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Consumer Law Keyed to Pridgen, 5th Ed.
MacDonald v. Thomas M. Cooley Law School
Citation:
724 F.3d 654 (2013)Facts
The twelve plaintiffs graduated from Thomas M. Cooley Law School between 2006-2010, each carrying average student loan debt of $105,798. They alleged they enrolled at Cooley to “prospectively better themselves and their personal circumstances through the attainment of full-time employment in the legal sector,” relying on Cooley’s “Employment Report and Salary Survey” published annually. These reports stated statistics such as “percentage of graduates employed” (76% for 2010) and “average starting salary for all graduates” ($54,796 for 2010). After graduation, most plaintiffs struggled to find full-time legal employment; some worked temporary document review positions, opened solo practices out of necessity, or found non-legal work. The plaintiffs alleged these statistics were misleading because they included part-time, temporary, and non-legal positions, and salary averages were based only on survey respondents, not all graduates.
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