New Image High school students get first taste of law school experience

By Paul Janczewski Legal News Do you remember the 2001 movie "Legally Blonde?" In short, actress Reese Witherspoon plays beautiful sorority president Elle Woods who tries to prove she's not just a ditzy blonde -- after being dumped by her snobbish boyfriend -- by being accepted to Harvard Law School. Long story short, after a few comedic twists and turns, and several unconventional and disastrous experiences, Elle studies hard, impresses her professors, and helps win acquittal at trial for a woman accused of murder. She later graduates with honors from law school. To some high school students, that image of law school is the only one they have. But Cooley Law School in Auburn Hills is trying to introduce the realities of law school to those potential, budding attorneys by hosting some high school classes and showing them that law school is more than what they may see in a movie. On a recent Thursday, a class from Adams High School in the Rochester Community Schools visited Cooley's Auburn Hills campus for a first-hand taste of a real law school class. And they came away impressed and less intimidated by the experience. "It's way different than high school," said Casey Thal, 18, a senior at Adams High School. She and a few others admitted that the only image they had of law school was from the movies. "But I was looking forward to coming here to Cooley, because I want to become an attorney." While she and others are at least 4 years away from law school, Thal said she was not totally in the dark during her visit to Professor Alan Gershel's Criminal Law class. "I understood some of the things they were saying," Thal said. Her friend, Alicia Wheeler, 17, also a senior at Adams, said she also looked to "Legally Blonde" as her only vision of law school. "But it's so more in depth" than the movie, she said. "The professor talked about specific cases, and it made it more realistic," said Wheeler, who also wants to eventually enter law school and become an attorney. Cooley Law School Dean John Nussbaumer said that is one of the reasons high school students are invited to sit in on classes. While the visit from Adams High School was its first visit there, he said the school regularly welcomes classes from Pontiac, and has an ongoing mentoring and tutoring program with that school district. He said that stems from a state Bar of Michigan project, which encourages law schools to become partners with high schools and participate in a broader outreach to high schools. "This helps educate high school students to the justice system so they become better citizens," Nussbaumer said. Another example of that partnership is a program called "Triumph Thursdays," in which Cooley visits schools in a character mentoring and academic tutoring session. "This is part of a big community service mission here at Cooley," Nussbaumer said. He said it is also meant to foster good habits for Cooley students, who one day will become attorneys. Nussbaumer said hopefully programs like this will carry over once they graduate. "We want our students to learn that value," he said. "If we get them involved in community-related activities while they are in law school, it will become a part of who they are when they become lawyers. This way, we not only create well-rounded lawyers, but good community citizens as well." He said these high school visits also expose the law school students to different cultures and different economic circumstances, things that will serve them well once they get into the real world of practicing law. But that also helps the high schools, he said. Some of those students who visit Cooley may not have believed they could have a future in law. But visiting Cooley "may open their eyes to the possibility that they might become lawyers." On this Thursday, two high schools visited classes. One, from Pontiac, sat in on a criminal law class with Nussbaumer, while the Adams High School students visited Gershel's class. Gershel, an associate professor at Cooley, joined the staff there full-time in 2008. He served as a U.S. Attorney in Detroit for nearly 30 years and was most recently Chief of the Eastern District's Criminal Division. Besides holding several positions with the U.S. Attorney's Office through his career, Gershel served as an adjunct professor not only at Cooley, but also at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, where he received his law degree in 1978. He said having high school classes at Cooley is a great idea, and one that he wholeheartedly supports. "I hope this sparks interest in some of those students to go to law school and become attorneys," Gershel said. Nussbaumer and Gershel's classes each have about 85 students, all in their first year of studies. On the day both high schools visited, the major topic of instruction revolved around ignorance of the law and mistakes of facts. Gershel presents real cases and quizzes the students in his class on various points of law in a relaxed manner. The Adams High School students sit in the front two rows and watch, with their teacher, Casey Wescott. Wescott teaches a Practical Law class at Adams. The class is an elective, so students who take it for the most part want to be there. The class is an introduction into criminal and civil law and has about 30 students, but only about two-dozen accompany him to Cooley. Wescott said he heard about Cooley's willingness to have high school classes sit in when his wife worked there in career services. He said it's great to have high school students exposed to a law school class, calling it a "great opportunity." "This allows my students to get an idea what a typical law school class is like, and to see what's out there," Wescott said. Wescott said he enjoys the law - his family includes about three attorneys - but he really loves teaching. He said his students had one perception of law school as being very formal and serious. "So it's nice to walk in here and observe the real thing and get a quick feel what it's really like," he said. "Some of them may have believed they were not capable of attending law school, that only the best of the best students could apply." But sitting in an actual class and getting a firsthand look at a real class shows them law school can be a part of their future. "It all comes down to how hard you want to work." He was thankful Cooley gave him and his class the opportunity to observe a class, and said that field trip "is an invaluable tool for a high school teacher because it validates my class." A teacher for 8 years and a practical law instructor for 4 years, Wescott said he's taken his class to Oakland County courts and the jail in the past to give them a complete picture of the judicial system. In December, he plans to let them attend part of an Oakland County court trial. While some students reacted to this particular field trip with disinterest, "the majority of my students were curious and interested to see what a typical law school class was like." Even Julian Prosser, 17, a senior from Adams, admitted he did not want to visit Cooley, figuring it would be "boring." "I have no aspirations to become a lawyer, but I'm glad I came today," he said. "It's opened my eyes to a few things," he said. Wescott believes the visit will stimulate an interest in a career in law for some of those students. "Law school now has a personality to them, not some unknown." Wescott said he's also learned a few things from watching Gershel in action. "I'd like to include some actual case studies to my class and take it up a notch from the typical high school law class," he said. Wescott said he will have follow-up assignments based on what the students observed at Cooley. But it likely will not include any questions from "Legally Blonde." Published: Wed, Dec 2, 2009

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