DETROIT (Legal Newsline) – A Michigan law school has filed suit against The American Bar Association over its compliance findings.
Thomas M. Cooley Law School filed a complaint on Nov. 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan against The American Bar Association alleging abuse of discretion, violation of the High Education Act and other counts.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff was last reapproved by the ABA in December 2015 as a law school. The suit states on May 19, 2016, after receiving notification that it will be subjected to interim monitoring to determine if it remained in compliance with certain ABA standards, plaintiff claims they submitted all the requested information as directed by the committee.
The suit states in June 2016, it submitted a request to the defendant to open a location in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which was deferred by the defendant's committee in October 2017 pending the plaintiff's "demonstration that it is in full compliance with each of the standards under review."
The plaintiff appealed, the suit states, and on Nov. 13 the defendant's council affirmed the deferral of the Kalamazoo decision.
The plaintiff holds The American Bar Association responsible because the defendant allegedly failed to "have effective controls against inconsistent application of its standards, interpretations, and rules to applications submitted by different schools, failed to base its decisions on published standards available equally to all schools and failed to ensure that the information it relied on in making its decisions was accurate," the suit states.
The plaintiff seeks to enjoin the defendant from publishing the Nov. 13 letter. It is represented by Michael P. Coakley and Conor T. Fitzpatrick of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone PLC in Detroit.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan case number 2:17-cv-13708-AJT-DRG