Cooley Faculty at Grand Rapids | Faculty News

Assistant Professor Sherry Batzer
Public Sector Law Clinic, Access to Justice Clinic, Interviewing & Counseling
batzers@cooley.edu

Associate Professor Curt Benson
Evidence, Civil Procedure I, Civil Procedure II, General Practice Externship
bensonc@cooley.edu

Assistant Dean and Assistant Professor Tracey Brame
Moot Court, Access to Justice Clinic
bramet@cooley.edu

Associate Professor Paul Carrier
Property I, Property II, European Union Law, Advanced Practice Skills – International Law, Modern International Contract Law and Practice, Jessup International Moot Court Competition Team, Co-Director Foreign Study in Toronto Program
carrierp@cooley.edu

Assistant Professor Bradley Charles
Research and Writing, Introduction to Law, General Practice Externship, ARC Faculty Advisor
charleb@cooley.edu

Associate Professor and Clinic Director Cindy E. Faulkner
Access to Justice Clinic, Public Sector Law Clinic
faulknec@cooley.edu

Associate Professor Heather Garretson
Contracts I, Contracts II, Sales & Negotiable Instruments
garretsh@cooley.edu

Associate Professor Marjorie Gell
Taxation, Tax Research & Argument Technique (LL.M.)
gellm@cooley.edu

Associate Professor Christopher G. Hastings
Civil Procedure I, Civil Procedure II, Comparative Procedure (Michigan)
hastingc@cooley.edu

Associate Professor Tonya Krause-Phelan
Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Defending Battered Women
krausept@cooley.edu

Associate Professor Paul K. Marineau
Wills, Estates & Trusts, International Tax – Outbound, Taxation
marineap@cooley.edu

Professor Dena M. Marks
Contracts I, Contracts II, Sales & Negotiable Instruments, Research & Writing, Advanced Research & Writing, Scholarly Writing
marksd@cooley.edu

Professor John H. Marks
Torts I, Torts II, Equity & Remedies, Workplace & Employment Discrimination, Legal Research & Writing, Advanced Legal Research & Writing, Intraschool Moot Court, National Moot Court
marksj@cooley.edu

Associate Professor Jeffrey Martlew
Pretrial Skills, Trial Skills
martlewj@cooley.edu

Associate Dean and Professor Nelson P. Miller
Torts I, Torts II, Personal and Professional Responsibility, No-Fault Insurance, Tax-Exempt Organizations, Health Law, Advanced Professional Ethics, Workplace & Employment Discrimination Law
millern@cooley.edu

Associate Professor Michael Molitor
Business Organizations, Securities Regulation, Wills, Estates and Trusts
molitorm@cooley.edu

Professor James M. Peden
Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Terrorism and the Law, International Criminal Law
pedenj@cooley.edu

Associate Professor Donald K.S. Petersen
Property II, Secured Transactions, Sports and Entertainment Law
petersed@cooley.edu

Associate Professor Devin S. Schindler
Constitutional Law I, Constitutional Law II, Terrorism and the Law
schindld@cooley.edu

Assistant Professor Jane M. Siegel
Research & Writing
siegelj@cooley.edu

Associate Professor Paul T. Sorensen
Torts I, Torts II, Contracts I, Equity & Remedies, General Practice Externship
sorensep@cooley.edu

Assistant Professor Victoria Vuletich
Personal and Professional Responsibility
vuleticv@cooley.edu

Assistant Professor Derek Witte
Contracts I
witted@cooley.edu

FACULTY NEWS
June and July 2010

Sherry Batzer

Assistant Professor and Clinic Director Batzer provided pro-bono legal service at Ferguson Apartments with student assistance.

Tracey Brame

Assistant Dean Tracey Brame co-presented a Social Networking Workshop for Grand Rapids students with Assistant Dean Cynthia Ward.

Assistant Dean Brame arranged with 61st District Court Chief Judge Buter to assign misdemeanor cases to the Kent County Public Defender's Office for representation by Public Defender Clinic students.

Cindy Faulkner

Associate Professor Cindy Faulkner volunteered as a server at the Annual Dining for Kids Food Basket event in Grand Rapids. She also taught as a Team Leader at the Widener University Intensive Trial Advocacy Program. It was her 12th year participating in the one-week intensive trial-skills training.

Associate Professor Faulkner attended the Legal Assistance Center Strategic Planning meeting, and edited the new Legal Assistance Center Employee Manual.

Heather Garretson

Associate Professor Heather Garretson co-presented at the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning Summer Conference with Associate Dean Miller and Associate Professor Krause-Phelan on the topic of assessing instruction.

She also attended a Robinson Township board meeting on behalf of the Loutit Library Trustees, attended the Loutit Library Board meeting, and coordinated participants for the Grand Haven Christian School float for the Grand Haven Coast Guard Kids Parade, for community service.

She co-hosted an alumni gathering in Kansas City, worked with the Cooley Veterans Corp to develop programs for next term, and negotiated an ArtPrize contract with the artist who will display his work at the Grand Rapids campus venue in the fall.

Marjorie Gell

Associate Professor Marjorie Gell had another one of her columns published that appears regularly in the national publication State Tax Notes, titled Turning Back the Hands of Time: The Retroactivity of Tax Laws. She is also working on a law review article with the tax director at GM and a partner from Dykema on the subject of the retroactivity of tax laws.

She continues tutoring each week at the Cook Library Center in Grand Rapids, currently working with a man from Mexico who is preparing to take the U.S. citizenship test, as his attorney of record. Associate Professor Gell attended a Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce Tax and Regulatory Committee meeting, a State Bar Tax Council meeting, and the State Bar Annual Tax Conference in Novi.

She is actively working with the State Bar of Michigan on updating the Taxation Section website and Taxation Section membership directory. Professor Gell also participated in the Third Annual Tax and Accounting Ethics Conference held at the Grand Rapids campus.

She organized and hosted the event, co-sponsored by Cooley's Graduate Tax Program, the Michigan Women's Tax Association, the law firm Varnum Riddering, and the accounting firm Hungerford Aldrin. She continues to chair the Arts Council of Grand Rapids' ArtPrize fundraiser, which Cooley and Varnum will sponsor.

Associate Professor Gell and her co-author Wayne Roberts also spoke at a library event at the Grand Rapids campus celebrating the publication of her book The Practical Guide to the Michigan Business Tax.

Tonya Krause-Phelan

Associate Professor Tonya Krause-Phelan hosted a skills camp for the Grand Rapids Mock Trial Board to engage and prepare students for this fall’s national-team auditions, and conducted auditions for the Grand Rapids national trial team.

Professor Krause-Phelan also served on a Women in Criminal Law panel discussion for the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan-Grand Rapids Student Chapter. She attended the Institute for Law Teaching and Learning’s 2010 Summer Conference, "Teaching Law Practice across the Curriculum" in Topeka.

Professor Krause-Phelan co-presented along with Associate Professor Garretson and Associate Dean Miller, and co-hosted an alumni reception with them in Kansas City, Missouri.

She also appeared as a guest expert on the "Ask the Lawyers" radio show to discuss the recent United States Supreme Court decision Berghuis v. Thompkins holding that a criminal suspect must articulate his or her desire to remain silent.

Professor Krause-Phelan introduced the award-winning true crime and 2010 Michigan Notable Book author, Mardi Link, as part of the "GRReads" Summer Reading Program sponsored by the Grand Rapids Public Library.

Nelson Miller

Associate Dean Nelson Miller provided pro-bono services to several charitable nonprofit organizations with student assistance in the Nonprofit Incorporation Project, including Grand Rapids Weed & Seed, an African-American male support organization, a school for African refugees, and an African child-development organization.

Associate Dean Miller also attended Legal Assistance Center Board and Finance Committee meetings, Heart of West Michigan United Way Board and Diversity Committee meetings, and two Heart of West Michigan United Way Litigation Committee meetings. He also provided pro-bono service with student assistance at Mel Trotter Ministries.

Associate Dean Miller completed the first draft of a 700-page civil-procedure casebook with Associate Dean Cercone, with all royalties going to the school.

He traveled to the Summer Conference of the Law Teaching and Learning Institute in Kansas to present a workshop on teaching assessment with Associate Professors Krause-Phelan and Garretson, and while there hosted an alumni event in Kansas City. Vandeplas Publishing Co. published the second edition of Associate Dean Miller’s casebook with Associate Professor Sorensen as a co-author.

Associate Dean Miller also wrote five chapters of a book on pro-bono service as a practice builder and wrote and submitted the book proposal to the ABA Section on Law Practice Management. He had one of his recent Michigan Bar Journal publications cited in the Yale Law Journal.

Mike Molitor

Associate Professor Mike Molitor had his article titled The Crucial Gatekeeping Role of the Nominating Committee: Strengthening Nominating Committees in the Aftermath of Shareholder Access to the Proxy, Majority Voting, De-Staggered Boards, and the End of Broker Non-Votes accepted for publication by the UC Davis Business Law Journal.

Along with Associate Dean Miller and Assistant Director Rowlader, Associate Professor Molitor met with representatives of Legal Aid of Western Michigan and Fresh Start Legal Group to develop a program for Cooley students to support attorneys in pro-bono personal bankruptcy cases. He also began writing a handbook for Cooley students who participate in the program.

Associate Professor Molitor continued work on a Business Organizations textbook for Vandeplas Publishing; Chapters 1 and 2 are now complete.

Don Petersen

Associate Professor Don Petersen submitted his Reiley 2010 Supplement to Security Interests in Personal Property to Thomson/West for publication.

He was also featured in an article in the Grand Rapids Magazine under the Life and Style section. The article gave background information on Professor Petersen as well as highlighting his talents as a law professor and comedian.

Devin Schindler

Associate Professor Devin Schindler spoke on Ethics and the Rule of Law at the Annual Meeting of the Phi Alpha Delta Legal Fraternity. He also spoke on WGVU AM-FM on the Miranda decision and again on WGVU AM-FM on juries, and was on WXMI Channel 17 speaking on the power of eminent domain.

Professor Schindler's article, Between Safety and Transparency: Prior Restraints, FOIA and the Power of the Executive, was accepted for publication by two law reviews.

Associate Professor Schindler organized and moderated a debate among the Republican Congressional Candidates for the Third District at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum.

Jane Siegel

Associate Professor Jane Siegel continued working on the Grand Rapids Arts Council ArtPrize Committee managing the design and production of printed materials. She also participated in the State Bar's discussion on diversity.

Her article on women and appearance discrimination published in the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and Law last fall was selected by Thomson Reuters for publication in Women & the Law 2010.

Victoria Vuletich
Associate Professor Vuletich had her article Is Property More Important than People? The Moral Inadequacy of Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.6 published in the Spring 2010 Edition of the Charlotte Law Review.

The Institute of Continuing Legal Education asked her to help select topics for its annual Ethics Seminar.

Associate Professor Vuletich is working with representatives of the Gerald R. Ford Museum and Grand Valley State University to create an annual ethics conference that would be jointly sponsored by the three entities (the third being Cooley).

She also hosted an alumni reception in Seattle when she attended the Annual ABA Professional Responsibility Conference.

Associate Professor Victoria Vuletich was appointed to the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility Policy Implementation Committee.

Quick Links