Staff Report
Thomas M. Cooley Law School was founded in 1972. It is a private non-profit independent law school accredited by the American Bar Association and the Higher Learning Commission. It has recently opened a campus in Riverview. Cooley has provided its more than 16,000 graduates with the practical skills necessary for a seamless transition from academia to the real world. Cooley offers its juris doctor program, joint degree programs, and master of laws programs three times a year with enrollment in January, May and September.
Former Miami-Dade County Court Judge and prominent Miami attorney Jeffrey Swartz has joined the faculty at the new Cooley Law School’s campus as a Visiting Professor. Swartz, who is a 1976 graduate of Cooley, will teach Criminal Law. Also joining the Tampa Bay area faculty is Professor Gerald MacDonald, who has previously taught at all four of Cooley’s Michigan campuses. In addition, Cooley graduate and attorney Katherine Gustafson joins the Tampa Bay faculty as an Academic Resource Center (ARC) Faculty Specialist.
Gerald MacDonald joined the Cooley faculty in 1992 and teaches Civil Procedure and Advanced Trial Workshop. He has served as co-director (with Cooley Professor John Scott) of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Cathy Bennett Invitational Student Trial Advocacy Competition since 2002.
Katherine Gustafson, who graduated from Cooley in 2000, has served the school as an ARC coordinator since 2008 at its Auburn Hills campus. She coordinated and taught Introduction to Law classes and skills seminars, provided assistance to students, and helped develop and coordinate academic initiatives designed to help students learn. She has also served as a Visiting Professor at Cooley, teaching Research and Writing.
In her position as ARC Faculty Specialist, Gustafson will teach Introduction to Law and Research and Writing, and will work with students on the skills they need to be successful in law school and as lawyers.
Cooley Law School has campuses across Michigan in Lansing, Auburn Hills, Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor. Their local campus is located at 9445 Camden Field Pkwy. in Riverview. Visit www.cooley.edu/tampabay/ for more information.
