WMU Cooley Law School is up and running thanks to political science professor
Olga Bonfiglio
College of Arts and Sciences Staff Writer
Meet the man who is making the law school at WMU happen: Dr. Mark Hurwitz, professor of political science.
“I speak law school and think like a lawyer,” said Hurwitz, who serves as special assistant to the provost to navigate the affiliation process between Western Michigan University and WMU Cooley Law School, which became official in 2014, with additional agreements signed earlier this year.
“This affiliation is very significant. As President Dunn indicated, WMU has become one of a select group of universities to have both a law school and a medical school,” said Hurwitz. “The law school not only gives the entire university prestige but WMU students can obtain an undergraduate and a law degree in an accelerated program that can take less than the usual seven years. This is good for student recruitment and retention, and it enables faculty to collaborate on projects involving policy and legal components. There’s no real downside to it.”
WMU is a public university and WMU Cooley Law School is a private law school. The two institutions will remain as separate entities under the affiliation agreements.
“Any time two institutions work together, they need agreements to clarify that relationship over time,” said Hurwitz. “Each institution needs to know what goals each has and what behaviors to expect from the other.
Accrediting agencies also had to approve the affiliation, which included both the American Bar Association and the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
Hurwitz, who serves as pre-law advisor for political science students interested in obtaining a law degree, directs them in the practical realities and opportunities that can lead to successful careers.
In law school, students learn how to analyze situations critically and how to see both the big picture and the minute details. While the majority of law school graduates practice law, lawyers can also be found in entrepreneurial and corporate businesses, government, interest groups, policy groups, legal aid groups and law enforcement.
“Legal training helps you know what to look for in business transactions, which occur in all institutions,” said Hurwitz.
Hurwitz earned his law degree at Brooklyn Law School and practiced corporate, commercial and criminal law for seven years in New York City, his hometown. Afterward, he decided to pursue a Ph.D. degree in political science at Michigan State University. He currently teaches undergraduate courses in Constitutional law, civil liberties, the judicial process, and critical thinking about politics, as well as graduate courses in American politics and judicial behavior. His research focuses on judicial politics in federal and state courts, judicial behavior, judicial selection, and diversity. He is editor of Justice System Journal, and he keeps an active research agenda, with a forthcoming article in the Journal of Politics entitled “Strategic Retirements of Elected and Appointed Justices: A Hazard Model Approach.”
“I don’t practice law anymore, but I’m dealing with legal issues all the time through my research and teaching,” said Hurwitz, who has been with WMU since 2005.
Hurwitz is co-principal investigator for the WMU Cooley Law School Innocence Project, which recently received a grant of $418,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice. The grant will help defray the costs associated with post-conviction case review, evidence location and DNA testing where the results may show actual innocence of convicted felons in Michigan. The Innocence Project is the only Michigan DNA project of its kind.
“I love the law,” said Hurwitz. “It’s a field that is ever changing and evolving. The law is influenced by politics and it influences politics in return. I find it interesting and stimulating.”
For more information about the WMU Cooley Law School, contact Dr. Mark Hurwitz.