Chosen by his peers, Phillip Harwood delivers the class farewell remarks during Cooley Law School’s commencement ceremony.
Chosen by her peers, Autumn Loos delivers the class farewell remarks during Cooley Law School’s commencement ceremony.
Graduates of Cooley Law School’s Lansing campus were honored during a commencement ceremony at its MSU Wharton Center Pasant Theatre on December 14.
Fifty-seven juris doctor degrees and master of laws degrees were presented to members of Cooley Law School’s Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Class and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist Class.
Chosen by their peers, Phillip Harwood and Autumn Loos gave the class farewell remarks. Ret. Brigadier General Michael C. H. McDaniel delivered the keynote speech.
“Many of us came to law school with a plan, and we stuck to that plan,” Harwood said in his remarks. “Others came to law school with a specific plan and that plan changed. And still, others are open to what that plan still is. I would like to encourage each one of us, myself included, to take a hard look at our plans and ask ourselves this one question: What purpose does our plan serve? Not for us, but for our clients, our community and the world around us. Why do we do what we do? What’s our purpose, what’s our mission? This is the most important part of our plan.”
“As we leave this chapter behind and step into the next, especially as we prepare for the bar, it’s important to remember that those moments of doubt – the ones that we wondered if we belonged – they’re part of the process,” Loos said in her remarks. “We may not always feel ready, but we are ready. We’re prepared to make an impact, to challenge the systems and to stand up for justice.”
In his keynote address, McDaniel spoke on his experience as a professor at Cooley Law School. He also offered advice to the graduating class to persist and push forward as the newest generation of lawyers.
“I know you were blessed to have had them, and now, we have given you those skills to serve others,” he advised the graduates. “To make your family’s lives, lives of others, your community, your part of the world bigger and better. Use those tools.”
Each Cooley Law School class is named for a distinguished member of the legal profession. The commencement ceremony for Cooley’s winter graduating classes honored U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg graduated from James Madison High School then attended Cornell University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in government, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and first of her class. She then went on to attend Harvard Law School for two years, before life circumstance necessitated and she transferred to Columbia Law School her final year. She won a two-year clerkship with U.S. District Judge Edmund L. Palmieri, then accepted a research position at Columbia that took her to Sweden. She taught at Rutgers University Law School from 1963-1972; and from 1972-1980, she taught at Columbia, where she became the school’s first female tenured professor. During the 1970s, she worked for the ACLU and eventually became director of its newly established Women’s Rights Project. In this role, she argued six cases before the Supreme Court, winning five of them. Ginsburg was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by President Carter in 1980. In 1983, President Clinton appointed her to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill the seat vacated by Justice Byron White.
William Hubbs Rehnquist graduated from high school in Shorewood, Wisconsin, and attended Kenyon College in Ohio for a year before joining the Army Air Corp in 1943 and serving for the next three years as a weather observer in North Africa. After World War II, with the help of the GI Bill and by working a steady stream of part-time jobs, Rehnquist attended Stanford University where he earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in political science. He then earned a master’s degree in government from Harvard before returning to Stanford where he earned his law degree, graduating first in his class in 1952. Rehnquist then clerked for Justice Robert H. Jackson, and wrote a memorandum for Justice Jackson as the court was considering Brown v. Board of Education (1954). In 1953, Rehnquist married Natalie Cornell and moved to Phoenix, Ariz., where Rehnquist practiced law until 1969. He was then appointed by President Richard Nixon to serve as deputy attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel of the Justice Department. In October 1971, upon the retirement of Justice John Marshall Harlan, Nixon nominated Rehnquist to fill the vacancy of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1986, when Chief Justice Burger retired, Rehnquist was appointed chief justice.
Fifty-seven juris doctor degrees and master of laws degrees were presented to members of Cooley Law School’s Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Class and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist Class.
Chosen by their peers, Phillip Harwood and Autumn Loos gave the class farewell remarks. Ret. Brigadier General Michael C. H. McDaniel delivered the keynote speech.
“Many of us came to law school with a plan, and we stuck to that plan,” Harwood said in his remarks. “Others came to law school with a specific plan and that plan changed. And still, others are open to what that plan still is. I would like to encourage each one of us, myself included, to take a hard look at our plans and ask ourselves this one question: What purpose does our plan serve? Not for us, but for our clients, our community and the world around us. Why do we do what we do? What’s our purpose, what’s our mission? This is the most important part of our plan.”
“As we leave this chapter behind and step into the next, especially as we prepare for the bar, it’s important to remember that those moments of doubt – the ones that we wondered if we belonged – they’re part of the process,” Loos said in her remarks. “We may not always feel ready, but we are ready. We’re prepared to make an impact, to challenge the systems and to stand up for justice.”
In his keynote address, McDaniel spoke on his experience as a professor at Cooley Law School. He also offered advice to the graduating class to persist and push forward as the newest generation of lawyers.
“I know you were blessed to have had them, and now, we have given you those skills to serve others,” he advised the graduates. “To make your family’s lives, lives of others, your community, your part of the world bigger and better. Use those tools.”
Each Cooley Law School class is named for a distinguished member of the legal profession. The commencement ceremony for Cooley’s winter graduating classes honored U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg graduated from James Madison High School then attended Cornell University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in government, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and first of her class. She then went on to attend Harvard Law School for two years, before life circumstance necessitated and she transferred to Columbia Law School her final year. She won a two-year clerkship with U.S. District Judge Edmund L. Palmieri, then accepted a research position at Columbia that took her to Sweden. She taught at Rutgers University Law School from 1963-1972; and from 1972-1980, she taught at Columbia, where she became the school’s first female tenured professor. During the 1970s, she worked for the ACLU and eventually became director of its newly established Women’s Rights Project. In this role, she argued six cases before the Supreme Court, winning five of them. Ginsburg was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by President Carter in 1980. In 1983, President Clinton appointed her to the U.S. Supreme Court to fill the seat vacated by Justice Byron White.
William Hubbs Rehnquist graduated from high school in Shorewood, Wisconsin, and attended Kenyon College in Ohio for a year before joining the Army Air Corp in 1943 and serving for the next three years as a weather observer in North Africa. After World War II, with the help of the GI Bill and by working a steady stream of part-time jobs, Rehnquist attended Stanford University where he earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in political science. He then earned a master’s degree in government from Harvard before returning to Stanford where he earned his law degree, graduating first in his class in 1952. Rehnquist then clerked for Justice Robert H. Jackson, and wrote a memorandum for Justice Jackson as the court was considering Brown v. Board of Education (1954). In 1953, Rehnquist married Natalie Cornell and moved to Phoenix, Ariz., where Rehnquist practiced law until 1969. He was then appointed by President Richard Nixon to serve as deputy attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel of the Justice Department. In October 1971, upon the retirement of Justice John Marshall Harlan, Nixon nominated Rehnquist to fill the vacancy of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1986, when Chief Justice Burger retired, Rehnquist was appointed chief justice.
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