CLEO Pre-Law Institute for Minorities is a Cooley Law Ploy

I see unemployment in your future

Cooley Law School and the ABA have developed a pre-law program called CLEO that brainwashes and swindles disadvantaged minority and low-income college students into believing that their future will be brighter with a degree from the laughingstock of all law schools, Cooley Law, or at another third tier institution. The Cooley and ABA pr machine have made this disgraceful ploy look like a gift to the African-American and Hispanic communities when it is really just another way to oil the billion dollar law school machine.

CLEO’s six-week summer institute is for college graduates attending law school in the fall. The program is $2,000 and covers room, board, and instructional materials. Classes in classical philosophy, contracts, civil procedure, professional responsibility, legal writing, and appellate advocacy are also taught by Cooley faculty members. In other words, it's a $2,000, six-week crash course of your high school civics class.

Another of their programs is the Sophomore Summer Institute (SSI), a four-week pre-law program “designed to prepare students to become more competitive law school applicants”. The SSI is free and the students in the program receive a $750 stipend to cover travel expenses to Detroit and lost income from potential summer employment. Students are eligible for two academic credits. Twenty-five seats in the program are available to Oakland University students, also the site where the institute is held.

Though students have no obligation to apply or attend Cooley Law School, who really believes that Cooley isn’t trying to recruit these kids? The institute is held in Michigan and targets demographics that make up a large percentage of Cooley’s student body: college students who attend lower tier local colleges such as Oakland University as well as low-income and minority students from the Detroit area.

If the ABA wanted to help these students, they would place them in judicial clerkships or paid internships with local law firms. Low-income and other disadvantaged students with little chance of attending a T14 school should not waste their summer at a pre-law summer camp. They’d be better off making money in an internship that could help them make connections, gain real world skills, or help them land a job after graduation. Or better yet, they shouldn’t go to law school in this recession if it isn’t Harvard, Yale, or Stanford. Unfortunately, law school was always meant for the rich and the few prestigious jobs that are left in this country are meant for the rich and well connected too. Attending a summer program sponsored by Cooley won't change those sad facts of life.

Cooley Associate Dean John Nussbaumer had this to say about the CLEO summer program, which he has taken a sabbatical to direct with the assistance of E. Christopher Johnson, Jr., Cooley professor and director of Cooley's Corporate Law and Finance LL.M. program (feel free to laugh out loud at the fact that Cooley has a LL.M program):

At a time when nearly two-thirds of all African American and half of all Hispanic and Mexican American applicants to law school are being totally shut-out from every law school they apply to for admission, programs like this one provide reason for hope that one day the legal profession will reflect the diversity of the clients we serve.

Oh, please. Stop lying and pretending that this institute is about helping poor minorities and not about lining your pockets with their money and luring them into getting a useless JD from your sorry excuse for a law school. Minority unemployment is a serious problem, but having more minorities attend Cooley Law School will only make the unemployment numbers worse. "A Law School Victim" at Life's Mockery, is an African-American law scam blogger who has documented the high unemployment statistics in the legal field as well as the unemployment crisis in the African-American community which has reached a 25-year high. Please stop by and check out Life's Mockery's long list of articles that discuss the plight of the African-American community in this recession. The statistics are frightening. It's a disgrace that Nussbaumer uses the educational inequality in low-income communities to his advantage to spread the law school scam. The CLEO program is just a means for Cooley to recruit unsuspecting students, many of whom are likely first generation college students. First generation college students are the easiest to con into believing that a law degree, even from Cooley, will open doors to better job opportunities.

The students who attend CLEO have overcome so much adversity to get a college education. I sincerely hope that they don't ruin their lives and go into debt to attend any law school outside of the T14 (not that a T14 degree guarantees a job anymore either), but especially not Cooley Law School or their $2,000 sham pre-law institute.

Video Credit: JD Underdog

Just an Observation....

So, a typical day in Shit Law Practice is as follows:
I'd rush down to court to make 9:30 a.m. call. I'd roll in, right in the nick of time, and sit in the jury box (which is where the attorneys sat during call). I would look around at my peers in the jury box and I would notice, more often than not, I was one of a few ladies and I was the only minority. On occassion, I would see another minority. It was usually a black male. We would acknowledge each other as the outsiders with a very professional nod. At that point in my life, I felt like the law profession was an Old Boy's Club. Usually, old and white too. But this mirrored my experience in Law School--at least, in that most of the students were white. At the time, I guess I assumed that minorities didn't really go to law school in large numbers. Afterall, minorities weren't at my Law Firm either. And it was my understanding that there had never been a minority associate prior to myself. So, I took it as it was. Everyone was always pleasant with me. I didn't see it as a problem. I thought it was the way our profession was--mostly white and male.

When I went to a mid-level firm, my days in court were very similar to those days in shit law. I was often the only minority in the room, once again. It was reaffirmation of what I knew to be true.

Then, I went to Big Law. It was a whole new world. There were minorities everywhere. Even people of different sexual orientations and religious practices. I was so enthralled. How could this be? Minorities were seemingly absent from the legal industry from law school to shit law to mid-level firms... and then they appeared magically at the highest level of practice! It was quite a delight.

But then I found out that our presence in big law wasn't so much of a magical occurence. Big Law recruits minorities and women because it affects their Vault numbers. The fact that they went out of their way to recruit people like me made the law firm seem disengenuous. Shouldn't they just hire the best and brightest? I don't want to be given any handouts and the law firm's attempts to color the roster of the big firm made me question whether or not I deserved to be there... or was I just a tally mark for Human Resources?

But I grew to love the diversity of experiences there. And I do admit, it added a little something to the environment that had been lacking at my other firms.

But, eventually, I was laid off from Big Law. Now, I do document review. When I walk into my work room, I find that the majority of my fellow document reviewers are minorities--and female as well. Was this where they had been hiding all along? I see asians and hispanics and blacks and women and lawyers nearly old enough to retire.

I'm not sure if my observations are accurate. I can only speak to what I see. But, if I have seen an accurate cross section of the legal world, what does this say about minorities and women in the law? Maybe we are good enough to be at the top firms for their own purposes... but when the going gets tough, we are the first to get sacrificed.

You would be shocked at how many people who do document review were laid off from Big Law. Contrary to popular belief, it's not a refuge for those who couldn't do better. It seems to be a pergatory for those who did.