The American Bar Association said Cooley admits unqualified students. Cooley sued.

LANSING - Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School has sued the American Bar Association in an effort to stop the release of a letter saying, in effect, that it believed Cooley was admitting students incapable of becoming lawyers.

The Nov. 13 letter from Barry Currier, managing director of accreditation and legal education for the ABA, said an ABA committee found that Cooley is in violation of the bar association's Standard 501(b), which says a law school "shall not admit an applicant who does not appear capable of satisfactorily completing its program of legal education and being admitted to the bar.”

It directed Cooley, which has campuses in Lansing, Auburn Hills, Grand Rapids and Tampa Bay, to provide evidence to the contrary by Feb. 1.

In a complaint filed Nov. 14, Cooley’s lawyers argued that the ABA doesn’t have the authority to publish preliminary findings and that doing so would "irreparably harm the Law School's reputation in the public and specifically with prospective law students."

The ABA made the letter public and, in a Nov. 17 motion opposing Cooley’s request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, said its Accreditation Committee found that Cooley is out of compliance, that the finding was reaffirmed by its Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar and that, under its own rules and those of the Department of Education, that finding had to be communicated to the public within 24 hours.

“The cat left the bag some time ago, and no preliminary injunction could possibly stuff it back in,” Cooley’s attorneys argued .

Cooley continued working to suppress the letter nonetheless.

“But like a cat who looks you in the eye while he pushes a cup off a table, ABA decided to publish the Letter anyway and now claims that the injury it caused means the Court will no longer be able to fashion Cooley a remedy,” Cooley's attorneys said in a Nov. 19 filing.

“Not so," the statement continued. "There can be no more powerful answer to the bloggers, journalists, and anyone else interested in this case than that the ABA was ordered to take down the post and withdraw its letters to the other agencies because the ABA broke the law by publishing an interim remedial decision that was not a final decision to take adverse action and that is on appeal.”

As of Tuesday, the letter was still available on the ABA‘s website.

Cooley has long been known as one of the least selective law schools in the country, and the median LSAT scores of its entering students have dropped in recent years, according to data reported to the ABA.

In 2011, the median LSAT score for Cooley's entering class was 146. Last year, it was 141. That score would be in the bottom 16% of everyone who took the LSAT in 2015.

The bar passage rates of graduates also have consistently trailed the state average since Michigan made its exam harder five years ago. Among the 181 Cooley students who took the Michigan Bar Exam in February, 71, or 39%, passed. Statewide, the percentage was 49%. Among Michigan law schools, only the University of Detroit Mercy fared worse.

In the letter, the ABA sought data on class size and LSAT scores, attrition rates among recent classes and bar pass rates for 2016 and 2017. Cooley, for its part, argued in its most recent filing that the ABA doesn't have substantial evidence to support the lack of compliance finding.

Both Cooley and the ABA declined to comment on the case.

“The Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, which is an independent arm of the ABA and the national accreditor of law schools, has a long-standing practice of not commenting on pending litigation," said an ABA spokesperson in a prepared statement.

Terry Carella, the director of communications for Cooley, wrote in an email, ”The law school's position as to the litigation is fully stated in the court filings.”

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Enrollment up, scores down at Cooley

If Cooley doesn't demonstrate compliance, officials will go before an ABA committee in June to determine whether to impose sanctions.

The ABA's concerns will also delay the growth of Cooley's programs at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

Currently, students can take up to 15 credits toward a law degree in Kalamazoo, Carella said.

Cooley wants to offer up to 60 credits. The ABA wants it to demonstrate full compliance first.

Cooley and Western Michigan University signed the first of what would become several collaboration agreements in 2013.

In an email sent Tuesday night, Cheryl Roland, executive director of university relations at WMU, didn't express particular concern over the ABA's finding.

"For WMU, one of Cooley Law's most attractive qualities has always been its commitment to providing opportunity to students who have the drive and determination to succeed in pursuing a legal education," she wrote. "Some of these students may not fit the traditional profile or have the credentials typically found at other law schools.

"We're hopeful that our colleagues at Cooley and the ABA will find a resolution that both preserves Cooley's opportunity model and addresses the ABA's concerns about student success," she added.

Contact RJ Wolcott at (517) 377-1026 or rwolcott@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @wolcottr.