Founding The Thomas M. Cooley Law School was established by a group of lawyers and judges led by
Thomas E. Brennan, a former Chief Justice of the
Michigan Supreme Court (from 1969–1970). The school was named in honor of
Thomas McIntyre Cooley (1824–1898), a prominent 19th-century jurist, who was also a former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice, and former dean of the
University of Michigan Law School. Cooley was incorporated in October 1971, with operation dependent on approval of the State Board of Education. Despite opposition from a committee of lawyers and law professors, the Board of Education approved establishment of the school in summer 1972 and the school began operations on January 10, 1973. The problems of funding and facilities raised at the Board of Education were not yet resolved but Brennan expressed confidence these issues would be worked out.
Expansion and contraction Lansing campus Cooley opened in 1973 in a small building on Grand Avenue near downtown Lansing. In 1974, Cooley purchased and then extensively renovated the former
Lansing Masonic Temple Building to house the school. The purchase price was $400,000 (about $ in ), and renovation costs were over $10 million (over $ in ). The Temple building housed most of the operations of the law school until the Cooley Center Building was completed, and continued to be used by the school for instruction until 2008, and for operations until 2014. Cooley renovated the former
JCPenney building in downtown Lansing as the Thomas E. Brennan Law Library, opening in 1993. The purchase price was $700,000 and the cost of renovation was $11 million (respectively about $ and $ in ). Cooley purchased and then extensively renovated the former Lansing Commerce Center Building over the period from 2004 to 2007, with a later buildout in 2013 to become the principal teaching and administrative center of the law school, the Cooley Center. The original 14-story office building was redesigned as a 10-story building with higher ceilings to accommodate classrooms. The purchase price was $1.5 million, and renovations cost $35 million (about $ and $, respectively, in ). In 2010, Cooley expanded the Brennan Library, opening the first phase of a $6 million ($ in ) expansion, adding The Center for Research and Study in the former Town Center Building, eventually doubling the size of the library to 138,927 square feet, to become second largest law school library by size. Though not a part of the law school campus, Cooley was also the name sponsor of "Cooley Law School Stadium", currently
Jackson Field, the home stadium of the baseball minor league
Lansing Lugnuts in downtown Lansing from 2010 to 2020. Over the 2021-2022 timeframe, Cooley moved the Brennan Library to the Cooley Center, and closed the Center for Research and Study, consolidating all of its Lansing campus operations to the Cooley Center building.
Tampa campus In May 2012, Cooley opened a new branch campus in
Riverview, Florida, an inner-ring Tampa suburb. The initial enrollment was 104, with facilities designed to accommodate 700 students. The initial campus 132,000-square-foot building included a 25,000-square-foot law library, 336-seat auditorium and 24 classrooms. Full curriculum was planned to be rolled out over a 3-year period, with 65 full time faculty and staff and 35 part-time faculty.. In 2025, Cooley Law School officially moved their Tampa campus from
Riverview, Florida to nearby
Temple Terrace, Florida, which is also in Hillsborough County..
Former campuses •
Auburn Hills: In 2002, Cooley began offering first-year classes at facilities on the campus of
Oakland University in
Auburn Hills with 28 students. By 2009 enrollment at the Auburn Hills campus had increased to 670 students, and Cooley built a 65,000 ft2 addition to accommodate up to 1,200 students. In 2019, Cooley closed its Auburn Hills campus. •
Grand Rapids: In 2003, Cooley also commenced offering classes in
Grand Rapids, Michigan and opened a campus in 2006. At its peak, the Grand Rapids campus had approximately 700 students. In 2020, Cooley announced it would close its Grand Rapids campus by August 31, 2021, pending approval by accrediting agencies, and that it had ceased providing classes at WMU's Kalamazoo campus. •
Ann Arbor: In 2009, Cooley opened a branch campus in
Ann Arbor, Michigan with an initial enrollment of 84 students. After suffering a 35% decline in enrollment across its five campuses between 2012 and 2013, Cooley announced in July 2014, that it would not be enrolling first year students on its Ann Arbor campus for the following term. The announcement also called for cuts in faculty and staff. In August 2014, Cooley had begun laying off faculty and staff at all its campuses. A JD Journal article claimed that the layoffs would exceed 50%, but James Robb denied this claim. In October 2014 Cooley announced the Ann Arbor campus would close at year-end. •
Kalamazoo: At the same time as it announced the closing of the Ann Arbor campus, Cooley restated its intent to offer classes in
Kalamazoo, Michigan in connection with its affiliation with
Western Michigan University ("WMU"). Cooley closed its campus in Kalamazoo in 2020. On August 13, 2014, the affiliation became official and included Cooley changing its name from "Thomas M. Cooley Law School" to "Western Michigan University Cooley Law School". Cooley then offered classes on each of Western Michigan's four campuses. On November 5, 2020, WMU's board of trustees voted to end its affiliation with Cooley, indicating the board believed that affiliation with Cooley had become a distraction from the university's core mission. The disassociation took effect November 5, 2023, and "Western Michigan University" was dropped from the school's name. ==Accreditation==