarlWeathersForPres (profile), 16 Aug 2011 @ 7:43am

Cooley is a diploma mill that robs students by promising them "the life" of a high priced attorney using misleading employment statistics and inflated median salaries. Thomas Jefferson School of Law has also been sued under this theory (although, they pointed out that their bar passage rate was far below their employment numbers, so obviously they couldn't be turning out lawyers). The thing that is even worse is that this isn't just 4th tier schools that are doing this, many of the top 100 are using tricks such as hiring graduates to do admissions work, just so they can boost the 9 month employment numbers.
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ShellMG, 16 Aug 2011 @ 8:08am

It could just be a coincidence, but Cooley is across the street from the state capitol building in Lansing, MI. Congress-critters, staffers and students all stop at the same restaurants and coffee shops downtown. I'm tempted to do some digging because I keep seeing red flags and would like to rule them out, but I wonder if influence crosses the street both ways.
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dwg, 16 Aug 2011 @ 9:10am

Re:
For example, check this out: http://www.cooley.edu/finaid/tuition_incoming.html.

Tuition on par with or above top-tier schools. I need not fill in the rest of the relevant comparisons.
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