A Letter from Tonya Krause-Phelan

Since his arrival at WMU-Cooley in 2019, President and Dean James McGrath and the law school’s faculty have been working toward a fullscale curriculum review. Following my appointment last year as associate dean of academics, I asked our faculty to identify the key objectives as well as roles and responsibilities necessary to engage in a full curriculum review.

The process quickly ramped up from there and we are now actively engaged in the curriculum review process. One of the key reasons for embarking on the curriculum review is to ensure we provide our first-year law students with the strongest writing and analytical skills possible. This will strengthen their knowledge base and allow students to do better during their second and third years of law school. It will also help students establish a stronger foundation studying for and later passing the bar exam.

In addition to preparing students to do better in the classroom and with their bar exam preparations, the curriculum review is an opportunity to ensure our elective courses are up-to-date and as current as possible. Interactive technology, e-discovery, electronic presentation of evidence in cases, and artificial intelligence are transforming the practice of law and going to be realities for our graduates. Providing updated electives related to these areas and others will allow students to gain real-time skills in the practice they are about to enter. At the end of the day, it will make them better and stronger practitioners.

As we review the curriculum, we are also taking a look at the number of required classes students are expected to take. The latest research and trends in higher education, and in legal education in particular, demonstrate that providing students with greater autonomy in course selection has a positive impact on their motivation and overall success. In addition, we are exploring the addition of new classes that address the needs of the community and develop an increased knowledge for new lawyers as they begin to practice. Some of these areas include wellness, and diversity, equity and inclusion.

All proposed changes to the curriculum will be reviewed by faculty with the goal of implementing changes to the first-year curriculum with those students entering during the fall 2023 term. The first phase will include changes to the core course schedule and emphasize writing courses being introduced across new students’ first three terms. The second phase, which will be rolled out over time, addresses updates to the law school’s elective offerings.

It’s an exciting time because we are examining the entire curriculum from its basic structure to required classes. In the end, the changes we make will allow the law school to provide students with the most robust elective course offering we can give them.