Faculty Briefs

Tammy Asher, Professor Co-presented, along with Professor Emeritus Lewis Langham, a zoom guest lecture entitled “Search Warrants, No-Knock Warrants, and Warrantless Searches of Homes and Vehicles” for law students and law enforcement students at Odessa State University in Odessa, Ukraine.

Erika Breitfeld, Assistant Dean and Professor

Named, Attorney of the Year 2022, by Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

Terrence F. Cavanaugh, Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Visiting Professor

Retired, on April 30, 2023, after more than 30 years of teaching at Cooley Law School. He first joined Cooley Law School in 1989 as an adjunct professor teaching Lawyering Before Trial and Trial Advocacy until 1992. He joined the full-time faculty in 1995, and since then has served in various capacities, including time as a clinical supervisor and teacher with Sixty Plus, Inc., Elderlaw Clinic. He taught Wills, Estates, and Trusts; Equity and Remedies, and Criminal Law. He taught and supervised the Washtenaw County Public Defender Clinic for many years, supervised multiple externships and directed studies, served as co-director of the school’s Australia/New Zealand Foreign Study Program; and was the faculty adviser for the WMUCooley Journal of Practical and Clinical Law. He was a co-winner of the Beattie Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2004. Before joining Cooley, he was a general practitioner in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Prior to entering the law profession, he was a math and science teacher.

Mark Cooney, Professor Cited, and quoted in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court case Khalil v. Williams (2022) for his article

“Benching the Monday-Morning Quarterback: The AttorneyJudgment Defense to LegalMalpractice Claims” - the second time this article has been quoted in a judicial opinion. The article was also cited in a January 2023 Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly article and in the 2022 edition of the Handbook of Texas Lawyer and Judicial Ethics.

Cited, in three Law-Review articles for his article “What Judges Cite: A Study of Three Appellate Courts.”

Accepted, for publication, “A Legal-Writing Casebook: Opinions, Problems, and Commentary” (Carolina Academic Press) (to be co-authored with University of Arizona School of Law Professor Diana J. Simon).

Presented , LawPracticeCLE national webinar on “Stare Decisis.”

Invited, by the Center for Plain Language, to judge the 2023 ClearMark Awards.

Quoted in Ask the Experts: How Much Car Insurance Do I Need?, WalletHub.

Hosted the Law Review’s 37th Annual Distinguished Brief Award ceremony, including the introduction of keynote speaker Justice Richard Bernstein.

Mark Dotson, Professor

Submitted, the Spring case and practice update for West Publication’s Stein on Personal Injury Damages.

Renalia DuBose, Professor

Published, “Being Old Fashioned is Good for the Legal Profession” in the Lawyer Magazine, The Hillsborough County Bar Association, January-February 2023 edition. The article presents her observation of students’ changing values and ethics during her 40-plus years of teaching at various levels. She presents Florida Bar data regarding lawyer discipline and urges experienced lawyers to mentor lawyers new to the profession.

Joseline Hardrick, Associate Professor

Accepted, for publication by the Midwest Black Law Students Association’s Journal, her article, “From Immunity to Impunity - Qualified Immunity Reform,” co-written with Cooley Law School student Rashad Perry-Patterson (Class of 2023), for publication in its inaugural issue releasing in Spring 2023.

Accepted, for publication by the Southern Journal of Policy and Justice, Vol. XVII (forthcoming, Fall 2023), “Using Positive Psychology and Mindfulness to Assist Black and African-American Students Succeed in Law School.”

Presented, at the Southern Region of the National Black Law Students Association Journal Symposium on Feb. 2, 2023, on her paper “Using Positive Psychology and Mindfulness to Assist Black and African-American Students Succeed in Law School.”

Presented, on Feb. 9, 2023, a Constitutional Law Update to the North Tampa Bar Association.

Presented, on March 24, 2023, “What Hip Hop and AI Can Teach Us About Legal Writing,” to the Tampa Hispanic Bar Association. Presented, on April 6, 2023, to the Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division – “Shift Your Money Mindset” webinar to the Young Lawyers Division of the Florida Bar.

Richard Henke, Professor

Attended, on Nov. 11, 2022, the draft conference for The Restatement Third of Torts: Remedies. He is on the Consultative Group for this project.

Joseph Kimble, Distinguished Professor Emeritus

Completed, work on the second public document produced by the Kimble Center for Legal Drafting at WMU-Cooley, — a durable power of attorney for finances. It went through dozens of drafts, was tested for clarity with a group of users, and has already received a WriteMark Plus designation for plain language from Write Ltd. in New Zealand. The first document, a medical power of attorney, won a ClearMark award from the Center for Plain Language. Both are available at the center’s website and on the website for Michigan Legal Help. Both are also fillable online and screen readable.

Published, an article in the Plain Language column of the Michigan Bar Journal called “Some Examples from the Proposed New Michigan Rules of Evidence.” Professor Kimble was the drafting consultant on the project to completely redraft the Michigan Rules of Evidence to conform them stylistically to the Federal Rules of Evidence. He was also the drafting consultant on the federal project, which was completed in 2011.

Learned, in March that the Michigan Supreme Court unanimously ordered that the proposed Michigan evidence rules be published for comment.

Published, a two-part article in The Clarity Journal Nos. 85 & 86 called “Some Examples from the Proposed New Federal Rules of Bankruptcy.” Professor Kimble is a drafting consultant on the project to completely restyle (redraft) the U.S. rules of bankruptcy procedure. The article is reprinted from the Michigan Bar Journal

Published, an op-ed in the Michigan Lawyers Weekly called “Rule-of-Law Judge? That’s Code for Ideologically Conservative Judging.”

Submitted, his 20th Redlines column for Judicature, the scholarly journal about the judiciary. The article is called “Minimize Prepositional Phrases. Question Every Of.” He has written this column since 2016.

Presented, a session on writing across the curriculum at the Rocky Mountain Legal-Writing Conference. He showed a video that he and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Larry Morgan presented at a 1995 WMU-Cooley faculty retreat. The video showed an exam-writing exercise, followed by a live critique of selected answers, in a Contracts class. Professor Kimble recently had the video converted to a digital format.

Spoke, to the student chapter of the American Constitution Society at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The title of his talk was “A Hard Look at Textualism.”

Recognized, in a section of the Burton Awards Bulletin updating the work of former Burton Awards recipients, for his recent publications, work on federal court rules, and writing columns. He has won two Burton Awards, one for his work on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the other for his work on the Federal Rules of Evidence.

Learned, in November, December, January, and February, that he is in the top 10 percent of authors whose works were downloaded on SSRN in the previous 12 months. Also learned in January that one of his articles — Nielsen v. Preap, the Futility of Strict Textualism, and the Case for Universalism in Judging — was a top-10 download on three ejournals and under three SSRN categories.

Attended, the winter meeting of the Standing Committee on Federal Court Rules. Professor Kimble has been a drafting consultant on all federal court rules since 2000.

Linda Kisabeth, Professor

Featured, by Women’s Bar Association –Oakland County, an affiliate of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan. She was selected as one of their members of the month in March 2023.

Don LeDuc, Professor

Published, Michigan

Administrative Law Primer: Abridged Second Edition, in the WMU-Cooley Law Review.

Matthew Marin, Associate Professor Admitted, to the United States Supreme Court, in March 2023.

Presented, “Don’t Stop at the D: Incorporating the E(quity) and I(inclusion) of DEI Into Law School Teaching,” for the Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, January 5, 2023.

Published, “Twisting the Tale on Imposter Syndrome,” in the ABA Student Lawyer, January 27, 2023.

Published, “The Lawyer’s Journey from Mentee to Mentor,” in the ABA Young Lawyer, January 20, 2023.

Published, “Tips for Law Students on How to Send a Professional Email,” in the ABA Student Lawyer, December 12, 2022.

Published, “Inclusion in Legal Writing: A Practitioner’s Guide,” in the ABA After the Bar, November 9, 2022.

Amy Timmer, Associate Dean and Professor Incorporated, the National Legal Mentoring Consortium under Michigan law. The consortium is housed at Cooley and will soon receive its 501(C) (3) tax exempt status. It functions as a convenor of those around the country who operate legal mentoring programs so that they can learn trends, technology, and techniques of mentoring.