WMU-Cooley Law student wins NAWL Award

WMU-Cooley Law School student Heather Spielmaker has been chosen as a 2015 National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL) Outstanding Law Student. Each year, NAWL presents the awards to graduating law students who have demonstrated academic achievement, exhibited motivation, tenacity and enthusiasm; contributed to the advancement of women in society; promoted issues and concerns of women in the legal profession; and earned the respect of the dean and law faculty.

 Spielmaker, in her final year at WMU-Cooley, is chair of the Mildred B. Erickson Fellowship Board, administered by the Women’s Center at Michigan State University. Serving on the Board since 2011, she has assisted in selecting multiple non-traditional, mostly female students for tuition scholarships. She also served as a judge for the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame, which has honored many female attorneys throughout Michigan.

“Heather has undertaken and absorbed as many law school experiences as possible,” said WMU-Cooley Associate Dean of Students and Professionalism Amy Timmer, who co-nominated Spielmaker, along with Associate Dean of Career and Professional Development Charles R. Toy. “While at WMU-Cooley as both an employee and a student, she has led and engaged in many of the school’s pro bono and professionalism opportunities, incorporating what she has experienced into her professional identity to become an empathetic advocate and legal professional.”

 Spielmaker created and administered the law school’s Service to Soldiers: Legal Assistance Referral Program, which has provided millions of dollars of pro bono services for military service members returning from military deployment. She is co-founder and chair of the State Bar of Michigan’s Military and Veterans Law Section and recently coordinated and helped edit the Michigan Guide to Military Family Law, which was distributed to every judge in Michigan.

“I am honored that WMU-Cooley’s administrators spent time to nominate me for this honor,” said Spielmaker. “With graduation around the corner, I’m beginning to realize how much I will miss WMU-Cooley. The school and its leadership have given me many opportunities to grow personally, academically, and professionally.”

 With her son serving in the U.S. Army, and raising a teenage daughter alone, Spielmaker has maintained a 3.51 grade point average at WMU-Cooley; and competed in client counseling and pretrial skills competitions regionally and nationally.

“Heather is the epitome of professionalism and integrity,” said Toy.  “We know that she will be an asset to the legal profession and to the community at large in her dogged and courageous pursuit of justice.”