Thomas M. Cooley Law School was hit with two separate lawsuits last week, involving a professor and a student.
The first case involved former Cooley law professor and associate dean, Lynn Branham, who claims she was fired in retaliation for opposing faculty nepotism. When Branham disagreed with the hiring of the husband of Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Jane Markey, she says she was forced out of the school through an unfairly increased workload.
Branham’s lawsuit, which claimed breach of contract, led to a tenure hearing in October. Cooley faculty voted overwhelmingly to uphold her removal. But Cooley’s motion to dismiss the suit following the tenure hearing was not approved. Branham is still seeking reinstatement to her position at Cooley as well as damages.
Cooley had better luck in the second lawsuit, which alleged that the school failed to accommodate a student’s learning disability and unlawfully expelled her for poor grades. The student, Nahzy Buck, was admitted to Cooley in 1999 and later diagnosed with two learning disabilities. A doctor recommended that the school give her additional time to take tests and allow her to drop a class to lighten her workload. Cooley agreed to the first request, but would not allow her to drop a class.
Buck was expelled in her first year for having a 1.43 grade point average, but she sued for disability discrimination and was allowed to return to Cooley. In 2006, she was expelled again for poor grades and sued again but the court dismissed her case without prejudice.
“All she wanted to do was to become a lawyer,” said Buck’s attorney, Nicholas Roumel. “Now, there’s not a law school in a country that’s going to take her. It’s just heartbreaking.”
