The Thomas M. Cooley Law School Alumni Association recently honored LaToya Palmer and Alena Vackova with the Alumni Distinguished Student Award.
The Distinguished Student Award is presented to graduating seniors who are nominated by their faculty and peers, and interviewed and selected by the Thomas M. Cooley Law School Alumni Association’s Executive Committee. Presented three times a year since 1980, the award seeks to honor those students who have truly distinguished themselves throughout their law school careers especially in the categories of academic success, high moral character and professionalism, participation and leadership in student organizations, and service to their community.
Palmer and Vackova both will graduate in the top 15 percent of the May graduating class, placing on the dean’s list and honor roll every term of their enrollment. They both served as editors of the Cooley Law School Law Review, Palmer as Scholarly Writing Editor and Vackova as Assistant Board Editor. Vackova was also selected to receive one of the Law Review’s highest honors, the Eugene Krasicky Award. Vackova earned certificates of merit (highest grade) in Civil Procedure I, Civil Procedure II, Taxation, and Environmental Sustainability, while Palmer earned the honor in Research and Writing.
Palmer was a member of Cooley’s American Bar Association National Champion Client Counseling Competition that placed fifth in the world. She also excelled in Mock Trial, earning a first place finish in Cooley’s intra-school competition. She served as the fund-raising chair of the Black Law Student’s Association during the time that the group started a “Balancing the Scales Scholarship” for students with financial needs, served as a Student Exam Proctor, and volunteered in pro bono and community services projects with the Federal Bar Association and Pontiac High School. Palmer also served as a Teaching Assistant in Property I and II, worked as a law clerk for UAW Legal Services, volunteered as a pro bono student attorney for the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Project for five semesters, and was one of only 18 students nationwide to be selected for a federal district court internship through the Wolverine Bar Association Judicial Externship Program.
Vackova was selected as one of only eight Cooley students to serve as law clerks to the Oakland County Inns of Court program. She also served as Secretary of Cooley’s Student Intellectual Property Law Association and as Secretary of the Cooley-Veterans-Auburn Hills Chapter. She led the student body as the teaching assistant in Cooley’s Pathway to Success class, as a Grade Appeals Magistrate and Magistrate Coordinator, and as a Thomson Reuters Westlaw Student representative. Her volunteer work included working for the Oakland University Alumni Association, the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, the Federal Bar Association, and the Learn About Me Program, which educates school children about diversity. Vackova will continue her studies in Cooley’s LL.M. Program in Intellectual Property.
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