Don LeDuc, former President and Dean of Thomas M. Cooley Law School, died on May 24 at the age of 83 from pancreatic cancer.
After earning his B.A. in History from Kalamazoo in 1964, LeDuc graduated cum laude from Wayne State University Law School in 1967.
He served as a Special Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, working in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, then in the Executive Office of Governor William G. Milliken as the Law Studies Coordinator for the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice.
He became administrator for the Office of Criminal Justice Programs for the Michigan Department of Management and Budget in 1970.
In 1975, he joined the faculty of the new Thomas M. Cooley Law School, where he taught torts and administrative law and served two stints as its Dean (1982-1987, 1996-2018). He became Cooley’s second President in 2002, while continuing as Dean. He held both jobs until his retirement in 2018.
Convincing the American Bar Association to permit weekend law degree programs, thereby increasing access to legal education, was perhaps his proudest achievement.
LeDuc authored the treatise, Michigan Administrative Law, in 1993, updating it annually. His most recent work marries his love for the U.S. Constitution and U.S. history – in Restructured Constitution of the United States of America, he rethinks the structure of the Constitution based on writings of John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison in the Federalist Papers. LeDuc worked on the Michigan Corrections Commission from 1977 to 1984 Michigan Department of Corrections.
In 2001, LeDuc promoted the founding of the Cooley Innocence Project.
After earning his B.A. in History from Kalamazoo in 1964, LeDuc graduated cum laude from Wayne State University Law School in 1967.
He served as a Special Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, working in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, then in the Executive Office of Governor William G. Milliken as the Law Studies Coordinator for the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice.
He became administrator for the Office of Criminal Justice Programs for the Michigan Department of Management and Budget in 1970.
In 1975, he joined the faculty of the new Thomas M. Cooley Law School, where he taught torts and administrative law and served two stints as its Dean (1982-1987, 1996-2018). He became Cooley’s second President in 2002, while continuing as Dean. He held both jobs until his retirement in 2018.
Convincing the American Bar Association to permit weekend law degree programs, thereby increasing access to legal education, was perhaps his proudest achievement.
LeDuc authored the treatise, Michigan Administrative Law, in 1993, updating it annually. His most recent work marries his love for the U.S. Constitution and U.S. history – in Restructured Constitution of the United States of America, he rethinks the structure of the Constitution based on writings of John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison in the Federalist Papers. LeDuc worked on the Michigan Corrections Commission from 1977 to 1984 Michigan Department of Corrections.
In 2001, LeDuc promoted the founding of the Cooley Innocence Project.
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